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Today’s Paint Products
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I swore I wouldn’t bore you with a bunch of paint cans, but it’s inevitable in this chapter. This grouping represents just the color and clear, with attendant reducers and catalysts, for the paint on one car. It doesn’t include any primers, sealers, cleaners, or other “prep” products. These happen to be all PPG (formerly Ditzler) brand, purchased at the same place at the same time. The color, mixed at the paint store, is a Lincoln Mark VIII dark green metallic with pearl for my ’52 Chevy, which was dark green metallic originally.
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This is a 2-stage system, with base coat (DBU) and clear coat (2021). While most normal-size vehicles won’t require more than a gallon of mixed color, or clear, I ordered 1-1/2 gallons of color (to have plenty for dash, window frames, under hood, etc.) in two gallon cans, so I can mix the two back and forth to make sure all the color is the same before painting. The two quarts (DAR) are the same color mixed in a single-stage, which dries very glossy, for use in areas (firewall, under trunk, etc.) where I don’t need the extra work of 2-stage or rub out. The only problem with buying all these products now is that the bodywork/prep on the car has taken longer than expected, and the reducer/catalyst (DRR—“RR” stands for “reactive reducer”) “goes bad” after time. Hopefully it is okay stored in a cool place, unopened.
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It's hard to write a book about how to paint cars without talking about paint, but that is essentially what I intend to do. If it weren’t such a cliché (and if it weren’t largely untrue), I would say that the paint itself is one of the least important parts of this whole process. Yes, the surface preparation— from the bare metal to the final, sanded undercoats—is the most important element of a good quality and long-lasting automotive paint job. Secondly, given moderate skill with the spray gun (and given excellent surface preparation), the final color-sand and rub out are what make any paint job look professional and ultimately award-winning. Good paint, compatibility of products and, especially today, proper mixing of the elements of each product, are all very important to a good paint job. But talking about paint is about as exciting as watching paint dry. And looking at pictures of paint cans in a book is worse than boring, even in color.
But those aren’t the real reasons why we’re not going to discuss specific paint products here. We describe paint as solid particles suspended in a liquid “carrier” so that those particles can be transported, by pressurized air, and deposited on a surface, where they adhere once the liquids all evaporate away. That’s the way paint had been for decades (centuries if you substitute a brush for the spray gun), but no longer. The main reason we’re not going to talk about paint in this “How to Paint” book is that we’re not using paint to paint cars any more. We’re using chemicals. The process might not seem or look much different. We mix assorted liquids in set proportions and spray them with a “gun,” using pressurized air, onto the surface of a car in the age-old manner. Then they “dry” either hard and shiny, or smooth and dull so that we can buff them out to a lustrous shine. It all seems pretty much the same as before, but it’s not.
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Now, when you mix those liquids together, one of which is the color you want to put on your car, you are no longer mixing a solids-bearing liquid paint with a highly evaporative thinner to make it sprayable and so that it dries relatively quickly. Now the colored particles are suspended in a liquid that is a reactive chemical compound. The other liquid you mix with it—even though it may contain evaporatives or thinners—primarily contains a catalyst, which is a chemical agent that instigates a molecular change over a relatively short period of time once the two chemicals are mixed. Today’s paints don’t just dry, they also chemically bond, which in current auto painting parlance is called “cross-linking.”
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How do you choose a new paint color for your car? Thousands are available. The auto paint store should have a large rack (or stack) of “color paint chip” books with small samples of all the colors used on domestic and foreign cars and trucks, going back several years. You can choose one of these colors, have the shop mix up a small amount (say, a pint) from the formula, and go home and spray it on something to see how you like it. Another alternative is to look at cars and trucks on the highway; if you see a color you like, note the brand and approximate age of the vehicle, and then look for that color in the books. Plus there are usually pages of “custom colors,” with formulas, and “fleet colors” (a whole page of different shades of red, or yellow, for example). Or, a good paint shop can mix (or match) virtually any color you want, though you won’t have a “formula” for ordering it again, later.
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Chemistry, even though I took plenty of it, was never my favorite subject in school. So I won’t go into textbook details. But if you remember any of your high school courses, you know that in any chemical equation only so many atoms or molecules of one substance will combine with so many of another to produce a set number of molecules of the new substance. Two hydrogen atoms will combine with one oxygen atom to produce one molecule of water. No less, no more. And if you want a whole bunch of water, you must combine a lot of hydrogen and oxygen in a ratio of 2-to-1, exactly. Reactions involving catalysts are a bit different, but the emphasis here is on exact mixing ratios. To work properly, to chemically bond as designed, today’s paints must be mixed in the exact proportions specified by the manufacturer.
