Paint guru's! Need to pick your brain!

[leesredgt]

I've never painted an entire car before. So because of this i've never had to mix a huge batch of paint at one time. The biggest thing i've painted was an engine bay.

So my question is, when i paint an entire car do i mix up enough paint to do all three coats or do i mix up a new batch for every coat? Basically mix up enough paint for just that one coat or for all three coats?

Thanks in advance guys i just wanna be sure.

[PEZi]

Did mine in a booth, so the time between coats was super short. But basically, got each canister for the gun ready to go all at once, waited about 5 minutes between coats... and then baked for about an hour. Hope that helps

[SBC 240Z]

You really need to mix it as you go, the two minutes it takes you to mix up another cup of paint isn't going to affect your paint job. However if you mix up enough paint to do an entire car and then after your first coat the paint fish eyes, wrinkles, or runs/sags (meaning you'll be wet sanding) then how pissed will you be at all the paint that goes to waste?

Mix it as you go if not for anything but your wallet's peace of mind.

[jdansmith]

Not a guru but have some exp. Work on one panel at a time being precise in mixing is extremely important and as sbc stated if you screw up one panel oh well. Screw up the whole car and waste the liquid gold that is paint and you will be kicking your own a$$. Be cautioned that paint will lay better on a roof, hood or trunk, much easier than the side panels. Take your time doing doors and fenders and make sure the flow will adhere without running sure you will waste some paint getting the flow right but the effort spent here is well worth it. Don't rush anything at all.

[SBC 240Z]

I wanted to touch on what I said before, I had just finished a study guide for school so my brain wasn't completely there. So I just wanted to clarify

On your typical basecoat/clearcoat job the you can mix all the paint you want so long as it's your typical base that only mixes with reducer. However your clearcoat is mixed with a hardener so as soon as you mix it the clock is ticking. It's hard to get into detail over an internet forum but keep in my with anything that has a catalyst you go by the 15degree rule. When you read the products can it will usually say something like "mixed at 70 degrees pot life is 3 hours", okay well if you mix it at 85 degrees your pot life is now 1.5 hours, 100 degrees and it's 45 minutes, and so on. So don't think that if it's a hot day and you mix up your product that you'll have all day to spray.

If you're spraying a single stage paint job then it will have a catalyst as well so the same thing goes, don't mix up a gallon of paint only to have something bad happen on the first coat, leaving you with 3 quarts of wasted paint.

Humidity is your biggest enemy but with a quality product you can work around it so long as you're careful.

I have sprayed in the middle of floridas summer heat and on unusually cold winter days when there were icicles hanging from a leaky water faucet, so it can be done and the results spectacular given the conditions. Just pay attention to what you're paint is doing, if you see something happening STOP let it dry and fix it, don't try to lay on a ton of paint to correct a problem.

Also, a little tip, if you get a run of sag while the paint/clear is still wet you can take a length of 2'' masking tape, hold each end in a hand and bow the tape so it's curved, using the sticky side of the tape you can lightly lay it on the run and pull the excess out, let the paint/clear tack (slightly dry, or rather, dry enough that it won't run again) then lay another coat on and in most cases the previous run will completely disappear or at the very least leave a very small mark that can easily be buffed out.

[leesredgt]

Thanks for all the help guys! I shall mix as i go then. I plan on painting this weekend. Its supposed to be 74, 75 degrees some were around there.

Ill post up pictures of the result!