Car Paint Company

How do you mix automotive paint and which type is best, laquer or enamel?

Public Comments

1. It would depend on what paint you use. All manufactures have different ratios. Read the directions on the paint label! Again, the type of paint is dependent upon the application. Show cars are usually laquer with hand rubbed finishes. Trucks and more extreme duty vehicles would use enamels of various types, and most newer vehicles today are color coated and clear coated afterwards for shine. This is probably about as good an answer for this question you will get. It's impossible to tell you how to mix paint given the information listed! Personaly, for an amateur I would recommend acrylic enamel because it's relatively easy to paint with and will give you a very durable finish. You will have to add hardner to the paint also. As for painting, the best results I've found are putting on a first light cover coat, go have coffee for 20-30 minutes and then come back and put two more consecutive coats back to back. This will give you a very good result with lots of shine. Of course, this isn't something you just do-it takes years of experience for top results!
2. You mix it as recommended by the manufacturer. There will be ratios on the product. You also need to adjust reducers, activators and some hardeners for ambient temperatures. Ask the folks where you buy you paints, they can tell you. What is best is dependant on what and how you plan to paint. If a novice, or just a basic paint job. acrylic enameal is probably the best, and cheapest. You ai'nt gonna find any of the nitrocellulose laquer products anymore, but you can find acrylic laquer primers. The urethane paints are a joy to use, but are 2, 3 or more stages. Pearlescents can be a trick to make look right, and the "flip-flop" paints can be a nightmare (pricy also!). Check with a local trade school and see if they have an auto-body program. That may be worth your while. Also, when you go to buy your paint and supplies, don't be surprised at the costs involved! Some base colors are priced in the hundreds of bucks PER PINT! Stick with the acrylic enamel. You can paint an average size car for $150-200 or so and make it look nice.
3. Urethanes are the way to go these days. Lacuers are no longer available, I think. Enamel is easy to paint and cheaper but the urethane is so easy to spray and easy to fix if you mess up. The mixing will depend on what you use. Wherever you buy your paint they should be able to provide you with the mixing instructions. Make sure you are straight forward with them and tell them you don't really know what you are doing so they can give you all the help you need. Alot of the decisions will depend on your climate, temp, humidity and such. They can help you with that and give you the right reducer and catalyst.