[texrep]

On the road again and I;m sittin' in the hotel room .....sufing... Anyway To the question.... For those of you who have had your cats painted... Did you go with a single stage or a duel stage (base coat+ clearcoat)...


I See Paint in the cats future.... Cadinsl Red/



Don:eek2:

 

[leonbray]

Don - know how you feel - spent the last 7 years on the road.

I went for clearcoat on my last paint job for durability - it is a driver. The next one is a restoration so it will probably be solid acrylic

 

[73XR-7owner]

Reds...

I've been told that reds always look better when they are multi-layered. True or false?

I ask because after seeing all these hot looking red Cougars around here, I'm thinking about red for the convertible when it gets here. Nothing hotter than a red convertible!

 

[wvcat]

On some colors there is advantage to using clear. Red for example likes to fade and holds up better with the clear. Another advantage of base coat clear coat is the ability to touch up a spot without painting the whole panel by blending the new paint then clearing it. This is great for drivers. Currently my car has Acrylic Enamel but it will have base coat clear coat the next time it hits the road. I'm painting a 69 roadrunner right now that is charger red with base coat clear coat and the paint looks great although all I have painted is the engine bay. Both types of paint can look great when new but the clearcoat usually goes on smoother requiring less buffing. Its your choice.
John

 

[Paul G.]

Paint Choice

I did Acrylic enamel, and then put a clear over it. The clear coat was a pain, but the base shot pretty well. For metallic paint the base/clear is good because you can wet sand and polish the clear. You cannot sand metallic paint or it will have shading. I have complete pics of my paint job from epoxy primer through clear coat on my website

http://home.sprynet.com/~pamar/cougarpaint.html

Paul G.
69 XR7 Convertible

 

[sixt9coug]

go with a base clear with the job. i DO like single stage paints ( screw acrylic enamel, go with a urethane ) but they dont hold up as well and i would never shoot one that has any metallic or pearl in it. as far as im concerned the base clear helps the colors look better, it buffs out easily ( depending what brand ) and it isnt all the much more expensive. im about to repaint the Cougar ( damn laquer i used as a basecoat last time was starting to give me crap ) and its going to be RM Diamont basecoat and clearcoat. same color, but maybe some White stripes going down the hood and trunk. ( not a bright white, something like the Cougars original color ) i figure that it will be around 350 for all the materials. no its not cheap, but it will hold up really well. i could get a cheaper base and clear, but i want good stuff on here.... and anything with the DuPont name on it cost a whole lot of money.oh yeah, pretty soon ill have more Cougar primer pics for all of you LOL the cats looking pretty mangy right now......

 

[Logan]

base/clear = Kick ass paint

Case in point, my red 69 ... That's a base clear car...

 

[Cougrrcj]

paint choices

Ain't America great? You can get a hundred different opinions, but the only one that really matters is yours! Lacquer, Acrylic Enamel, Urethane, Basecoat/clearcoat.... Of course, in some locales (Calif especially) you are limited by what is permitted.

The Basecoat/clearcoat system wasn't around when I (well my buddy did the actual spraying) painted Alpha Cat. Go ahead and look at the pic I had posted earlier. That was Acrylic Enamel with a Urethane clear put over it. That is a metallic gold (paint code 6F) That paint job was done waaaay back in 1984! It still looks good today, although I'll have to admit that the car has been apart in the garage since 1985. At least the paint still looks good! Back then, you could get a gallon of enamel for under $40. Nowadays, a half-pint of Basecoat costs more than that!

All of the cars we had restored/repainted back in the 80s were done in Acrylic enamel. Lately, they all have been done in BC/CC though. The most important part is getting your Cat straight to begin with. I spent an entire week block sanding/ prime/ block/ prime/ block/ prime... well you get the idea. There isn't a ripple or wave anywhere in that paint, I can assure you!

Nowadays, the best paint for the engine compartment and underside of your Cats is going to be the two-stage black epoxy primer, if you can still get it that is! It has the right flat sheen, is impervious to most chemicals, and wears well in the underhood environment.

Have fun!

 

[Logan]

I hear that. I paid $80/pint for my Radiant Red ... exxxxxxxxpensive. I used the Black Epoxy Primer on my engine bay, and you're right, it looks and wears VERY well...Darn stuff is tough as nails...

I priced the Mystic paint (Color shifting) out, and it was $320/pint... Ack!

 

[dark7068]

My bro-in-law painted his AMX with Mystic. It looks very strange, the painter did a bad job on it, but its ok I guess. It is nice to look at when it changes but the main color is gross.

Some Mystic paint has a bad batch made, I think he got one of them, but it was almost 500. Can. a gallon, so he used it.


This could be very informative for me to, I'm painting my Cougar in the next few months, thanx

Rick

 

[Logan]

Nowadays, you can get the color shifting affect in almost any variatian you can think of. Application by pro's only though, too expensive to screw up.

 

[dark7068]

Here the only pic I have of his car in the Mystic paint. When the snow is gone, I will get better pix.

Doh, forgot pic.

 

[dark7068]

fingers crossed this is it.

 

[Logan]

What the heck is that white stuff? Snow!? Ack!!

 

[dark7068]

I took this picture 2 weeks ago, and we got more of that white stuff. My in-laws live on top of a mountain so they get it worse then me (which is where the car is). Nice homemade shelter eh.

Rick

 

[texrep]

Wow... What a response
I thought this was gonna be easy:1poke: You know just pick the color, right? I do want something that is durable. The cat is not a daily driver ( more like weekends) and it does attend a few shows here in the valley which means sun and lots of it. I had to color sand the paint last summer just to get it shinin' again. And I'm basically a lazy guy I don't want to do that AGAIN...


Thanks for all the input


Don

 

[sixt9coug]

my reccomendations.... if you do it yourself try this... go with a relatively cheap basecoat and use a high quality clear over it. i would go with DuPonts Nason line of basecoat as its pretty inexpensive. but it doesnt really cover as well as i would like, so if you shoot the car red, get a red primer or sealer or whatever you are gonna paint the car. second i would reccomend DuPonts Chromaclear for the clearcoat. its good stuff, but far from cheap. like 220 a gallon or so. good stuff and it will last a long time though. if you want to save a bit of cash, try DuPonts Nason line of clear. its about half as much and it still will last you a good while.personally if i shoot a car, i just would use the Nason line all the way through. pretty cheap and it looks good. if you have a pro do it, then see what he is using for materials if you can. the Chromabase and Chromaclear are very good, Sikkens, Glasurit and PPG are all good as well. i like Valspar, but i know alot of guys who dont. but its all up to you. DuPont has given me good results, ya just have to be willing to pay.