Two Stage Paint – Part 2

This month I am going to talk about two stage paint and clears. So, let's start with the different applications:
1. You can paint the entire car, like we did to the Cockroach and the Bat Rod.
2. You can paint part of the car, called 'spot painting' for obvious reasons. Typically you spot a newish car that has been in a collision.

We generally use a different PPG paint system for each application. Why?
1. If you are painting a whole car, as long as the color is close to the existing color, the job will look good. Minor differences between the outside of the car and, say, the door jambs will go unnoticed. So minor color differences are OK in most cases
2. If you are doing a spot job, minor differences can be seen if one panel, say the door, is just slightly different than an adjacent panel, like a fender or rear door. So tiny color differences are NOT OK.

Each car has a paint code somewhere in the car. In most cases it is on the pillar behind the front door, although there are lots of other places it can be depending on the manufacturer. If the car is being repainted completely, we simply locate the paint code and, after the car has been prepped, paint it. However, if it is a spot job, getting the paint code and prepping the car is just the beginning.

So, now I am going to talk about what the painter does when doing a spot job. Just like with a complete, he gets the paint code. But before he mixes the paint, he goes to the files of 'paint chips' to find the correct 'alternate' paint actually sprayed that he can put next to the paint on the car to see if it matches. If it's good, he paints the car. If not, he needs to adjust the paint by sight to get the right color, coarseness, etc, until it matches. He continues to slightly alter the paint color until his spray out matches the paint on the car. This is time consuming. The process could take an hour or more.

Further in order to be able to make all these slight variations, you need a paint system that has lots of toners so you can match the paint exactly. For our spot jobs, we use PPG's DBC line of paint. It is very expensive.

For a complete paint job where the color just has to be close, we use PPG's OMNI line. There are less toners and is significantly less expensive.

So, you can see why it is relatively more expensive to paint part of car than painting the whole car. Paint the whole car uses less expensive paint and the painter mixes it up and goes. Paint part of the car, use expensive paint and potentially spends a lot of time making sure it is right before painting.

Finally some cars have three stage paint, also called a tri coat, which consists of color (like two stage paint), a mid coat of pearls and a clear coat. From a painter's perspective, this is the toughest. Because you not only need to get the color right as described above, but you need to get the right amount of pearls too. And the amount of pearls does change the color. Potentially lots of sprayouts to get it right. And of course that means that a tri coat costs more too.

For most cars, the real difference maker is the clear. And NO ONE has ever questioned me about what clear we use. They assume that if it has a clear coat it's all good. There are several levels of clear. And because it's the clear that protects the color, you are interested in the clear that is used. The better the clear, the better the protection and the better the shine. We use two different clears depending on the job. More on that next month.

As always, if you have questions, please email me.

Article by guest columnist, Sam Hedgpeth, owner
North Highlands Maaco • www.SacAutoBodyShop.com
Email: smhedgpeth@sbcglobal.net or phone: (916) 334-5556

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