For those that have done it themselves, or talked with other people, bout how many quarts of paint are used to paint a maverick? Been thinkin of ordering some paint and have a shop around here put it on. thanks
Many variables and there is no real answer to this question. Too many different ways, procedures, types of paint. Close as I can tell you, 1 gallon. Dan ps best thing is to let whoever is painting the car decide all this. They should have the knowledge, if they dont, find someone else.
Personelly, I like to make sure I have at least 2 gallons after mixing. 2 stage is generally mixed 50/50 with reducer while single stage uses much less reducer. I usually buy 1 gallon of base for 2 stage or 1 1/2 gallons if single stage. But then I like lots of touch up paint left over.
IMO I don't think you would actually save a lot by providing your own paint, I would let the shop provide the paint. They have products that they are familiar with. Also you have to by full cans of hardener, reducers etc... They buy it and use it for several jobs which can spread the costs out.
Another thing to consider is the color of the paint you choose. Some colors are very transparent which could result in the need for more paint. As a rule, we use 6 quarts of paint just to paint the outside of a car. That's just the basecoat not including clearcoat.
The shop that did my car mix their own paint for the red - some brand from Europe - I don't remember the name... they did buy the Dupont Hot Rod black for the stripes though .. He estimated the cost of my paint was $800. He mixed the first batch up wrong because his formula machine listed 71 Ford Color Code 3 as Competition Orange instead of Bright Red. The paint supplier reimbursed him for the wasted paint since they had the color code incorrect. FYI ... Blue paints are the cheapest .... Red are the most expensive. Has something to do with the cost of the pigments ...
I guess base white would definitely be the cheapest .... Not sure where I heard this info but I assume they were talking about colors ... not including white ...
White is definitely a color. Take ten different white paints and put then next to each other and they will have different colors in them. That's why white is the worst color to get a match with. As for if white is the cheapest color paint you can get, we have found that it is the least expensive.
White,,, I learned it was a color the hard way several years ago before I learned how to see the color in colors. Now I cant look at anything without seeing all the colors. Dan
Example,, I was in Denver CO at a training seminar on color matching. The instructor asked who could see the green in the brown door to the room. I laughed and said it was a brown door and there was no green in it. He said by the end of the week I would see the green in it. The way I learned was to mix paint to match the door, it took green to make the brown in the door be what it was. I now see all the colors in everything. A few people are born with the ability to read colors, very few, the rest of us must be educated. I must admit, it was an eye opener. Also, it made me realize that my wife is color blind. Dan
This is very true. I don't mean about your wife being color blind, Dan. If you were to look closely at a blue color for example, you can see a whole pallet of different colors in it. Of coarse blue is a primary color which means you can not take two colors and make blue, but you can add different colors to change the shade of the blue. I've seen blue paints with red, green, gold, yellow, you name it mixed in it. The one that stands out in mind the most was a Bentley I worked on many years ago. To look at the car you would swear up and down that it was black. But when I got eyeball to eyeball with it, the color was actually green. As soon as I hit it with sandpaper, the paint dust was green. It had everyone fooled.
Most people find it hard to believe when you tell them there are 7 or 8 different colors mixed together to make their white paint. Then trying to tell them there are 4 or 5 different alternates to the paint code only further complicates the issue. Matching paint on ANY color car can be a very difficult task, especially if you don't blend into the adjacent panels...in the case of a partial paint job.
