Single Stage or Clear

termigator

termigator

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I have a 1997 Acura TL that I've decided to repaint using Duplicolor's Paint Shop system. They give you the choice of either topping the base color with clearcoat or just leaving it as a single stage. I'm wondering if I should go with the clearcoat or just keep it as a single stage. Will single stage look just as good as with a clearcoat?
 
Answers to your question is mostly going to be "opinions"

Here's mine..

I've worked on a lot of single stage paints in my life, mostly on classic or antique cars, so were talking old school lacquers and enamels, not modern paint resins.

While there is a difference in resin make-up, the appearance results appears to be the same and that is with a single stage paint you seem to get a richer color. With a clear coated car you get the rich color, only in a plastic wrapper. I don't always think it's easily discernible though as I've looked at some paints and thought they were clear coats and after some testing found out they were single stage.

Whichever paint system you decide on, spray a few extra coats so you have some film-build to work with.

I think for a person that is pro-active in maintaining their car's paint at some level it won't matter because you'll be taking care of the paint.

For the most part, paint only goes down hill when you don't take care of it over time.


:)
 
Thanks for the reply. I know there's no right or wrong with my question. I'm just looking for some opinions to go with my thoughts.
The Duplicolor stuff is lacquer based. Not sure if that makes a difference.

I had originally planned to go with the clearcoat, but then I came across a thread over at the Meguiar's forum where this guy was actually using Rustoleum on a roller to paint his hood and I gotta say, the the pics of the hood were mighty impressive. As I kept reading the thread, I found out that a lot of people do the same thing he did and there's actually a forum (trying to research it more)out there dedicated entirely to painting cars with foam rollers. So now, I'm thinking maybe I can do the same thing. For all the obvious reasons, I'm really leery about painting my car with paints that were clearly not made for cars, but the results I've seen so far from the pics are undeniably impressive.

Mike, not sure if you remember, but you inspected my black Acura at DF and it was your assessment that finally convinced me it was a lost cause and I need to repaint.;)
 
Granted I've never seen the results, but are you kidding me?? A paint roller on a car? I think these people have inhaled WAY TOO MANY PAINT FUMES!!!! (Reminds me of a little Johnny joke, LOL)
 
richy said:
Granted I've never seen the results, but are you kidding me?? A paint roller on a car? I think these people have inhaled WAY TOO MANY PAINT FUMES!!!! (Reminds me of a little Johnny joke, LOL)
Click to expand...

You know, if I had not seen it and somebody just told me, I would have laughed hard enough to have milk coming out of my nostrils, but like I said, the pics are very impressive. The guy even had a sun shot pic.
He prepped the surface like normal, thinned out the Rustoleum with mineral spirits (1:1 ratio) and then painted with a foam roller. Apparently thinning the paint made it self leveling. He still did a great deal of wetsanding afterwards, but, after polishing it, the hood looked as good as any polished and waxed surface I've seen in any auto-related forum.
 
There are quite a few variables with this question? Do you have metallic paint? Are you going to finish the touch up paint by wetsanding? If you have metallic paint you must add clearcoat if you plan on wetsanding flat. If the color is metallic the clearcoat will help to lighten up the touch up paint, since it won't match anyways. Metallic colors will always look darker when touched up unless they are toned lighter, usually some pearl can be added to tone it lighter. If you don't have metallic paint, a single stage paint is fine, and it can be wetsanded flat without having to add clear coat.


John
 
richy said:
Granted I've never seen the results, but are you kidding me?? A paint roller on a car? I think these people have inhaled WAY TOO MANY PAINT FUMES!!!! (Reminds me of a little Johnny joke, LOL)
Click to expand...

You oughta look up that thread on MOL, truly impressive! Granted, he did a TON of wet sanding and polishing but the result is as good looking as any finish you'll see at a concours show. Really! It's incredible. :props:

TL
 
detailjohn said:
There are quite a few variables with this question? Do you have metallic paint? Are you going to finish the touch up paint by wetsanding? If you have metallic paint you must add clearcoat if you plan on wetsanding flat. If the color is metallic the clearcoat will help to lighten up the touch up paint, since it won't match anyways. Metallic colors will always look darker when touched up unless they are toned lighter, usually some pearl can be added to tone it lighter. If you don't have metallic paint, a single stage paint is fine, and it can be wetsanded flat without having to add clear coat.


