Hi everyone, I am in the process of getting the sheet metal done on my Buick and then will paint the car in my garage. I need some advice on what type of paint to use. I will build a booth or sort of in my garage to paint the car and I am not sure about what type of paint an brand to go. Last year I painted my GMC truck with Synthetic Enamel and was happy with the results. Some of my friend suggested that I should go with a Base/Clear for my Buick. Im not sure what to do, any suggestions would help. I guess I need some schooling on this subject of select the paint and what is involved in painting the car. Mind you the paint process I am hoping will be a bit forgiving considering I am the car in the garage and so on. Thanks
I would go BC/CC. Read around, most people recommend a high quality primer, and if you want go with a lower quality base/clear. When I go to paint my cars, I am going to go with Nason paint and primer, Duponts economy paint line. When we painted my brothers camaro we used all PPG stuff, which also turned out well. Prep work is the biggest thing, we had I believe two spots on my brothers camaro that popped due to rust, even with quality paint. (I believe the water got trapped while we were wet sanding, and we sprayed over it too quickly)
I was looking at the PPG paint and this is what I will probably go with. I really want to get the car done right and the prep time is where I going to spend the time on (lots of sanding). Thanks for the tips.
Just a little help.. I am a painter by trade and what not. I really prefer the bc/cc but thats just me. I dont really know how good of a painter you are but anyway when you are priming your car think about how to paint it like what panel first, what direction, and masking it off and stuff like that. And one other quick thing when you are using single stage when you get a run in the paint have fun getting it out and matching the paint if you have to repaint that area while on the bc/cc if you get a run in the paint youll have to do the same thing but it will be a little easier and if you get a run in the clear dont worry about it just keep on clearing the car and dont stop until it is finished. Cause when you are done you can wet sand that out and the buff the whole car and youll never know it was there. anyway good luck with painting your car and hope it turns out great. when your done with the body work and painting it why dont you post a pic on here for us to see how it turned out.
I used sikkens for years now at my buddys shop I use PPG but if you want a good job start with a good 2 part primer stay away from laquiers once all your block work is done 2,3,4 times when ever you think it good plus one more prime and blocking if you go PPG you can use there omni line for your color and use there PPG clear you will save alot money on the base and they will still back it up the big thing you will have a good base and a good clear to protect it. :TU:
Just so Im right on this cause im painting a car for the first time myself, Base/Clear is a mixture of base and clear right, I have been told its better to mix them if its your first time cause clear is harder to spray on. 71 GS Stage 1 71 Skylark Vert. (painting) 69 GS 400
You do not mix them! It is a two stage process. Spray the base coat, then the clear. Your paint shop will have instructions and spec sheets. They'll also offer advice if asked. Clear is easier to shoot. If it runs, you can use a nib file and then buff the run out. The base is what you do not want any runs in.
Just painted the roof and quarters of my GS yesterday. Used PPG BC/CC. Like everyone said, it's a lot more forgiving for a garage job. I used a sealer, base color and then clear. Yeah, it has a little dust and dirt in it, but it'll sand and buff out just fine :TU: One word of caution. DO NOT use some cheap Lowes plastic drop clothes to cover stuff like I did :eek2: What you can't see in the pictures is the trunk lid is resting on the cowl and the engine so they could be painted at the same time. I shot the sealer on and then started at the trunk lid when I was ready to spray the base color. When I came back for the second coat of color I noticed some gray overspray flakes had come off of the plastic drop cloth and landed in the paint ou: Luckily I caught it then and none of the flakes ended up in the bodys paint. I'll just sand the flakes out and shoot the lid when I do the other parts. I thought I had seen pictures or shows where they used plastic sheeting. Maybe a "special" plastic. I have to stop down the supply store tomorrow to get some buffing compound. Be curious to see what they say.
Just a little advise for you next time when masking off your car (sorry it late) but when you mask off your car you can use plastic on the big stuff BUT paint will not stick to it. Unlike masking paper it will stick and use as much tape as you need if not more. So use masking paper near the panels to be painted but if you have a big hole like in the doors between the masking paper it is ok to use plastic.
Makes sense when you say that ou: Most of the flakes did come off relitively close to the body where the paint was the heaviest.
looks good man, any more tips, i might be doing this myself also and havent painted anything as large as a car before. unfortunatly ill have to do this outside in a little lean to. ill try and close it off somehow to make it a booth.
also im looking for like a charcoal black metalic for the 80 regal, are darker colors harder or easier. any special time limits to remeber etc. also what were some prices on the ppg
Well, it'll be less than I paid. Red for some reason, is the most expensive color. There were 2 or 3 levels of quality of PPG. I've spent so much time getting this thing ready to paint, I went with the best on everything from sealer to color to clear. You can cut the cost some if you take a step down though. I bought the following; 2 quarts gray sealer with reducer and activator 1 gal. Infa-red base with 1 gal. reducer 1 gal. clear with 1 gal reducer and 1 quart of hardner Some misc bs like tape and some green masking paper The total was just under $1500 :shock: The red alone was $550/gallon. But I wet sanded it Monday with 1500 grit and buffed it out and I'm happy! :TU: I'll have the rest of it painted by Friday and start bolting it back together soon afterwards. I am not a proffesional by any stretch, but I'm always willing to share my mistakes and what I've learned Feel free to drop me a line if you want. Metalics are harder to paint then straight colors like my red. You have to be sure to keep your spray gun perpendicular to the body to avoid getting heavier build up on one side of the spray fan than the other. It can give a zebra stripe effect.
I noticed Craig is in AZ, so selecting a day suitable to paint shouldn't be hard. Here in Louisiana, it's humid 99.9% of the time (55%+), so I was wondering how that effects paint choice and application?
Thanks for the tips everyone, my friend will be shooting car for me in my garage. Thanks for the adivce MLTDWN12, the base coat / clear is the way that I am going to go. I am going to get the garage as clean as possible prior to painting, and needed a paint system that was somewhat forgiving. I will be sanding and priming the car myself, my buddy is alot better with the spray gun when it comes to painting so I will let him do that portion of the project. I'm hoping to have the sheet metal started in May and then bring the car home and finish the project from there. At one time in Canada you where able to purchase Laquer autopaint and from what the old guys told me, you could paint the car outside if you had to and still do a good job. For what ever reason you cant buy that type of paint in my area any more, not sure why ?
The base coat clear coat acrylic urethane is almost as forgiving. I had two small runs and knocked my air line to my hood into the paint on the quarter panel. (first time using an air supplied bubble hood respirator to paint a car.) I sanded the clear a little extra in those spots and buffed it out. You wouldn't even know it's there unless you knew where to look. It's a good garage paint except for the chemicals in the clear :eek2: Use a good respirator. I'm not sure, but I don't think laquer holds up all that well. That's what I used on my first two paint jobs. Each lasted about 7-8 years and then started cracking. Good luck, keep us posted with your progress :TU:
