its nearing time to paint my Camaro. which brings me to this delimma. I DO NOT want to suffer with peeling clear coat. considering what I have been quoted for a paint job.the shop swears by it . but when I ask them to prove it,, they have nothing to back themselves up with.and so I ask about single stage paint .acrylic enamel. no clear needed. they turned me down flat.so the question is.... is there a clear made that stays where its sprayed?? from all the cars I see on a daily basis ,its looking like the "clear"answer is no. someone with experience .please, I need opinions, and examples.

 

Get it done by a reputable company that will give you a lifetime warranty. The standard BASE/CLEAR life expectancy is 6-8 years. If kept up you can get 12-15 years out of it. If done right it should last a long time but none last forever. Look the shop up on the BBB and rear their commentaries.
Remember, you get what you pay for.

 

Most shops aren't going to spray single stage for you because its likely to not last as long and won't look as good as a base/clear. It doesn't have the same UV protection that a clearcoat does. Also, metallic colors can't be buffed on so any dirt nibs or runs will be there to stay. Most painters, myself included, also will be reluctant to spray it just because they have little to no experience with single stage. It IS cheaper, so if a low price is your priority i guess consider finding a shop that will do it but don't expect a show car finish for a cheapskate price.

If you are paying over $5000 for a paint job I wouldn't worry about peeling thats enough that they should be using halfway decent paint and prepping things properly. Watch out for the dirt cheap paint jobs. For a base/clear job, materials alone should cost nearly $1000 for a decent quality value line of paint like omni, nason, or matrix. Double that for a good brand like PPG or Dupont. If you find a shop willing to do the entire job for $1000 what kind of crap paint do you think they're using and how much time are they spending on prepping?

You asked is there a clear made that stays where its sprayed, im not quite sure what you're asking. Do you mean a clear that holds up to the sun, or doesn't run when you spray it or what?

 

Its all about the quality of the product, prep, and having a pro to do it all correctly. As mentioned above its not cheap and it cost me $1,500.00 for materials including new weatherstriping and another $1,500.00 for my friend (pro painter).
This is my DD

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...nt-photos.html

 

as my Camaro is my DD,im not expecting ,or wanting a show car finish.what I DO want is a paint that stays ,and I know that you do get what you pay for.i also know that I want no part of that water based paint .now im NOT talking maaco here ,so im not looking for a paint job for $150. and my question on the clear is can it be made to not flake off .I see so many cars that have peeling clear coat.and that is what I want to avoid at all costs

 

All paint has a limited lifespan. The peeling paint you see are old cars with abused paint. There were also some notorious factory mistakes in the eArly days of base/clear. Third gens from 86 are a good example. Most of the cars I see with peeling paint are chryslers and jeeps from early 90s like my grand cherokee. They obviously had a paint problem of some kind.
If you are looking for the most durable paint that looks good for a long time, get a quality base/ clear job. The only reason to do single stage is if you are doing it yourself in less than ideal conditions so you have minimal time in spraying.
The reason they won't do single stage in a shop is it is harder to get perfect.
Bc/cc allows you to make errors in spraying like drips or dry spots and easily fix it.
if someone else is spraying, bc/cc is the way to go.

 

I can't say much about the clearcoat peeling problem, I pretty much never see it here in Wisconsin but I know thats a bigger issue in the southern states. The more UV protection that is in the clear, the longer it will hold out against the sun I guess. Single stage might not peel but it can get a dull look eventually.

My coworker has sprayed PPG waterborne paint for 6 years now and has never had a comeback due to basecoat failure. I've sprayed it for 4 years and have only had one comeback because of it (never really figured out what happened). PPG warrantied it anyways and it got fixed no cost to the customer. I would be more conserned about single stage that waterborne.

 

Base clear, 20 yrs old or more. Not a DD anymore but it was with this paint. My car has 240,000 miles on it. I repainted it because the warranty paint job wasn't the greatest. The GM clear and paint was falling off within 1 year of it being new.

 

With a quality single stage you wont have any problems. I colour matched some trim pieces for a buddys factory black vert with single stage black and you would never know the difference. You get what you pay for in paint quality.

I have seen some nasty hazed out clear on recently done base/clear jobs as of recent.

 

Listen, if you use a good quality 2k (2 components) clear (not an aerosol from a hardware store), and the proper surface preparation has taken place and or methods to the production are proper then there is zero chance the the clear will lift. Let me give you some example of scenarios.


Ok so let's say you wanna clear coat over top of a single stage. Usually the best way to have adhesion for paint over paint is to scuff sand with 400 to 800 ( no lower no higher). But in this circumstance your worried scuff sanding will damage the pigments of the colour because there is no clear over a single stage. In this case thurough clean and degrease the surface and apply adhesion promoter following the instructions ( usually an application window after applied must be followed.


Second scenario you have a clear coat that is old and has micro scratches that to cut and buff would remove too much clear and possibly compromise the uv protection of the clear. Just scuff sand with 400 to 800 clean and degrease and shoot.


Third during a production paint where base is being applied. Most often lifting of the clear coat happens by using cheap products or more so when flashing off windows have not been followed. Flashing off has to do with solvent based paints which dry fully in 30 mins and the flash off time is when the coating has not fully dried but enough time has passed that the solvent vehicle the coating was kept in a liquid state with has evaporated. Even without using the tds sheets you know this time when if you touched it with your finger and there was no transfer of paint but the surface is tacky sorta like the sticky part of an envelope when licked. It's important to recoat at this time for a couple reasons. 1 is that if you apply the next coat too quickly your going to trap solvents and this will cloud up the finish. 2 by applying the next coat usually 10 to 15 mins after the last one your ensuring the coats all cure together as one and not completely separate layers.


So to be clear about what I'm saying. For base you would apply the coats in secession 10 to 15 mins apart until full coverage is met. Then you wait about 30 mins ( not the next day). And you apply your 2 to 3 wet coats of a 2k urathane clear. Applied this way, it will not lift 100% guarantee.