Customs Who sells good paint at a reasonable price?

I think that if you buy cheap paint, and don't use their system. Primer,paint,clears. You might as well put recycled oil in the engine. With today's paints they are chemical specific. I also believe that most of the time you get what you pay for. But there are exceptions at times. If you go cheap I hope you,get lucky, I just dumped a car that I bought, an was unlucky.

 

We have used WANDA brand paint, at school many times. (It's a good safe testing ground to try different paints. ) Anyway, we use lots of different brands and so far, Wanda is not too shabby. The color is reasonable in cost and the clear is $80 for a gallon of clear and the quart of hardener for it. Just thowing out another brand that hasn't been discussed.
The high dollar paints I use do say "for professional use only", and some of the added cost is for the support you receive before and after.

 

I'd have to agree with the Southern Polyurethanes recommendation. They sell a very good product that is competitively priced. Their color selection is limited but, it is all pretty decent stuff, from the epoxy primer on up to the clears. I've painted several cars using their complete system and not one issue.


Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

Know one sells good paint at a good price.

 

A friend of mine goes to TSC ( Tractor Supply Company) and paints his cars with the paint that was primarily intended for use on farm machinery and of course to paint tractors. Some of the paint is incredibly cheap ($20 per gallon or less). He looks for paint that is marked down or on clear out or discontinued lines. Don't laugh. His cars always look good paint wise and his cost outlay for paint is next to nothing. The paint jobs stay looking good for years.

 

I've been using keystone paint (matrix). It was developed by ex ppg chemists and acts like good quality paint, but has a great price. Keystone is an aftermarket sheet metal supplier.


Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

I have also used Wanda on a few projects and had good results.

 

I used Summit Racing paint, Kirker, to paint this bike and it sprays and looks very good IMO

 

If I had gone to all of the hard work and effort to properly prepare a car for paint using quality primers and block sanding , not to mention the multitude of hours , why would you want to put all of that in jeopardy with cheap paint materials ?

 

Maybe it was the fact that I live in az where it's sunny 300 days a year but Kirker did not hold up, and it was gloss black which I'm sure didn't help. I painted my daily driver with it and within 2 years it was in need of a respray

 

"sent for a color chart from TCP Global, and spent $7.49. I got a printed piece of paper with colors on it, not a real color chart! I called them and before I could complain the guy said not to go by it as some of the colors are not represented very well. WTF? How do you pick a color from a poorly printed piece of paper color chart?"

I usually pick a color from their online library by make, model and year. So far out of about 8 orders, no problems.

 

The guy at the paint shop told me this, if you keep the car garaged and protect it from the elements, wax etc, any paint should last you a long time. I was asking him about using acrylic enamel instead of urethane because of cost. He also mentioned something about UV protection etc.

I painted my (garaged) car with Centari about 5yrs ago and it is as the day i painted it.

ON THE OTHER HAND
My wifes cousin bought some Kirker paint for his truck and I shot it. He ordered the 2 stage kit. The base coat totally tiger stripped after the clear coat.

Turns out they sent single stage paint which required a 24hr wait time before clearing(according to them), not what the instructions said. They re-sent another kit free of charge.

Granted he never took care of the truck, waxed it, and was always in the sun, but the paint looks like shit now 2 years later. Just dry and faded. Im embarrassed to say I help him with it. Im in San Diego, truck gots lots of sun. Cesar

 

For those that have used Kirker, I would like to hear more of how the paint has held up long term.

 

Sorry, but paint is about the last thing I would skimp on. You spend how many hours cutting, welding, hammering, filling, sanding, blocking, blocking, blocking, blocking.... did I mention hours spent blocking? All that work to make the body solid and straight only to cheap out on the actual color and finish that is visible? Forget it. It's like bargain shopping for tattoos. I don't want bang for my buck, I just want BANG.

5 years ago, we sprayed my '57 in House of Kolor. We purchased it through Smart Shoppers, and materials for the entire job, including primer, came to around $1,500.00, which I thought was very reasonable. I would gladly have spent much more than that. The finish still looks great, and has held up quite well, especially considering how much the car gets driven.

