Howdy,

I'm thinking of repainting my "firetruck red" truck. I am thinking of going to a pearl white or a metallic silver. What will be the best way to prep the truck to insure that the new paint covers? Will it need to be primed? The old paint is in ok shape (not flaking, peeling, etc.). I am totally new at this. Thanks.

 

use either a primer on the car that is similar in color or shade to the color you are spraying or spray a sealer just before the color. The color may have a note telling you what shade of sealer to spray to help coverage. Dupont has value shade and ppg has similar. I just finished painting a car and had similar issues. I used the deltron line which is a higher paint in the line and didn't think I would have any problems with coverage because it has covered well in the past. Most of the car was a white primer and the rest was dark green original. Well it took me a lot of coats before you couldn't tell the white primer areas were lighter then the dark green areas. It all depends on what tints and toners are in the color you choose. If there are a lot of translucent toners in the formula you may want to consider spraying a sealer to get the vehicle all one even color to start spraying the color over. When you get the paint mixed reduce it and take a paint stick and dip it in the color. Check the edge of the stick and this may help you see how transparent the color you choose is. They also make cards that have black and white squares on them that you spray to test coverage. I asked my paint supplier why all the paint lately seems to cover much poorer then it did back when I started spraying. He said newer colors are more vivid and bright then they once were, but many have more transparent toners in them.

 

So, would it be better/cheaper to stick with a dark color? I actually prefer the darker colors, but I cannot find enough time to keep them looking the way I would like (i.e. washing, waxing, etc.)

 

Not neccessarily. Any color can cover bad and the cheaper lines of paint usually take more coats to cover (omni, nason, ect) It all depends on what pigments are in the color formula for price and if metallic pearl ect. The cheapest are going to be solid colors like black and white. Reds and yellows are more expensive. Normally a higher line of base covers by the third coat, but every once in a while you get one that just doesn't cover well. A dark color you would need to do a good job on any bodywork, because it shows waves and ripples in the body more then a lighter color will. Dark colors also show bodylines less then lighter colors. It depends on what color you like that should determine what you should go with.

 

OK. So I'm thinking that I want to go metallic silver. How much paint will I need and what is a low costing (not cheap) paint that I can buy. Mind you, it's not a show truck, but I do want it to look nice. Is this paint any good?:

http://www.autobodysupply.net/store/defaultin.asp?CategoryID=448&usg=9EECA426-0269-4AE6-8B37-A87015930B60

Thanks for your help

 

if there is no chiping or anything like that and you dont want to fix the dent get some scotch brite and ajax in water and scuff the whole car were you dont see and shiny paint. and paint it.

 

matrix is ****ty paint its worse then omni

 

you want a cheap but very good paint utec is good. its made by sikikens.

 

I've never tried matrix paint. There is a paint supplier that carries it now and was thinking of trying it. I've heard a few people in forums saying they like it. I heard somewhere the company was started by some people who left ppg. I like ppg products, most familar with them and used a bit of dupont back in the 90's at bodyshops I worked in. Both ppg and dupont or quality paint, but prices are getting pretty high for the top of the line stuff. I've seen people say they like the ms-42 clear by matrix. But they are a somewhat new company, so you wouldn't really know what long time durability is like. Southern polyurethanes is suppose to sell good products at a reasonable price, but again I've never used there products. They only sell a few colors of base though, but they have epoxy primer, clears ect. One way to determine an idea of how much paint you need that someone suggested that I never though of is to load your spray gun up with water and spray the car like you were painting it. Take notice how much it took to do a coat. Say it took 2 quarts to paint a coat. 3 coats would mean 6 quarts mixed. If the base is mixed 1 to 1 with reducer, you would need 3 quarts of base to put 3 coats of color on. Should give you a ballpark idea, but always better to have a little extra then not enough. One thing is the metallic silvers usually like to mottle or tigerstripe more then other colors, but if you know how to mistcoat to even it out you should be okay.

 

i have it take like 5 coats to cover and i just sucks i hate it. sikikens