base coat clear coat painting

[CadetTY]

Im looking to do a base coat clear coat paint job on my next restoration. Im either going ppg or Martin SR. Paint i was just wondering if anyone has done this on a cub, if so post some pics. Also the numbers given in the paint chart, do you just tell the guy behind the counter the product number and they mix it or do they get it pre mixed? Also before painting i wil obviously prime my parts, is there a sealer i will need to spray before paint? Im looking to wet sand my primer and clear coat. I wana do .a really nice job show quality restoration. Any help is appreciated and tips!

[J-Mech]

How serious are you?... Are you sand blasting the parts? If starting with bare metal, you need to paint it with either an epoxy primer, or a self etching primer. These are both VERY EXPENSIVE. But, that is how to start. I have laid my base right on both types... and had pretty good luck, but you should really lay down a 2K primer/filler on top of the epoxy or self etch. A 2K is sandable and will take out any imperfections in the base primer. Then you can lay your base color on top of that, wet sand it and lay the clear on top. So... 1 good coat of epoxy.. 1-2 coats if your use the self etch. 2-3 coats for the 2K. Then wet sand. 2-3 coats of color. Wet sand again. Then 2-5 coats of clear. I would let the last coat of clear completely dry, wet sand and lay the last coat on. Doing all this work will give you a PERFECT show quality paint job. All you have to decide is how much time/ $$ you want to spend!! Oh, and most places that sell paint mix it on the spot. Sometimes you can just tell them you want a color (I.E. cub cadet yellow) and they have the code. Sometimes them/or you have to find the code. Some places have a color scanner so you could just go to cadet and buy one can of spray-bomb color, paint a piece of paper with it, and they can scan for color match. I have found though, that a scan does not always produce the same color. My suggestion would be that no matter how you get the color to them, that you first have them just mix a half-pint to 1 pint, go spray it and make sure it looks rights before you have them mix the full amount. This saves you the headache of a wrong color match, dollars wasted, and wasted paint. Good luck!!

[CadetTY]

I use spies pant products at work bt thats all i ever used. And its very expensive. The other brands like Martin SR. Paint and PPG are in my price range. Yes, I will be sandblasting most of my parts.

[J-Mech]

Ok. Well you sound like you are on the right track!! Where I am, I use NASON. It's DuPont's cheaper line. (Cheaper than straight DuPont, or Centarri (another DuPont line)). Nason is pretty affordable, but just epoxy and self etch primers in general are expensive. I personally prefer the epoxy. It is a VERY hard base. It is almost impossible to get it off once it sets. (Usually only with a grinder) So if you get a chip in the paint during transport, it only chips down to the primer. Good luck and, as always, HAVE FUN!!

[CadetTY]

Anyone else have any info

[Randy Littrell]

J-Mech is right on the money with everything he has said. I have also used the Nasson paint with good results. I did skip the epoxy and urethane primer on one and just used a rattle can primer over bare metal and painted right over the top with good results as well.



Randy

[zippy1]

Originally Posted by CadetTY

I use spies pant products at work bt thats all i ever used. And its very expensive. The other brands like Martin SR. Paint and PPG are in my price range. Yes, I will be sandblasting most of my parts.

Pleas stay away from the diff and trans with the sand. A wise man on OCC once told me this, because sand will find it's way inside, and you won't be happy.

[MADMachines]

+1 on the epoxy primer. It's well worth the extra cost for protection and the adhesion is like nothing else. If you're set on BC/CC for everything, it may be worth your time to look into a higher quality line of basecoat. Yellow tends to be a little more transparent than most and what may take 3-5 coats to hide with cheaper stuff (like PPG Omni MBC) would likely cover in 2-3 with better stuff (like PPG Deltron DBC). Since you can do the same job with less paint it can actually be cheaper to use the higher line base. Lately I have been using Deltron base with everything else from the Omni line because that's what several body shops in my area have been doing. On my 102 I'm using PPG MTK series urethane single stage for the yellow. It's kinda nice because the color and clear is all together so I save time and don't have as many chances to get dirt in my fresh paint! On my cast parts like the rear end, I sprayed epoxy primer and went right to topcoat. I'll be using 2K primer surfacer on my sheet metal when I make it to that point. I also plan on wet sanding the sheet metal and clearing over the single stage for a little extra shine. I don't have a lot of time to spend in the shop right now, so progress has been slow. I don't have any pics yet, but I will try to get some posted of what I have so far. Good luck!