Who has experience with single stage paint? I can get a gallon with hardener and thinner for around $100. I have been contemplating fixing the dents and painting my vert this summer, with the lack of clear coat and barrage of dents it cant look worse. I plan on starting small with the spoiler and then hood and if those two come out ok the rest of the body. What im looking for is something that lays on good. I know candys are notoriously hard to use if your new and I have also heard clear coat can be a paint if your not a pro. So that is why im thinking single stage. I want to stay as close to factory as possible so I dont have to paint the jams and under the hood etc. How does the single stage stuff hold up? Im not looking for a show car finish, just something that isn't an eyesore. I know single stage wont give that mirror finish and that is ok.
I've heard that wetsanding and buffing single stage can yield 95% of the shine that you get from base/clear
That is even cooler to hear.I do plan on wet sanding, dont have a buffer but I have an electric polisher thing. (basically the same thing but way less powerful)
itll fade much quicker than base/clear and youll have to keep sanding/buffing it to keep any shine on it, but thats what the old guys used to use all the time and it worked fine for them. for a DD it shouldnt be bad
I have it in my interior looks good but I would never use it again.
My buddy had it on his truck, and he polished it a couple times a year, it looks better than my base clear job pretty much consistently lol
If its metalic you will want to go base/clear. If not then a good single stage like UTECH will be very shiny and very durable. Hop on over to autobody101.com and read up. The book How To Paint Your Car on a Budget is a good read too. To do a good quality job, even doing it your self, won't be cheap. You will need equipment to block it out, high quality filler to fill in the low spots, some good Epoxy Primer and then some High Build Primer to block it out straight. If you do all the prep it don't cost much to have a pro spray the color on.
2000 Sunfire GT Convertible (daughters car, totaled Jan 2014 RIP)
Painted a couple a cars with my buddy, one a talon and another an s10, they looked really really good and shined better than most cars
If you thin a few coats out once you put the base down and sand/polish, it doesn't look bad at all.
my sister had single stage paint on her altima for 2 yrs and one day it rained really hard and when i saw it it looked like shrinkrap was on her hood. then it all washed off with the hose same happened with both fenders and bumper
its grate if your going to sell a car but i wouldnt if i was going to keep it for my self
timka03 cav wrote:my sister had single stage paint on her altima for 2 yrs and one day it rained really hard and when i saw it it looked like shrinkrap was on her hood. then it all washed off with the hose same happened with both fenders and bumper
its grate if your going to sell a car but i wouldnt if i was going to keep it for my self
That was probably poor prep work.
Have to remember, back in the day, there was only single stage paint. bc/cc hasnt been around forever.
"Oil Leak ? What oil Leak ? Oh, Thats Just The Sweat From All The HorsePower!!"
i painted a nissan 300 last year with black single stage.... waited a month....... wetsanded and buffed it out turned out amazing.... a true deep shine. i wouldnt recommend doing anything with mettalic. if you have a run with mettalic your done. you will have to re paint it. i say do it... take your time! i used limco if that helps very cheap and good!
I used single stage on my old 96 when i did the front end swap.. only because it would hold up better and looked nicer then primer and was cheaper.. That is all i'd use it for.
With single stage paints (lacquer based, or enamel based) you can have a beautiful deep luster from the colors. Reds and black's specifically. But, you will have to buff and wax it regularly. Bi-weekly at least. You have to keep doing this, to bring out the luster and shine.
Positives
- 1 stage of paint, simple to do.
Negatives
- Cost of materials for professional buffing/cutting, hand glazing and waxing your paint (to help UV protection, scratch protection)
- Cannot buff out medium to deeper scratches, like you can with clear.
- Little to no UV protection (what clear does for a paint job)
all in all, a show car for older cars. Lacquer works great! and is still used by customizers. It's a garage or trailer queen, in other words.
You can do single stage, nothing wrong with it, but beware of the maintenance of it if you do decide a single stage is your goal. Also you may not be able to get the same look of 2 stage paint (base/clear) and single stage. In most cases pending on how much clear was used, how well it's wet sanded & buffed, hand glazed, ect. ect .ect... will give it more of a deep luster look. You can obtain that in single stages, it's just alot harder and more maintenance to keep that look. I dont want to sway your decision, just letting you know what your in for, especially if the paint color doesn't match 100%.
Single stages aren't usually used for Longevity and value.
Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.
-Saint Augustine
Thanks for the advice everyone. I plan on keeping the car just plain red, no metallics. It will never be a show car I'm just tired of all the dents and dings and peeling clear coat. I just want it to look presentable and not like a beater. Seamlessz24 thanks for telling me about limco, I will check it out.
I have been spraying single stage & clear coat for nearly 20 years.
there are way to many different brands and qualities of single stage (or clear for that matter) to say yes or no.
but by you saying $100 per gallon for red definitely means cheap paint.
you get what you pay for, PPG & DuPont plus probably more offer a Urethane Single Stage, which is as good as most clears on the market, (full lifetime warranty) but cost about the same too.($300+ for a gallon)
good paint, can, will, does, out perform cheap paint in all aspects. (except price)
beginners probably aren't going to get good results with cheap or expensive paint.
I vote for cheap paint, it wont last as long, or shine as good, but then it doesn't sound like your asking for a lot.
cheap paint is harder to spray, it's thinner = runs easier, longer dry time = more dirt, less powerful color = requires more coats.
I have seen single stage enamel hold up for 20 years & I've seen them go bad in one year.
you get what you pay for & do not mix different brands of hardener & thinner.
as mentioned before solid colors only for single stage paint.
Can I ask why spraying single stage metallic is not recommended? I have been thinking about using this as well to paint my hood.
the reason single stage isn't used for metalic colors is,,,
with single stage to get a good shine you need put on a heavy coat, the metalics will float / flop at odd angles giving a striped or spotted color.
with base clear you spray the color in much lighter coats to avoid this flop, then clear after the base is dry.
the metalic & pearl is the whole reason, for the problem.
with newer colors they keep adding more special pearls making the color match even more complicated.
but I do like the nice new colors that we have,, not just boring old normal stuff.