All paints are not created equal, and each system is designed to work best with the other materials in the system, and may not work with others at all. There is a significant difference in the coverage, amount of metallic, overall quality and durability of finish, clarity of the clear, etc., between cheap paints and quality materials. I was just at the Detroit Autorama this weekend, and it's no coincidence so many of the real high end builders are using HOK, PPG, DuPont, etc, and not Nason, Omni, or Kirker. Just my $.02

 

All that is true, but not everyone has that budget. Plus the DIYer may not have the painting skills; screw up with inexpensive paint, you're not out so much.

There you go; even inexpensive paint will hold up and look good if it's been applied right and is cared for. If you're building a show car or just have to have a certain color, then the big buck paint is probably your answer, but for a driver, not the only answer....

 

Wanda is Akzo Nobels low line paint

 

Who says more bucks is always better?
Riddle me this-

Paint formulas are by "parts per 1000" right? And paint is sold in gallons, quarts, pints & sometimes 1/2 pints.

So lets divide one US pint (16oz) into 1000 parts. Thats 0.016

So this particular candy formula for the mid coat of very high end tri-coat color was :
23 parts of Orange toner
7 parts or red toner
930 parts of base.
30 parts reducer.

The mixing toners are roughly $120.00 average for 1 pint. Or $0.12 per 1/1000 part.

The base is $50.00 a quart or $25.00 per pint. Or $0.025 per 1/1000

The reducer is 50.00 a gallon or 6.25 a pint. Or $0.00625 per 1/1000

So follow this bouncing ball of math.

23x $0.12=--- $2.30
7 x $0.12 = ---$0.83
930 x 0.025---- = $23.25
30x 0.00625 = $0.19

Ok so you math wizards saw theres not even 1000 parts, & I rounded the reducer and a quick look tells you this will be just over $26.00 and $26.57 to be exact.


Go buy this and it will not cost you 26.57 a pint, NOOOOO Sir, you'll be dropping $178.00 a pint on this stuff. Of course you'll be able to display the fancy logos of one of the prestigious names which you mentioned right along with the big boys.

So that's $0.178 per 1/1000.
Kind of funny how its more expensive than any of the ingredients no.

You math wizards pick up that's $ 1425.00 a gallon?

 

Worked at a shop and we painted a jaguar original red, Omni. It was $1,100 just for the red. Everthing has gone up. Just try to use the same company from primer to clear

 

Right, The same people who make Sikkens. The main reason Wanda is cheaper is because the manufacturer doesn't supply bunches of tech reps going from shop to shop answering questions and patting heads. They also don't give away $20,000 paint mix lines and $40,000 bass boats to the big shops like some of the big names do.

If there's a Wanda dealer in your area, they will have the same range of colors available as Sikkens, including all the variants of each color. The variants are used to match colors in repair work since the same color on the same car isn't always the same even though its painted by the same mfgr.

I'd heard from several people how Wanda sprays and covers as good as any of the high end products, so I bought a quart of base and a quart of clear just to try it a while back. I'd put the base neck and neck with the best from PPG, Axalta, or Sherwin Williams at less than half the price. But their clear is nowhere near as good as SPI's universal clear IMO.

Companies like PPG or Axalta want you to keep on thinking the price of their high end paints is worth the money. And they also want you to keep on thinking you need to use every one of the overpriced products in their "system" else your paint will fall off and your children will hate you. About 95% of that is pure self serving bullshit that does nothing but keep on feeding their money machine. There's nothing wrong with their products. The price is just too high to be justifiable to anyone other than repair shops who can just pass the cost on thru to their customers or the insurance companies.

I'm in the process of slowly stripping a car I painted in the early 80's with PPG lacquer. Its a red, and the lacquer cost $50/gal then. Same color today in PPG base is $800/gal. Out of curiosity, I checked the current price in PPG lacquer. Only $1100/gal.

Think I'll stick with SPI for the epoxy primer and clear, and Wanda for the base. I can get everything I need for about the same price as a gallon of PPG base.

 

Auto Air Colors.

 

Believe me insurance companies ain't paying for paint....they pay the minimum on everything...including labor for Techs....
I have seen paint failures due to products not playing well together....a hood car ( 4 door caprice w 26" rims) shop used a generic primer and proceeded to spray flip flop ppg Vibrance over it.....paint lifted, shop wanted ppg to eat it, walked in looked at their primer, gave the shop owner the primer mfg's number...said call this guy! Wrong thing to do? Not if your the guy getting asked to pay to redo a job...not just material...we are talking labor dollars too....I ask you " did that guy save any money?

