Do I have to do a base coat, clear coat on my car or can a single-stage paint look just as good?

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Whade' "The Duck Formerly Known As Wade" Duck
'87 GT Auto
'88 Ferrario

Base coat clear coat will typically remain glossier as the years pass but single stage also looks quite nice...

I sprayed my car with single stage as it was cheaper at the time...this is how it looks.





those pics were taken about 1 month after it was painted.

- Phil

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"When enough is enough, thats when you know.....your halfway there"

Personally, I prefer a single coat to a base and clear coat. The reason is that when (not if) the paint gets scratched in the future, you can use rubbing compound and a buffer to remove minor scratches from a single coat and it will look just like new. You cannot do with with a base and clear coat. I have even seen guys put a little touchup paint on a deeper scratch, let it dry over night and then rubbing compound + buffer it the next day to blend it it. You could not even tell the scratch was even there.

quote Originally posted by whadeduck: Do I have to do a base coat, clear coat on my car or can a single-stage paint look just as good?

You can do either, as long as the color is available in single stage. Some colors must be clearcoated. Using b/c is easier to spray as you can fix mistakes easier, and when you are wetsanding and polishing b/c is easier and safer to use. With a single stage paint, you basically are spraying a much thicker paint. So if you don't apply you color right, or put on too much because you missed an area, it'll run down the side of the car. With b/c, you can spray 3 coats of color, or 8 coats of color. The base color is thin paint and dries very fast. Once you have your color down and are happy with your coverage, then you spray your clear. If you get any dirt in your base color, let it dry, sand out the problem, and spray a little more base color. By doing base/clear, you'll also get a good feel for your spraying technique and surrounding area ( air movement, dust, clearance issues around the car.... ). You spray your color, are comfortable that there isn't any dirt or dust in the paint, then spray your clear. If you then get a little dirt in the clear, you know that it isn't into the color and you can probably wet sand the particle out.

Whatever you do, just buy decent paint.

Mark

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Both are fine, have found over the years that single stage takes a little more maintence to keep looking show room, especially solid colors , reds, blacks, , ect. They tend to oxidize faster with out the clear coat to protect it. There are some additives out there that can be added to single stage--what we call shake and shoot==base & clear mixed toghter. Lexus & other imports did this early on with their solid color cars. As Mark (Firefox) said --just get quaility paint when its time..

I use both, but almost all base/clear now in order to match original paint on newer cars. I painted my Mercedes SL with single stage acrylic enamal and it still looked new 10 years later.

You can repair scratches in both with a brush and rubbing compound. With basecoat a lot of times the scratch is only in the clear topcoat. You can brush in some clear or even clear fingernail polish (its just perfumed laquer) and cover it. I get a lot of new cars all scratched up from coat and packages dragged across them that I just lightly wet sand with 1200 and buff out and look brand new. On my Ferrari kit in base/clear, I had a guy in a Cavalier back up over the nose clear to the headlites. They paid me to repaint the whole front clip. On a whim, I just wet sanded it and buffed it with rubbing compound and every mark was gone with no touch up at all. You couldnt tell where it ever touched to this day. Ive touched up some scratches on the Magnum that you cant find either.

Best thing about single stage is its cost and the overspray can be cleaned off. Clear urathane will kill you quick and sticks rock hard to anything including the inside of your lungs.

I'm doing b/c c/c on my Formula. Got a gallon of red basecoat. Enough to paint 2 or 3 cars, I think. If something gets trully messed up--I'm planning on replacing the panel. I'm prepainting some panels and will store them in the rafters of the garage. I like the idea of the process being more forgiving.

I'm doing a complete panel off paint job. More work to do, but I'm hoping that the end result is a more factory like look to the finish. For the home painter, it means alot more control--no exposure to overspray, you can paint the edges and even the rear of the panel, & everything is at a comfortable level off the floor.

Nice thing about the process is that you can add pearl, metal flake, or other effects to the clearcoat and get a floating look. You can also buy different clearcoats such as real shiny, less shiny, and satin. Hobbies should be fun--I'm planning on having some fun with this paint job.