Thread: Acrylic Enamel

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Advantages? Disadvantages? let er roar...

works good dry slow. cheap.you may not get all colors in it. may be hard to set the metallic in paints for a first timer .the new base coat. clear coat dry faster clear is tougher. but we used to paint cars with acrylic enamel with activator in it and sand with 1000 grit when flat and then spray acrylic urethane clear on them. on the metallic you have to watch you do not cut in to the metallic .i did some very nice paint jobs this way. may not be the fast way to go . but they held up nice and still think i would still do it

I'm gonna use accrylic enamal single stage, medium dark purple ( I'd have to go back to napa and look at the book to get the Martin Senour color # which I will have to eventully )

I used acrylic enamel with an activator for many years, and my comments on it pretty much mirror Pat's.

Clear coat systems seem to have a hard life out here in AZ due to the extreme heat/harsh sun and I prefer to use a single stage paint that can be buffed out when it starts to fade.

Maybe it is just me or possibly the formulation on the enamals I was using has changed a little, but the last couple of enamal jobs I did didn't seem to go on quite as smoothly as they have in the past.

I have switched over to single stage urethanes. They are supposedly a little more durable than enamals (I'll let you know in 5-10 years ).

I've shot Nason and Chroma 1 so far and really liked the way they went on. Price seems to be reasonably comparable with enamals.

mike i like single stage to.I have painted for over 25 years and one thing i can tell you is. i have do not think much on the durable per dollar think enamel still work. i have sprayed the acrylic urethane and polyurethane to all work. it come down to price and work time and if you sand and wheel the it the enamel work good so dose the acrylic urethane my 50 is single stage black 17 years old acrylic urethane and the paint was great stuff dau ppg but they stop making it if i repaint it it will go enamel the new stuff is way to much money . the last job i did for a customer it was $400 for paint and clear just to spray the fender on a55 chevy truck it done in ppg dau . i hand to use the new ppg stuff work good sanded wheel great . just to much money for me

i prefer single stage for solid colors. i used centari for years and used the glamor pack hardner. every black car i do is single stage. many will tell you bc/cc is better but i dont buy it. it's double the work. one thing though , many of the new single stage paints will change color on you when you buff. red to orange ect. use 1st line paint. the second line paints dont have the pigment as strong. good luck

A lot of really cool non mettallic colors out there. Pick one of those if you want to be different.

This thread is right on for my interest at this time. I am worrying over how to get the firewall painted on my '29 body before I put it on the chassis behind the engine which is already in the frame. This is a sort of a chicken/egg problem and probably I will send the upper body to the shop to get a coat on the firewall and then bring it back to put it together and wire the body and THEN get the outer paint. I have liked Dupont acrylic enamel because I specified it on two previous cars, a Ruby Red VW and an Orange MG Midget. The gloss was great and the MG looked "wet" all the time, amazing gloss! I am glad to hear from so many experienced folks favoring the single stage for solid colors.

Matt: check out the Jaguar "Damson Red", it is a color that I like named for a British plum (Damson plum). I like it but my wife gets all frowny if I mention any orange or any purple so I am going with the old 1947-48 Ford Pheasant Red BECAUSE my local paintshop friend says it is cheap again due to being adopted by Mazda. I don't know the number of the Mazda color but it is supposed to be the same formula as the old Ford Pheasant Red but only $33/quart AND it is more red than purple in a single stage, but it may be a urethane rather than an acrylic. I had a '47 Ford painted that color and with whitewalls the contrast is spectacular! Folks have asked me "I thought pheasants are brown!", but the asian game pheasants have a dark red patch on the throat and upper breast of the male bird that is downright purty!

http://www.thesvda.com/show_veh.asp?veh=834

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

After spraying more than 10,000 gallons of acrylic enamels and half that number in urethanes, I would still paint my car with enamel if it was a solid color. Metalics are a different story, bc/cc is the only way. For use on under hood and door jambs enamels are cool.

Like most of these guys, I've used both. The acrylic enamel will have a stickier overspray, and more drying time. I would pick the urethanes as the best overall, but the acrylic will do a satisfactory job. Buy brand name, first line paint, if you care about the life of the color and gloss holdout.

I know enough about painting to be dangerous, but when I went in to buy Acrylic Enamel I was told basically it was no longer available and Acrylic Urethane was the way to go. The PPG AU worked out great for me and I applied basically the same way I read up on for the Enamel.

Regards, Kitz

don, since your going to put your body on the frame for paint you may want to talk to your painter. i paint all my pieces seperate. then IF i have a color match problem all i have to do is color sand and apply the glamor coat. lot less overspray to deal with. most of mine come out fine as i try to pick the colors that tend to match with counted coats. just food for thought. other wise get a 5 gallon bucket of spray mask.

thanks for the feedback guys. don, if you need a tailfeather to tie to your antenna or anything look me up. lol