Who Makes The Best Paint

[cj58]

I'm going to paint my car myself, I don't have a lot of experience, who makes the best paint, or are they all pretty much the same, or does one need less polishing than the others.

[analyte]

Simply stated, the guy controlling the gun will have a greater impact on the overall finish than the brand of paint.

[mitch_04]

Agreed

[Schwartz Performance]

Yep what they said. Prep is very important and also dont mix brands between stages.

-Dale

[rlodad]

All true, but nobody answered your question. I am an advanced amateur, and used PPG on my Camaro with great results IMHO. If cost is a big issue, I would try PPGs Omni (their less expensive line) for epoxy primer and Clear and their deltron (top line) for base. Spend the difference on books to learn if necessary, and a good gun and compressor. I used Eastwood's concours gun with good results. Base is the most important. You can fix bad primer shooting and clear with sandpaper and buffing. If your base has tiger stripes, isn't mixed well or is thin, nothing you do except reshooting it will help, and to take down your "booth" to sand and reshoot the base is not a happy thing. Lastly- FOLLOW DIRECTIONS! Fancy paint is well engineered. If you use it exactly as it is designed. Good Luck!

[mitch_04]

You could just assume the most expensive paint is the best.

However, I'd still like to emphasize that it's the experience that will matter more than the quality of the paint. You could take the best painters, give them the cheapest products, and still have a paint job that looks much better than the inexperienced painter with the best products.

Not to deter you away from painting, not at all. Just saying don't waste your money on higher quality products when, in the end, it probably won't matter as much.

I'd go with a mid-range line and spend the money saved on a quality spray gun. Most quality base/clear guns are going to be in the 400-600 dollar range and will make a world of difference. When you are done painting your car, you can sell them and recoup most all of the money.

I had a cheaper gun and was pretty decent at spraying with it. I'd have a couple dry spots here and there, some medium orange peel, but overall I was happy. Then I invested in a nicer gun (Iwata LPH400) and my first time spraying with it the paint laid out like glass. I couldn't believe it myself.

Grab a bunch of scrap body parts from a repair shop/junk yard and some cheap paint, start practicing. You will learn more from mistakes and save time/money in the long run.

[Jetfixr320]

All true, but nobody answered your question. I am an advanced amateur, and used PPG on my Camaro with great results IMHO. If cost is a big issue, I would try PPGs Omni (their less expensive line) for epoxy primer and Clear and their deltron (top line) for base. Spend the difference on books to learn if necessary, and a good gun and compressor. I used Eastwood's concours gun with good results. Base is the most important. You can fix bad primer shooting and clear with sandpaper and buffing. If your base has tiger stripes, isn't mixed well or is thin, nothing you do except reshooting it will help, and to take down your "booth" to sand and reshoot the base is not a happy thing. Lastly- FOLLOW DIRECTIONS! Fancy paint is well engineered. If you use it exactly as it is designed. Good Luck!

I was told by a very experienced body and paint guy if I wanted to save $ and buy the PPG Omni to at least step up and buy the Deltron clear as the Omni line UV protection is poor.

I ended up using Matrix brand products with very good results on 3 cars now. Their RSB line is the lower cost product and the MPB is the higher end paint. I use the MPB.

I have had to do a little wet sanding and buffing of the clear, but I'm not using a high dollar gun. http://www.tcpglobal.com/DEV-FLG-670.html?sc=120&category=2664951#.VSlyOfzF-gc this is the gun I'm using.

[snappytravis]

If your painting it for your first time, You might want to consider going with a single stage acrylic urethane, PPG Concept. Also a solid color would be easier for you to learn on compared to a metallic or pearl color and single can be sanded and buffed as well. I started painting cars in high school when I was 16 we used the good old delstar acrylic enamel.. Man that was some sticky stuff.
Research your paint gun setup as well, You don't want a basecoat gun if your spraying single stage.. and vise versa. The worse thing that can happen is you sand it and spray it again!
Been there done that. good luck

[dhutton]

Southern Polyurethanes makes great epoxy, urethane primers and clears that are high quality and budget friendly. I don't think I would use Omni anything on a car that I was going to keep for any length of time. SPI has a few excellent quality base coat colors too. For model and year specific base I use PPG Deltron. Never had an issue applying it over SPI primers and SPI clear over it.

Their Universal clear is UV cure so you can cut and buff it long after it is applied. Once you are happy, push it out into the sun for a few days and it is cured. This really works well for DIY.

www.southernpolyurethanes.com (http://www.southernpolyurethanes.com)

They have a good forum to research on.

Don

[mitch_04]

I agree with the above post as well. I use a large amount of SPI, everything except their base coats and that's just because I want different colors. Their stuff makes me feel like a much better painter and their forum has taught me more about paint/body than any other forum. They are very inexpensive and the quality has been proven, many high dollar Barret Jackson cars have been SPI products.

[cj58]

I bought a used SATA I figured a good used gun would be better than a new cheap gun. I bought a cheap gun for the primmer.

[mitch_04]

A good move, primer doesn't have to be perfect since it will be sanded anyways. I bought an expensive primer gun and really don't feel it was necessary. Chock it up to lessons learned.

[dhutton]

I bought a used SATA I figured a good used gun would be better than a new cheap gun. I bought a cheap gun for the primmer.

Which one? Some SATA guns require a lot of air and put down material like a fire hose. Make sure your compressor is up to the task.

Don

[cj58]

I bought the SATA JET/B and my compressor is the IR 60 Gal. 5 hp 2 stage.

[dhutton]

I bought the SATA JET/B and my compressor is the IR 60 Gal. 5 hp 2 stage.

13 cfm at 58 psi inlet pressure. Check that against your compressor specs. What size needle set did you get?

Don

[cj58]

compressor is 14.7 @175 CFM, needle size is 1.4

[dhutton]

Sounds like you are good to go. Don't forget a quality moisture trap. I've visited Chilliwack a few times and I have a recollection that it is quite humid/damp there.

Don

[rlodad]

dhutton is correct, I forgot that. Make sure you have GREAT air filters for particulates and water. Blast out your hoses before considering spraying anything on the car you spent lots of time prepping. Finally bodywork is as or more important as paint. Wavy panels are just huge orange peel essentially.
Good Luck!

[cj58]

Summers are dry, I think I will plan on painting in July. A moisture trap is a good idea.