Old speed shop saying.....speed costs...how fast ya wanna go

Buy once, cry once

 

I just used kirker for the first time ~2 yrs ago on my 51 plym build (check out the build link below). This was only my 3rd complete car spray so it does have some issues that Id have to think are do to operator error.
The primer filled great, the base metallic layed out nice (I added the extra base maker to the mix), but I did end up w/ some tiger stripes and a blochs here and there that I think may have been from the clear refloating the metallic.
My first paint job ever was a 64 cutlass that I used $1200 of PPG products, It was silver, and I had great beginners luck. 13 yrs later, it could use a wet sand and rebuff.
My opinion is, unless you are going for a full on trailer queen, $239 spent on Kirker is going to get dam near the same end result. (Btw , 239$ was for primer, color, and clear!) Check out smartshopper.com and you can request an actual color paint chip chart , they used to be free, and still may be.
Just to prove a hack like me can make it work w/ "cheap" paint, The '51 is the center Feature in this month Street Scene Mag (yeah,im kinda proud

jeff

 

I've recently gone from dupont to MartinSeniour and Finish1 products. cut the price a ways and ive had good results. Their clear flows out really nice and sure shines.

 

I've used a lot of Omni...all colors, reds, pearls, etc....I've never come across a gallon of base more than $300. Not saying there may not be one...I've just never had that experience.
Part of the rep Omni gets is color match - it doesn't have all the toners available so most formulations are "close". Omni is fine for a complete job, but forget it if you're doing repair and want it to match perfectly. Omni Plus is a bit closer, but I still would recommend the full line PPG.
According to a PPG rep (and it may or may not be true) the chemical formulations in the bases are about the same. The money needs to be spent on the clear - the full line has more UV inhibitors that prevent sun fade and paint break down.
Depending on the budget I'm working with when painting a car for myself or someone else, I often use an Omni base with the PPG clear. I usually budget right at $1200 for epoxy primer, high build primer, tinted sealer, color coat, and clear.

 

Do some research and use at your own risk. But with that said pitthane from ppg is better than some and dirt cheap. That's all I'm saying.

 

you can buy Kirker paint from your local Mack truck dealer, works well

 

I am using the Eastwood paint for my 50 chevy truck,(69 Camaro met green} thing is that I think that it is already reduced and just add the hardener. I am painting in my driveway with a HVLP gun and if it's not windy I get a nice job. I am clearing it too. But I am happy with the color and it lays down nice. I do add a couple of drops of fisheye preventer.

 

I've bought TCP Global paint based on their online paint chip. The paint I got wasn't even close to what it looked like online. It was supposed to be a brown metallic and got a medium gold metallic. Talked to their customer service and ended going with the factory color for the vehicle I was working on. They credited me for the first paint I got and wanted an extra charge for a factory code ($30 extra - using acrylic enamel). I asked what if I used what they first sent me and needed more? They wanted like $25 or $30 for them to come up with the "formula". Said what?!?

So far I've only sprayed the inside of some doors but it seems to spray ok. Their prices seem to be ok but I wonder if maybe "you get what you pay for?"

 

Good ain't cheap....and cheap ain't good!

Guys if ya want a nice looking job most of the low line paints will work just fine. They usually are made with older atomized technology...for instance many of the clears are just re packaged technology from 10 years ago...they worked fine than...just now there's better stuff on the market . If you aren't earning a living using this stuff you will be happy...you want shiny paint, cheap paint will shine, it's not gonna blend as well, the UV technology isn't going to be as good...all things that are important to a production shop that has to get the job done fast and has to guarantee their work. Most of you park your cars in a garage, they aren't exposed to the elements on a daily basis, your doing completes....go buy your cheap paint, get some paint finishing products to complete the job and be happy....but please I would recommend using what ever cheap paints products total system from primer to clear. There usually aren't guarantees on low line...but it does give you somewhat of a leg to stand on should ya need it.

 

If you use cheap paint on your hot rod, it will quickly fade, crack, craze, bubble, and also chip easier, and it will start to look like an old hot rod after a few years. You will end up with a hot rod that looks a lot like Vern Tardel's maroon roadster.
Don't say I didn't warn you.