John
Click to expand...


I had planned on just adding a clearcoat after applying the base black. There is a "metallic clearcoat" you can apply between the base color and clearcoat, but I'm not sure if I should add it though. Seems like extra maintenance in the long run. I do plan on plenty of wetsanding afterwards.

The Acura's color is actually a metallic black with tiny blue metal flakes in it. Honda calls it Flamenco Black Pearl. I do not plan on painting the door jams and crevices because the metal flakes are only noticeably in bright sun on horizontal surfaces. Any other time and it looks like regular black.
 
To me I would keep it single stage. To me they look better, easier to work with and you get more dept in the paint.
 
I think single stage tends to have more depth. The '63 Healey I'm working on with my father will be shot using single stage for that reason. :props:

This may be taking things on a little tangent but I just thought I'd share...

Kevin Brown and I brushed on this a while back when we were discussing wet sanding. I was working on wet sanding a classic car (BC/CC) and even though the paint was sanded level, from certain angles the paint still looked textured...though differently than orange peel. Kevin had a great anology that may have explained what I was seeing and why single stage paints have some advantage when it comes to making paint very level.

This is how I inferred what Kevin explained to me. ;)

Lets say you had two large sections of dirt that you were trying to get as smooth and level as possible.

In the first section you used various tools (rakes,shovels...) and techniques to get the surface perfectly smooth...it looked amazing!

In the second section you decided to just get the dirt sort of level and then lay a sheet of 1/2" glass over the whole area (clear coat). Now even though the top surface (glass) is smooth as can be....it still doesn't look as good as the first section because the dirt below is not very level. Make sense?


I'm assuming this is why a lot of high end painters use a paint system that allows them to wet sand the base coat before adding clear.


I think you will be happy with either system. If it's a daily driver I'd go with BC/CC, but if it's more for show I'd say single stage is the way to go.


Hope this help,
Rasky
 
So... expert detailer opinions are leaning towards SS.

The car is actually neither DD nor garage queen. The car kind of just fell into my lap.:rolleyes:

It was my brother's (Who got it from our dad), but he already had two other vehicles and this one was just sitting outside (his two car garage is full of junk, so there are no cars inside) collecting dust. I asked if I could take it off his hands and he agreed. I already had two other cars (IS350, Prelude VTEC) in immaculate condition, so this was going to be my project car. The interior and the engine are in excellent condition, but the exterior needed a paint job. Since this is my third car, anything I did to it would have to be DIY, including the much needed paint job. Then I heard about the Duplicolor Paint Shop thing and now I'm intrigued.
Of course, then I read that thread over at MOL and now I'm wondering again.

I guess since it's not going to get any garage love, I just want to know which one will be easier to maintain.
From the few opinions I've gotten so far, SS might be the way to go.
 
termigator said:
So... expert detailer opinions are leaning towards SS.

The car is actually neither DD nor garage queen. The car kind of just fell into my lap.:rolleyes:

It was my brother's (Who got it from our dad), but he already had two other vehicles and this one was just sitting outside (his two car garage is full of junk, so there are no cars inside) collecting dust. I asked if I could take it off his hands and he agreed. I already had two other cars (IS350, Prelude VTEC) in immaculate condition, so this was going to be my project car. The interior and the engine are in excellent condition, but the exterior needed a paint job. Since this is my third car, anything I did to it would have to be DIY, including the much needed paint job. Then I heard about the Duplicolor Paint Shop thing and now I'm intrigued.
Of course, then I read that thread over at MOL and now I'm wondering again.

I guess since it's not going to get any garage love, I just want to know which one will be easier to maintain.
From the few opinions I've gotten so far, SS might be the way to go.
Click to expand...


If it's going to be left out in the elements 24/7 BC/CC would probably be better.
 
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