I was wondering if anyone can tell me the difference between an integrated clear coat or just clear coat. I was planning on gettin my car painted by Earl Sheib (doing all body work myself). I was looking at the pro3 paint job and the pearl paint job. The only big difference i saw was the clear coat. Is it worth $200 more just for a stand alone clear?

One system has the clear coat mixed in with the color. So ya spray one coat of paint and your done. Thats your integrated clear coat.

Regular clear coat is applied ontop of the color coat to provide a barrier and better lasting shine.

Kat

Does anyone know which would be the better choice? What are advantages and disadvantages?

Integrated clearcoat? Think about that for a minute. If you mixed the clear coat in with the color coat, wouldn't you have a semi-transparent color then? Maybe there's some miracle paint in which the clearcoat magically rises to the top after it's sprayed on the car, but I doubt that Earl Schieb has such a product. If you ask me, I'd say it sounds like a scam.

Maybe someone like Jim85IROC will reply. His dad is an old-school, high quality body man, so perhaps he can shed some light on this seemingly shady subject.

If you're going to go cheap that way, the only way I imagine anything will look decent is with the extra 200 for clearcoat....mixing it in with the paint defeats the whole purpose.

Sometimes in the shop we will mix the clear/base for cutting parts in.(never on a whole car) You have to understand that this will make the paint look dull.

If the paint you have selected has lots of pearl then it will never look right .. tiger stripes, blotches of pearl etc.

Pay the extra money and get the seperate base/clear.

you need the base and clear setup on your car

the other tyoe if paint is what you will find on a box side of 24 foot trucks etc., this paint actually looks nice, is cheaper, but is not as durable as a base coat clear coat setup