Single stage vs basecoat/clearcoat

satanas said:

Will I still get that deep dark color as I would on a single stage? By the way what black has a darker tone/or darker color

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Yes. You will get a deep color. Just make sure that base coat is flat as can be. Minimize the sanding scratches in the base coat. If you are getting sand scratches that look pretty bad, buzz over the car with 1500, or 2000 depending how bad they look, then lay down 2 or 3 more coats of paint. Then lay 3 coats of clearcoat down.

It won't hurt to lay a few more coats down, because you just took off some during the wet sanding.

Just tell the paint supplier you want Dupont 99 black. It is just a plain black. When I do an entire car, I usually order 1 quart or paint and 1 quarter of clear, just to cut in the jambs..(fenders, doors, rockers, trunk, hood area.) Then I order 1 gallon of Dupont paint. 1 Gallon of Dupont Base Maker...which is mixed 1:1. I order 1 gallon of Nason clear, and 1 quart of Nason activator. I usually have some left over depending how the painting goes and how much clear I use. It's better to have more than to run out before your satisfied with the paint/clear on the car.

The prep work always looks good when it's in primer. When it's in primer it looks perfect. You can even sand with 600 or 800 for your last step and you might still see some scratches, or deeper sracthes in other spots you missed. When you lay the paint, especially black it bites into the car, and really makes those areas noticeable. The scratches I'm actaully talking about are so fine, you can't feel them, but you can see them. The clear will sink into those too. It will wetsand out, but it will probably shrink up later. I said earlier to paint, wetsand that, dry it all off, paint acouple more coats then clear it. You only need to do these steps if you choose not to go with a sealer. If you use a sealer, you won't have to do this, because the sealer is so thick, it sinks into those fine scratches and fills them in. I'm pretty anal with black paint, because people always can point out bad spots in black, and it makes you want to punch them.... You just want to take every extra step to make it as perfect as you can.

The Basemaker is what you thin the paint with. I use large mixing cups when I mix the paint. Look at the charts on them, they are there to help. The paint is 1:1. If you pour 12oz. of paint, pour 12oz. of Basemaker (thinner). Mix that together with a stir stick. Strain it as you pour it into the gun. (Strain everything for that matter) For clearcoat I used a Nason brand that says mix 4:1. 4 parts clear, 1 part activator/hardener. If you pour in 16oz of clear, pour 4oz. of the activator.

Getting the mixute right is important. Once, I was in a hurry because I ran out of clear and I still had a door and fender to paint. I rushed to mix it, and put in too much activator, and it started doing some really funky stuff in the gun. It was so thick, it wouldn't spray, so I had to add more clear. I then finished what I had to do. What I dod now is mix up a bnuch of clear and keep it in a 1 gallon container (covering it with paper towel while I paint) and if I run out in the middle of a coat, I can quickly run over and dump it in the gun.

BTW..I see you are in Arizona...(very hot)...and the paint and clear will dry very very fast. Are you painting it yourself? If so, ask for a high temp basemaker. It is good for temps above 75+ degrees. Ask for an Overall Clearcoat, (instead of the Spot and Panel) and match that with a high temp activator. In the summer, I use the high temp basemaker, the Overall Clearcoat, and a high temp activator. Using these products together will make the paint and clear dry slower. In hot weather, that is what you want. Say you used mid temp basemaker, Spot and Panel Clearcoat, and a mid temp clearcoat activator, it would dry so fast in hot weather that it will just fog up the paint, giving it a rough look and rough to the touch. The clear will also start drying really fast. If you start at the front, move down the side, do the roof, the back, then by the time you get to the other side and to the front, everything is drying and the overspray will land on that and fog it up. That rough look will be hard to wetsand out.

ANymore questions just ask.

Anytime bro!!

Install those hinge pins before your paint too. I'm glad I did. My grinder kind of nicked the inner door skin up, but I had to paint it anyways.

100+ is HOT!! Man 'o man! I would get the car prepped, taped, and clean the floor the night before, wake up at about 4am or 5am and start painting and clearing. That is what I did in 2006. I painted my 91 notch (black) and I got here at 5:30a.m. It was already 77* and climbing. But, I didn't have everything cleaned yet. Of course my plan of being out around 8am was blown away. My products dried really fast, and by the time I was done around 10- 10:30am it was 90*+ and very very humid. I was dying on the last coat of clear. I tied a bandana around my head to keep sweat from dripping in the paint and clear.

satanas said:

You mean I have to install the them take the door out again? What I was going to do is take the doors off,paint then put the doors back on with the hinges... That was my plan also getting up like about 4 and get every thing started like the painting. Or maybe I would have to trow an all nighter.lol.Well the problem here is that at night or when theres like the light atract some insects even if I have the garage close I don't know were those little *****s come from. So I have to wait until the right time to spray when they are gone maybe about 4-5 am. Have everything set up the night before and wait. wait.then spray.LOLIf I end up going with bc/cc, can I spray my clear coat after the bc or would I have to wait a few hours or days for the bc to cure then scuff to add the clear.I read some products say if I spray cc after 24 hrs I would have to scuff.I know some of these questions Im asking might be comon sense but I just want to make sure. Ive seen people spray cars like maybe two times in a paint both but can't remember the process.
Thanks Again

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When you take the doors off, before you paint the jambs, remove the old pins, install the new ones, paint the doors, then reinstall them.

