My truck will be ready for paint in a few weeks. I am going to have it painted back to the factory Dark Canyon Red. My painter asked me if I wanted a single stage or a 2-stage clearcoat. The original finish on the truck was a single stage (I think), but all of my other newer vehicles have a clearcoat finish.

I am doing my own research, but I would like some opinions on this. Should I get it painted with a single stage, or should I go for the 2-stage clearcoat?

 

Just went through that issue with my rebuild. I went with single stage thinking it would be faster for me, since I was doing a backyard paint job. If I knew then what I have learned now, I would have went with 2 stage clear coat. It is way more forgiving and allows you to color sand and redo areas much easier and you can load on the clearcoat of you want to. I am still using up my single stage to repaint everything I had previously painted because I was not happy with the built in clearcoat. Mine may be a different situation because I did it myself instead of letting a pro do it, and I am painting a two tone job with metallic single stage which is much more difficult to work with. Good luck. Hope this helps.

 

I have heard the opposite. I guess you could patch the clearcoat only, but you can't really patch the color coat on a 2 stage paint, unless you pick a starting and stopping point where the panel starts and stops, and redo the whole panel.

You can't sand down to the color coat, spray new color and and then clear over that. You end up with the patch color coat sitting on top of the old clear coat and you get some weird looking spots.

But the single stage paint can be patched and color sanded. Like I said I suppose you can patch a clearcoat job if you want to patch and buff the clear only.

 

You may be right on that Franklin withregular base coat color, but when you are messing around with metalics, it is a pain in the butt if you do not have your prep work right. You cant color sand metalics with single stage paints.

 

I've heard that you get a lot more color fade with single stage. Might be a factor if your truck sits in the sun a lot.

 

I deal with paint a lot as Show cars are my hobby. I would never do single stage unless it was for some sort of "I want to build it exactly like new" restoration. Modern Base/Clear is a lot more forgiving, a lot easier to upkeep, and just leaves a deeper richer looking color. If you are going to take care of your truck, I would go with two stage. If you are going to beat the tar out of it, not wax it and work it to death. Honestly it really probably doesn't matter.

 

Do you ever still use lacquer on a show car? That used to be the ultimate paint job in the old days, but it was a lot of work. The couple of paint jobs I did was back when you could get lacquer. I painted them in the driveway, and then rubbed them out.

I was just wondering if the top notch show cars still used lacquer.

 

I do not know anyone using lacquer anymore. I live right next to a high end hot rod shop and they do nothing but quality material Base coat Clear coat. I have a 1975 Cadillac (I inherited) and it is going in for paint. I have talked to a lot of quality painters and I have not seen one who would even consider painting it in the original Single stage metallic.

 

Two stage all the way. I've used both and strongly prefer the two stage finish.

 

You would be a Fool to use anything other than base/clear

 

My paint/body man highly, HIGHLY recommended two-stage for Dad's truck.

 

I initially thought the same thing Chief, until the clearcoat FAILED on my Jeep Wrangler about 10 years ago. There are very tiny cracks throughout most of the finish. It looks terrible and getting worse, and it cannot be stopped or fixed without a total re-paint. That's too bad, because my Jeep is in fantastic shape otherwise.

I thought clearcoat failure was unusual, but my research tells me that this is common. The clearcoat layer will fail, usually within 10 years. There are still plenty of 30+ year old single stage paint jobs out there that are oxidized but will still shine like new with a little time and elbow grease. I am not saying that single stage is my answer, but I am learning that there are some advantages to going with a single stage system.

This looks like another "carburetor vs. fuel injection" debate. For every page I read of people saying that the base/clear is the obvious choice, I see another that says just the opposite, at least for solid colors. Almost everyone seems to be in agreement that for metallics, base/clear is the best choice.

Here is some interesting reading about the subject:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/...at-paints.html
http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums...-Photo-Archive

 

I disagree with the statement "The clearcoat layer will fail, usually within 10 years." I have been in the Collector car hobby my whole life, and I have never seen a quality base coat clear coat paint job fail ever. I have seen factory paint jobs fail but none on cars newer than 1995. They have more issues with primer than now than they ever had with clear coat. This is not a product that is in it's infancy, it is a proven quality product. Most of the people who say things like that are the same people who say EFI is worst than carburetors because computers in the 80's sucked. It is a different generation and a different game. Unless you want to fight paint fade and eventually buff through the paint for the life of the paint job, I would highly advise a quality 2 stage paint job. Seriously there is a reason that no one outside of old timers have moved on in the last 10 years. I have been interviewing painters for the last two months and I have not met one painter yet who would even be willing to do a single stage paint job. Not one in about a dozen high end painters. Their reputation in the collector car community is crucial to their business and if their name is on a paint job it will be a quality one. Just my $.02

 

Thanks for your insight, HAZZARDJOHN, but I find it hard to believe that you have "never ever" seen a paint job fail on a car newer than 1995.

Did you not read my last post? My own 1998 Jeep has a clearcoat problem (that started about 10 years ago), and the Meguiar's thread I posted has plenty of examples of clearcoat failure.

If my Jeep didn't have a clearcoat that ultimately failed, I wouldn't need a new paint job for it. And that is the only reason I am now considering a single stage job for my truck.

A vehicle with a clearcoat *will* experience fade too. That is why you still have to polish and wax newer cars. 2-stage clearcoat systems won't oxidize as fast as a single stage will, but a single stage does not have a separate clearcoat that can/will fail and ruin the looks of the whole car.

Which one is easier to polish and wax? Which one has a deeper shine? I keep reading over and over again that solid colors like black and red looks deeper and more clear when it's a single stage job. But again, I am getting conflicting answers on this.

 

ANYTHING can fail if done incorrectly.

An the statement " The clearcoat layer will fail, usually within 10 years." is so far off it isn't even funny. Maybe if it was not done right that statement may be true.

BASE/CLEAR is the ONLY way I paint anything that will see sunlight.

but by all means. paint your red truck with single stage and watch the sun do its job and make it pink.

Just look at my 97 F350. YES there is still paint on the truck but is is worn thin from getting buffed every 2 years because it fades right out. So my 97 NEEDS paint since it has been buffed thin

When I repaint in here in the next couple months there is NO WAY I would even consider redoing in in the original Single Stage paint