i'm hoping to have my car ready to paint by early spring but i can't decide whether to use base / clear or a single stage, and i was told by several people that if i used an acrylic enamel i did not have to use flex agent on the bumpers and ground f/x pieces
couls somebody elaborate on this.

any help is appreciated

thanks
brad

 

i used to work in the body shop of a chrysler dealership and this is what my boss told me about the flex agent: the only thing the flex agent really does is protect the fresh paint (on flexible parts) from cracking when you are reinstalling the parts back on the car.. like when you are putting a bumper cover back on and it wants to flop around a little. the flex additive eventually evaporates out. we always used the additive in the shop because we always removed the parts from the car. if you are leaving them on then you should be good without it.

that being said.. base clear costs more but is well worth it in my opinion. if you are on a tight buget and just want to get some paint on your car, acrylic enamel will be perfectly fine.

 

I agree with the pumpkin on the flex agent. I have not used it in years.

Only base clear for the cars that I own, when you think about all the prep work for a paint job. The single would work nice but if a metallic color you can sand all lot more "stuff" out with bc/cc. There are some very nice clears for a reasonable cost out there.

 

i have been buying Nason clear from NAPA and think that it is a great product for the money. it's the base coat that is expensive.

 

I've been doing a lot of reading as I'm looking to get my car painted in spring too. Go with base/clear (two stage). It will not cost too much more material wise and to spray. Most of paint job cost is in prep work. Two stage will maintain color luster longer. It also has clear coat which protect underlying base coat from UV damage. You can buff clear coat a few times to remove scratches and make paint look new. Some people swear by single stage paint especially with lacquer paint. Lacquer is illegal in some states like California. What color are you thinking of? Do you know where it will be painted?

Something overlooked too is that for two stage paint, base coat is about 3 millimeters thick. Single stage needs more paint at around 10 millimeters I think. You will be buying more base paint with single stage which can add up if spraying certain colors.

Most companies have two tiers of paint, one cheaper and the the other more expensive. Napa sells rebranded sherwin williams paint as their Martin Senior paint. Duponts value line is Nason which has great reviews from everybody that uses it. Regular dupont line is their Chromabase. Both are sold by carquest. Omni is PPG's value line, some people like it, others think Nason is better. Southern Polyurethane is a company that makes paint and clear. People find their paint good quality at reasonable price. There are others but these are the typical ones. You can stop by Napa/Carquest/Sherwin Williams and get some price quotes. Probably will be around $300 for base/clear with value line and $600 for the better stuff.