You may also remember that heat (temperature) has a bearing on all chemical processes. Heat is energy, and most chemical reactions require some energy to occur. In an article I did for Rod & Custom magazine in 1991 called “New Age Painting,” I quoted a PPG paint expert as saying, “With all catalyzed urethanes (clear or color), room temperature must be maintained above 50 degrees F for 24 hours for the paint to fully crosslink (harden). If not, it never fully crosslinks, and can break down with age. This is critical.” This is something I have not heard mentioned much, before or since. Good, modern paint booths are heated, and most professional painters leave a freshly painted car in the heated booth overnight to “dry” (or chemically harden). But this is pretty hard to do, even in warm climates, if you’re painting in your garage.
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The worst problem is that, in most cases these days, none of this information is on the paint can. Even the type of catalyst to use, and the mixing proportions (which used to be printed in plain diagrams on the label), are often left off. Instead, you need to get a special “information leaflet” for the given type of paint, at the specific time you’re going to use it, which is filled with more precautions and legalese jargon than actual instructions on how to mix and use the product. You need help.
Then, when and if you do figure out how to use the paint product properly, the next time you go back to get some more, you are told bluntly, “Sorry, that product is no longer legal. We can’t sell it to you. You have to use such-and-such instead.” Which means, of course, that you have to learn how to use the new product. Not only that, but whatever mixing agents you had for the old product (if they had a shelf-life of more than a few days anyway) are now obsolete, and must be replaced with new, different ones. This is not only annoying, it also gets expensive quickly.
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It’s obviously better to buy your paint when you’ re ready to use it. This is the pearl base coat and clear we used for the “scuff and squirt” job you see in Chapter 8. Again, all products are the same brand, and represent just the pearl and clear, with catalyst/reducer (the white base coat already being on the car). The bad news is that this amount of paint cost nearly $500; the good news is that we only used half of it for the job. Further, if you spray it yourself, $500 is a whole lot less than a $2,000 to $3,000 (or much more) pearl-and-clear custom paint job.
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The simplest and easiest color to repaint any car is its original color. Even for decades-old cars, the original color(s) should be listed as a “color code” on an I.D. tag somewhere on the body, such as this one in a doorjamb.
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Previous | Next
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This has been a sample page from
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How to Paint Your Car on a Budget by Pat Ganahl
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If your car needs new paint, or even just a touch-up, the cost involved in getting a professional job can be more than you bargained for. Fortunately, there are less expensive alternatives-—you can even paint your own car at home! In How to Paint Your Car On A Budget, author Pat Ganahl unveils dozens of secrets that will help anyone paint their own car. From simple scuff-and-squirt jobs to full-on, door-jambs-and-everything paint jobs, Ganahl covers everything you need to know to get a great-looking coat of paint on your car and save lots of money in the process. This book covers painting equipment, the ins and outs of prep, masking, painting and sanding products and techniques, and real-world advice on how to budget wisely when painting your own car. It’s the most practical automotive painting book ever written!
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Click below to view sample pages from each chapter!
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Introduction - Budget Painting Chap. 1 - Automotive Painting Chap. 2 - Paint Stripping Chap. 3 - Bodywork Chap. 4 - Painting at Home Chap. 5 - Paint Products Chap. 6 - Paint Preparation Chap. 7 - One-Day Paint Job Chap. 8 - Sand and Paint Chap. 9 - Full Paint Jobs Chap. 10 - Restorations Chap. 11 - Sand & Buff
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8-1/2 x 11" Softbound 128 pages Approximately 400 color photos Item: SA117 Price: $22.95
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Click here to buy now!
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This is a great book that any enthusiast will love, whether it's your first paint job or your 50th.
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Auto Upholstery & Interiors
Auto Upholstery and Interiors is a user friendly guide that gives you the knowledge to make your interior looking like new and by doing the installation work yourself, you save money and have the satisfaction of learning a new skill. Detailed sections include painting interior parts, headliner replacement, carpet kits, door panels, dashboard restoration, seat kit installation, kick panels, trunk detailing, steering wheel repairs and swaps, custom seat installation, using dyes, simple upholstery repairs, and cleaning and detailing tips
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Price: $
18.95
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Fiberglass and Other Composite Materials
For many years race cars of all types have been constructed with lightweight materials in addition to aluminum and steel. These include fiberglass, kevlar and carbon fiber. This space age technology is also being applied to many street cars, street rods, boats, and light aircraft. Carbon fiber is now used in everything from tennis rackets and golf clubs to bicycles, telescopes, camera tripods, and hundreds of other products. This book offers the latest technology and equipment to help you construct and repair your own lightweight body panels and components
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Price: $
18.95
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Payment, Shipping & Sales
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