Don't pull an all nighter, you'll run outta gas, and get frustrated. I have to paint with a fresh mind.

Well you don't want bugs in the paint, and for some reason, they are attracted to it. I can't paint anything in May or early June because we get those white fuzzies.

After you lay the paint, by the time you clean the gun and mix the clear the car will be ready to spray. The paint is gonna dry really really fast in that heat. So when the paint is complete, clean gun, mix clear, pour into the gun, and start spraying it. I would wait about 5-10 minutes between clear coats 1 and 2. Then wait about 15 minutes between clear coats 2 and 3. The clear will dry fast to, but not dry to touch, just dry enough for the next coat. The more clear that goes on the car, the longer it takes to tack up...(dry) If you spray coats 1,2, and 3 too quickly, the more chances the clear will drip on you. If you follow my steps, you will do great. This is what I have done for all my jobs.

If you do choose to clear another day, you will need to wet sand the car, then I personaly would spray two more coats of paint, then clear it. There is nothing wrong with this, but just do all of it in one day and be done with it.

Hey if your comin to Jersey give me some time to prep and we can have a paint party

The can says if you spray 1 coat it takes 20 minutes to topcoat. If you spray two coats, it takes 40 minutes to top coat. (Wait 10 minutes in between 1st and 2nd coat if you choose to put two, but you are only gonna need 1 coat.

Also, I forgot to tell you to be careful when spraying sealer. This stuff wants to run on you very very easily. I ran the chit out of it on my yellow notchback front cover. I was chitting my pants. I mean, I hung some curtains man!! I tried wet sanding it, but that sealer laughed at the wet sand paper. I had to let it completely dry, then I put 320 on my DA sander and let er go at it. I finally got it to sand down. It was then I realized why paint doesn't shrink when you use sealer. BECAUSE IT'S AS HARD AS A ROCK!!! So just stay further back with the gun when spraying the sealer, and move quickly. Don't try to make it all show car smooth, because it flows well, and will dry very smooth.

No, not thinner than paint. IMO, primer is very hard to run...so I would say the sealer is thinner than the primer. In fact it is thinner, and harder.

Ha i've been waiting for a good paint thread to come up lol. I have been prepping my DD mustang for a few years on and offf and still driving it in the summer and racing it. Anyway, I am thinking of doing a 2tone paint job with the chgange above the door handles where a factory pinstripe would be. I would like black on top (cause i know the car is straight up there lol) and titanium/silver on the bottm (cause thats where the major bdy repairs are and i want a color that may hide a few "blemishes" lol Any tricks to doing this? I am leaning towards single stage just to keep cost down and for easy of application, this will be my first paint job. thanks didnt mean to hijack the thread but it sounded like an appropriate question. Any pics of that color combo in single would be sweet too. thanks

Bigstang1 said:

Ha i've been waiting for a good paint thread to come up lol. I have been prepping my DD mustang for a few years on and offf and still driving it in the summer and racing it. Anyway, I am thinking of doing a 2tone paint job with the chgange above the door handles where a factory pinstripe would be. I would like black on top (cause i know the car is straight up there lol) and titanium/silver on the bottm (cause thats where the major bdy repairs are and i want a color that may hide a few "blemishes" lol Any tricks to doing this? I am leaning towards single stage just to keep cost down and for easy of application, this will be my first paint job. thanks didnt mean to hijack the thread but it sounded like an appropriate question. Any pics of that color combo in single would be sweet too. thanks

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If you want to hide blemishes and this is your first paint job, I would not go with a silver metallic for the bottom color. Metallic flake will fall into all the deep sand scratches and sit there. Metallic is also more challenging to paint because it can leave stripes and blochiness if you paint to close to the surface. See if the paint store has a non-metallic silver or grey, and go with black on top.

Use bc/cc because you want to paint one color first, then paint the other color, then clear over the whole car, to eliminate a hard tape line between the colors.

That's it man. "99" Black is black as black can be. That was the color of all blacks for all cars. The car will be sick as can be bro. It will look great!! Remember...grey sealer before the paint and clear. Trust me, you don't want the paint to shrink after it's wetsanded and rubbed, so seal it up!!