turbocat

I'm getting my '66 painted this winter and the painter that was recommended by a c2 corvette friend of mine wants to paint my car with enamel. I have seen my friends cars that this painter did with enamel, and they looked very good-but others say base coat-clear coat is the way to go. My car will be painted rally red. The painter has given me a very good price for an enamel job and he says he will not do base coat clear coat. what should I do?

1-2-b-67L89

You need to be the judge as you can look at his work (other cars/corvettes competed) and would assume your C2 friend had a ligitimate reason for recommending. Did you ask him why he will not do base coat-clear? He must have some reason I like to ask questions and sometimes the answers received can be useful in understanding if this is the person I want to complete whatever I'm after. You also stated it was a good price! Just a little concern in that most shops I know of will only give a ball park as the final cost is time and materials. If the price is lower or the best by some margin that might be somewhat of a concern too, as you get what you pay for in general terms.
Good luck as this is a big decision,

Jim Dillon

I believe it would be wise to find out exactly what paint he is going to use. There are different types of enamels, some are better than others. Some of the old acrylic enamels when a catalyst were added were pretty comparable to urethane. If he was to paint with some of the straight enamels (similar to the alkyd enamels) then it may be wise to ask around a few more painters to get their .02. Talk to the painter and get the exact paint he is going to use and post it. Someone on here will know something about it and will give you a more informed response. -Jim

JPatrick

My C2 has a 35 year old acrylic enamel paint job in Buccaneer Red which is an old Firebird color. We applied 2 coats and then wet sanded lightly followed by one more coat.
Apply a few coats of Zaino and it still looks decent. My guy told me that the reds do especially well in enamel, but make sure you have a first rate painter.

Tonytz06

Base coar clear coat, nothing like new technology.

Hitch

I personally would lean towards single stage. The cars lately that have had single stage laid on them have looked GREAT. That's just me though... Dave..

turbocat

Thanks all for the replies.It seems some people like one stage paints and some like two stage paints. As I stated before, my friend has had four cars painted by this painter and I have seen them all. To me they look like show quality or near show quality paint jobs.But since my friend never drives these cars, I don't know if the enamel paint jobs would hold up as good as a base coat clear coat paint job.Is enamel paint durable ? how about uv fading?

KC John

It will probably be a little easier to repair single stage paint if that might be a concern.

Auto5

AE is the cheapest paint out there. While some people do not care for BC/CC paint as it seems too glossy on classic cars, durability and UV protection far exceed that of AE paint.

BC/CC is also easy to repair, a little base, then clear the panel. If you are sold on single stage, consider a SS Urethane like for example PPG Concept. It has about the correct look for older cars like ours.

I'd be wary about a painter that refuses to paint anything but AE. You've seen his work and it's good but I don't understand his choice of paints when there are much better paint systems out there for not a lot more money.

wmf62

enamel is easy to paint (except for runs... ), just like single stage urethanes; it's a 'one step' process and it's done....

enamels usually don't have the depth that a BC/CC paint has.
Bill