hi. I'm working on a restore right now. while i have the body all apart I am going to repaint my car. I've done some work before with base/top coat. It turn out pretty well but I had some bad "orange peel" and would like to avoid that type of paint. I was hoping there was something easier that would produce a nice finish that's durable. I know there are a couple of 1 step paints that seem like they'd be easier to apply. I was wondering what everyone's opinions were on the different types of paint. I was thinking urethane but I don't know much about it. any advice?
Single stage paints are okay, but I seldom use them anymore. Base/ Clear or urethane has been my choice for many years. The orange peel you complained about is operator error. Either you used too quick of a catalyst or your spray pattern is off or your approach to the car is off or too quick, or all of the above. Those mile deep paint jobs dont usually get sprayed right out of the gun, they are color sanded, lots of work. Color sanding removes the orange peel and makes the surface flat, when buffed it can become like glass. My car is still single stage acrylic enamel, but when the day comes that it posilutely absotively needs a new paint job, it will get base/clear. Dan
Too high of air pressure will also give you orange peel. Like Dan said, its more of a operational problem. I prefer single stage paint for solid colors. They can be sanded and buffed just like a clear coat and no worry about cutting through the clear. Metallics definitely require a 2 stage paint with clear coat. Put at least 3 or 4 heavy coats of clear. This will give you a little extra margin for error. I use nothing but urethanes
yeah I know I did something wrong... actually probably many things wrong I did sand it down with some fine sandpaper and buff it and it looked great, showroom quality. it was a real pain though and I'd rather not have to sand orange peel off the entire car. that would be an enormous amount of work. I was hoping there was a type of paint that would still have a nice gloss and be durable that might be a little more user friendly I was going to paint it orange with a black hood and would like to have a nice shine. I'm gonna have the panels all off and the windows out so I wanna get it right. I thought there was some sort of single stage urethane? or is that just another name for base/top coat?
2 stage paint means you spray a base of color and after it drys, you spray a top stage of clear. The clear is what gives it the shine. Single stage paints have the color and gloss all in one. The best part about 2 stage is you can spray on as many coats of clear as you like. The more clear there is on top of the color, the deeper the paint will look. To get those glass like finishes is alot of work. It requires a lot of sanding and buffing. There is no other way to do it. While it is virtually impossible not to have some orange peal, you can get it very close wether its 2 stage or single stage. Just depends on the conditions. Both single and 2 stage paints are available in enamels and urethane. each has advantages and disadvantages. Best thing is to talk to your local supplier. They should be knowledgable and help you in the right direction.
thanks for the posts. I went down to napa to ask them about there paints. I don't know if they'd be the best to go through for something like that but they seemed to know quite a bit about it. of course they could have been making everything up and I wouldn't know anyways
