I have painted alot of cars here in the past 10 yrs. I have always used Martin paint from NAPA auto. Lately the paint has had very poor quality... I was wondering if anyone on here has painted there own car lately and what cleaners and paint brands they used... product numbers and where the purchased them from would be helpful....

thanks in advance..

 

Well, the last one I painted that was actually worth a damn was an 86 Corvette. I used PPG products from the local paint store. The cheap paint for my own car was bought before they changed the paint formula again and that was Western Paint from a Car Quest parts store. I guess the new clear coats go on super thick compaired to the older stuff but have no idea of that's true.

 

The paint you are talking oabout from car quest, is that the paint you can buy were all you have to add to it is you gloss enhancer.

what i mean is , is the paint and hardener premixed in it!!!! because if so i know that paint and some tricks with it!!!

 

well you guys seem pretty smart about paint so i will ask. is 5 coats of primer 3 coats of paint and 2 coats of clear enough or not. there is only one coat of paint on right now over the primer of course, but is that enough, i can buy more but it seems to be quite expensive. thanks

 

everyone does it different, and it all depends on how thick the layers of primer,base and clear are even the type of paint you are using matters. from the sound of it yes the amount of paint you have and clear sounds fine.

is the finish glossy or does it have any imperfectins in it...

 

hot86z,

That clear is too thin. When you wet sand it, you will take off almost 2-3 layers normally. I do 5 thin coats on average, then wetsand. You can do more (it makes the paint look really deep, and it does look real good), but if cost is a concern, 5 is the least I would do.

And the more solid you put on, the better it looks also. I would look to 3+ thin layers as the minimum.