I'm getting ready for a repaint of my 77 and have chosen a Kandy color from House of Kolor paint chip. Has anyone used this paint & what are the recommended paint products that are out there. One of the paint shop guys told me that House of color is expensive and needs a lot of prep work as opposed to the dupont product that his shop uses. I have gotten estimates from $2450. prep & paint with house of kolor paint to $3000.-4000 using a dupont paint & up to $7,500 for a top of the line paint job. the car is a daily driver & is just about stripped of lights & embelems for prep & paint.

 

Hi: House of color is some pretty stuff, ain't it?

But here's something to consider if you're planning on using that house of color paint. If your car is an everyday driver, it's bound to get it's share of "nicks & chips". Well, house of color paints are very to almost impossible to "spot-in" & "blend-in" on a paint repair. Paint match is a 50/50 propersition & yes, the better the prep job for this kinda paint, the better the finish product will be. You almost have to "poly-surface" the car before priming & "blocking". It's alot of work, but the results can be rewarding.

My advise is to look for a base coat/clear coat color that closely resembles that "house of color" color you're looking at. BC/CC is a fairly easy paint to work with & you can get great results from it with miminual prep work. But, again, the better the prep job, the better any paint job will turn out. PPG has a real good selection of BC/CC colors, & some paint places will even custom blend just about any color you can think of.

But whatever you decide to do, good luck with your project.

 

I got about the same quote for prep and paint on my 78,( $3800 ) I decided to prep the car myself, like you I removed all the lights, emblems, door locks/handles, side mirrors, and all trimming possible, plus the entire interior. I am going for a full color change. I stripped the entire car-did all the sanding for a final prep. now they are only gonna charge me $1500.00 to spray the primer, block sand and spray the paint, then colorsand. It took me about a month to do and I need to re-assemble the car but it was worth saving $2300.00 . They are using dupont basecoat/clearcoat. I say if you have the time. try to do all the prep yourself..

 

i've been experimenting with a Kandy paint job. Its been much more trouble than the basecoat clearcoat i did 10 years ago. You have to spray at least 4 coats or more of candy and it has to be perfect to prevent a stripe effect. Then spray 3 to 6 coats of clear. I'm using the oriental blue with ocean blue Kosmic pearl. When the car is sitting in the sun, its like nothing you've ever seen before just awesome.

If you're looking for the dull look of stock laquer, don't do the candy paint or BC/CC for that matter.

 

To give you the right answer, I need you to specify, which HOC paint you are planning on using.

Their base coat/clear coat, requires no more prep than any other BC/CC. It simply offers MUCH bolder colors. It's a very high quality paint and is more chip resistant than cheapies. Keep in mind: If you want to benefit from the chip resistance, you have to use HOC everything... if you just want a bold color, use cheaper primer and clear with your HOC base. HOC products are more expensive than other brands. Prep and spraying for either of these combos will cost the same as any other. Also, you can pay $300 to have your car scuffed, or $5000 to have your car perfectly block sanded. Your call.

Next, if you are talking about HOC KANDY paints, we are into a different world. The car must be PERFECTLY sanded to PERFECTION as this is such a deep and shiny paint. ANY flaw will be not only apparent, but magnified. Like someone else mentioned before, YOU WILL NEVER REPAIR ANYTHING ON YOUR PAINT JOB and have it look right. here's why: The candy color that you choose is commonly not in the basecoat...it's in the clear. That's how they get that wet look and depth. For example: The red job that I did was sprayed a HIGHLY metallic gold for the basecoat... but the car was red, right? yes. The next step is to spary with layers of red-tinted clearcoat. The first layer barely changed the gold color. But, by layer 10 you couldn't see the gold underneath. It was a deep dark red that looked like there was gold metallic somewhere in it. The paint actually looked to be an inch deep, and you'd swear the car was wet by looking at it. This is why you wont ever match it back up. It has so many steps and variables and re-mixes to match exactly- forget it. If you tried to be a perfectionist about it, you'd still end up at least 1 whole shade off. If thse cars get even 1 body panel wrecked, it is very common to repaint the whole car. Last : This paint is polyurethane, not laquer, not acrylic-enamel. It's quality is REDICULOUSLY high. It's like rubber or plastic. You probably know what polyurethane is. It bonds like layers of plastic melting together - exteremely well, and rubber is hard to chip, right?? The cost of prepping is locked into being high, as it must be perfect, and you also have to pay for the guy to keep spraying until you think the color is dark enough, and you have to keep paying for more material. up to 12 layers instead of the usual 4 for BC/CC.

Honestly. I paint cars and motorcycles, as you can tell. I hand sanded my 75 to perfection (almost free if you are handy and patient), and sprayed it with 2 coats of cheap acrylic-enamel. the prep made the paint look PERFECT. My paint supplies cost less than $100. If I get a stone chip, a kindergardener could fix it simply and cheaply, and I don't want to vomit as I've spent $3500 or way more on my paint job. ( By the way I drive mine every day ). My 69 Mustang show car that goes on the trailer has the Burple Kandy on it. If it chips, my vomiting will be only the very beginning of my tantrum.

The best advice a painter could give anyone on here who drives their car: Unless you have a ton of money, hand sand the car yourself down to 600 grit, then visit a few Maaco or Earl Scheib paint places in your area. Pick a PAINTER - not a shop - who sprays a great job. Pay them about $300 to put the color on the car. DO YOU REALIZE HOW MANY TIMES YOU COULD GET THE ENTIRE CAR RE-PAINTED FOR THE PRICE OF ONE BODY-SHOP PAINT JOB??? 10 TIMES!!! You could probably get your front bumper area redone 30 times to get rid of the stone chips!

food for thought, huh????

Hope this helps. Feel free to keep in touch.

 

Great info here guys, much appreciated. It sounds like BC/CC is the way to go for ease of repaint damage. since it is a daily driver & is subject to all that goes with that I may just go that route. Now for the prep work question. Would I be better of taking the car in for a bead blast and than to the paint shop for spraying? I think a local place will media blast for $600. What kind of prep would be needed after that?