1st of all I have used the search feature. I am done with the body work on my 86 z28 and I am preparing to paint it. The car is fully primed with the grey primer. The paint I have for the car is a single stage arctic white enamel. I have reducer and "wet look" hardener. Do I use the hardener AND the reducer or use one or the other. I'm not going to use clearcoat so I was also wondering if my car will shine at all after buffing?

Thanks - Charlie

 

If your paint is a single stage paint, then it'll shine just fine. If it's the basecoat of a 2 stage setup (clearcoat being the other), then it'll never look good no matter what you do to it.

 

to my understanding, yes you use both. the reducer thins out the paint so you can shoot it through the gun while the hardener makes it shine.

peace

 

You really should use clearcoat.
My Cutlass didn't get it 2 years ago and it's already orange peeling, plus it scratches REAL easy.

 

Orange peel and scratching have nothing to do with clearcoat. Orange peel occurs when you spray the car, not later on. Maybe you're experiencing lifting or chipping, but neither of those are related to clearcoat either... those are signs of poor prep work.

The durability (with respect to scratching anyway) of a single stage paint job is just as good as that of it's 2 stage counterpart. What makes the difference is the quality of the materials. A single stage urethane paint is just as strong and scratch resistant as a 2 stage urethane. If your car was painted with an inferior paint type, that would be the reason for your easy scratching.

The paint on my truck is a single stage paint, but since I didn't paint it, I can't say whether it is a Urethane paint or something cheaper, but it's now 3 years old, and is still in beautiful shape dispite being outside year-round, and being basically neglected.

 

yea, their is no need to use a clearcoast with a singlestage paint, it will shine just fine, had an s-10 painted with single stage that looked just fine for years.

 

you should have got a tech sheet with your paint. It will tell you just how much hardener and reducer to use. And when its cut and buffed it will shine.

Set your gun up with a test panel before you spray your car. It will make your work alot easier when its time to cut and buff it.

 

it will shine.... but you can spray a clearcoat over the single stage paint..... i've seen people do that...your quality of prep work will show the final result....poor prep work=poor paint job.....
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usually on the back of the paint can there is a label that tells you ratios....pot life and blah blah blah