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Mon Aug 11, 2003 4:06 pm

My friend and I are getting ready to paint his car in the next couple of weeks. I have painted and primered hoods and other smaller body parts before, but never a whole car (although I have prepped cars). So forgive my ignorance with respect to the next few questions.

Should we mix a majority of the paint before painting (leaving some leftover for touch-up and what not) or just mix as we go? We're planning on using an acrylic enamel. Does inaccurate mixture affect color, or just consistency/drying time/etc.?

How long should we wait before applying a second color over the first (he wants to two-tone it)?

Is that "smoothie" additive worth it?

Thanks for the help, and feel free to pass along any other helpful tips.

Mon Aug 11, 2003 5:06 pm

A lot of that depends upon the kind of paint you use. I used a base/clear product, we'd mix up enough for one coat at a time, and wait for about twenty minutes between coats to let it flash off. We could've done both colors in one night, but didn't. Instead we did the light color, then another day I masked it off and did the other color. Ask a lot of questions where you buy your paint. Jeremy

Mon Aug 11, 2003 7:35 pm

Mix all your color at the same time.....not Reduce it all

Reduce your color as needed. The color variations will come when you the color in different cans, times, and or grams of how much paint you are mixing for each tint. An example is where you get a green side hue versus a blue etc.

Remember don't REDUCE all of your material at the same time. If your spraying the whole car for the first time you may want to have at least 2quarts ready to spray. The flash time is dependent on what temp of reducer you are using and the inside factors on heat and air flow. Most times you should be able to spray one coat within a few mins of the next coat of color if you are spraying the whole side of a car instead of panel painting. you will most likely want to have 3-4 coats of color per color.
The flash time on your final before spraying the second color of base coat should be applied within a certain time frame of wetsanding the panels that were primered and ready to paint in the booth. Some paints require that you rescuff the area to paint after a certain amount of time.
Keep in mind that the second color coat can be taped and ready for the second color coat within a couple of hours or less.
use a quality tape to keep your paint on your car and not pull it off.

Scotty G

Mon Aug 11, 2003 7:52 pm

Since you say you're planning on using Acrylic Enamel... You have to let the paint dry up and be sandable before you can apply the other tone. Doing a two tone in a single stage paint is like doing two partial paintjobs. Prep the whole car, spray the color that covers the more difficult to mask two tone areas and then let it sit overnight, or with enamel, maybe even 24 hours or so. Wetsand the area that you will be spraying second to prep the overspray area where the tape line will go, mask your line and cover the freshly sprayed areas.

Base-Clear applications are much faster in this form of painting, as you can mask the basecoats after as little as twenty minutes. I always use base, unless the color isn't available in such, when doing a two tone because of the ease. Give it a shot, it will make you happier. Instead of going back in a day later to finish, I spend about two hours extra masking and spraying in the same day. Acrylic Enamels are much-much cheaper, as well as a heck of a lot easier to maintain. If base-clears are sprayed out properly, there won't be as much maintenance, however.

I am a professional and would love to answer any questions through email!
Ryan

Tue Aug 12, 2003 12:17 am

Thanks guys, all that info was really helpful.