Single stage paint?
 

Anyone know anything about it? I got a guy who says he'll paint my car with black single stage, wet sand it down with 800 grit paper, "Followed by a nice high solid clear coat."

Any opinions? All are welcome please :yes:

Oh, and he says it will be ICI Autocolor paint.

Never heard of 'single stage' paint. Then again I don't hang around auto body shops either. You might ask around other body shops to see if they use that system too. Good Luck.

Thanks man.

Anyone a paint person? Need help :confused:

well 1 thing tell him to sdand it with 1000 grit or 1200......

single stage sounds like hes just gonna paint black over the original color without primer.........but then again it could meen that hes just gonna do 1 coat.........or he's not mixing any hardner or anything in the paint........you might wanna ask......i was in auto body for 2 years and dont know what he meens

"Single Stage" system is nothing more than a solid or metallic color applied over a primer/sealer. Known as a "S/S system," there is no clear paint necessarily involved in this system. Because the color must be "color sanded" with 2000 grit 3-M paper (used wet) to remove small flaws, it is usually best to only use solid colors. Sanding a metallic single-stage color almost always results in "splotches" in the color because some of the metallic paint is removed during the color sanding step.


http://www.customclinic.com/Library/...int_terms.html

The guy said he would be putting at least a couple coats of clear over it though. Says it will give it a nice depth.

I sent an email to him making sure he will be sanding before the coat of single stage.

I'm just not sure if this is gonna be as good as I want it to be. Keep the info coming, I really know nothing about paint.

Thanks.

as far as I know single stage paint is not ever used with clear coat... that's the point it's 1 stage not 2-3 like normal... primer...color... clear.

the way to tell if your car has single stage paint (ours don't) is to use a cleaner wax on it... if the rag pulls off paint then it's single stage. My buddies VW has it. waxes and polishes up much better than clearcoat paint but... it also comes off.

I wouldn't know one way or the other if you can use it with clear but I've never heard of that.

That's what I hear (the paint coming off part). A lot of VWs seem to have it. I'm gonna copy and paste the email from the paint guy. Hold please.

Here it is:

hey thanks for the pic, it's in good shape! The paint I'm going to use is
ICI Autocolor, I'm putting single stage on first, then I'm going to wet
sand the single stage with 800 grit sand paper, followed by a nice high
solids clear coat. When you apply clear coat over single stage paint, it
flows out nicer and gives you much more depth and shine than a normal base
coat/ clear coat paint job. Basically your car will look wet all of the
time!! I'll let you know when I'm ready to spray!

mike

Exactly.. This guy isnt doing a standard 1 stage if he is adding clear coat.:o

Right, I wanted some opinions on this from all you folks to see if I should have it done. Like I said, I don't know a ton about it and I don't wanna get screwed on it. The guy is a friend of one of my mechanics and would give me a really good deal.

I guess it would work, I mean, it does kinda make sense.. He's basically using the stage 1 as a base coat since its usually shinier then your normal Basecoat. Then once you add a couple of coats of clear to it, it should almost glow. Kinda like many coats of clear.:yes:

Edit: The key will be the sanding to get the clear to stick to the stage 1. Basecoat for a B/C is rougher, which helps the clear to stick better. Aslong as its sanded well I couldnt imagine it being a problem. Worse case, the clear will peal.

Right, and the clear coat after should eliminate the paint coming off when buffed problem right?

A single stage is normally just a one coat job right? Like Maaco type stuff to eliminate multiple coats? And that's why it would normally come off when buffed?

BTW, I got a Maaco job years ago, with an integrated clear coat, and it still sucked.

Correct, it should eliminate the paint coming off aslong at the clear sticks to the stage1.

A guy I was talking to was telling me the only times he uses the stage1 is for motorcycles. Because you dont have to worry about the clearcoat cracking on the plastics, but stage1 sucks on cars because its not as protected and it chips and peels easy.

Yeah, but I think that's why this guy puts the clear coats on afterwards. To prevent the chipping problems.

LoL.. Correct... Thats why it should be a nice paintjob aslong as the clear sticks to the not so rough stage1. (Remember when I said it had to be sanded really well.);)

Yup, that's probably why he's using an 800 paper, make sure it roughs it up well enough to really make sure it sticks I suppose.

:yes: By gawd, I think you got it. ;)

LOL

Thank you much for the knowledge man. I feel better now.

:yes: