Basecoat Clearcoat: HOW MUCH PAINT YOU NEED To Paint Your Car! ✅
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Complete Paint Job (Non-color Change)
Considering that you have 25% bodywork and primer spots across body panels…
When painting the same color base, you don’t need a lot of paint. Keep in mind basecoat material volume will double when mixed.
Complete medium size sedan (Toyota Camry) car with 25% primer covered. You’ll need about 2 quarts of basecoat. That will give you a gallon of sprayable material! And you should have leftovers!
Overall, when doing a full respray same color, you’ll never need a gallon of basecoat. Small Miata (1 quart base = 1/2 gallon sprayable). Large Ford F150 (3 quarts of base = 1.5 gallons sprayable). You should have leftover!
Basecoat spray technique: Spray primed areas first (get it fully covered) then dust entire car 1-2 times. Proceed to spray 2-3x coats of clearcoat.
Once you see that the car is fully covered evenly, you can proceed with spraying your clearcoat.
Lighting is very important when spraying base. You need to make sure you covered your primed areas before spraying clearcoat. If you are thin on base in primed areas and spray clear, you’ll need to do the job over.
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Complete Paint Job (CLEARCOAT)
Normally when doing a full respray, you’d want to make sure that you have at least a 1 gallon kit of clearcoat!
Clearcoat prices range from $100 – $350 for a
1 gallon kit.
How much should you have for a full respray?
How much will you use?
Anywhere from 3 – 4 quarts of sprayable clearcoat.
A 1 gallon kit MIXED will give you 5-6 quarts of sprayable on average.
NEVER mix all of your clear coat at once, you may not need it!
Basic Clearcoat Mixing Ratios
1 Gallon Kit – 4:1 = 4 parts clear and 1 part hardener
2:1 = 2 parts clear and 1 part hardener
2:1:1 = 2 parts clear 1 part hardener and 1 part reducer.
*Reducers and Hardener info*
👉 Fast: Touch up jobs. Single fenders, bumper cover, door and small blend jobs
👉 Medium: For complete paint jobs in 70 – 88 degrease
👉 Slow: For complete paint jobs in hotter temperatures 90 + when you need time for flowout
Complete Paint Job Color Change
Basecoat Amount Needed
When completely changing the color you need to consider if you’re also painting the door, hood and trunk jambs. This will usually take an additional quart or two of sprayable basecoat.
Keep in mind basecoat material volume will double when mixed.
Complete medium size sedan (Toyota Camry) car with up to 80% primer covered. You’ll need about 3 quarts of basecoat. That will give you a 1.5 gallons of sprayable material! This should be enough for any small to medium size car.
Small Miata (2-3 quarts base = 1-1.5 gallon sprayable). Large Ford F150 or Family Van (1 gallon of base = 2 gallons sprayable). This should be sufficient. If you want to play it extra safe, then get an extra quart of basecoat.
Primer/Sealer Talk
👉 Does the car need to be primed one color?
👉 Can I paint black basecoat over my red car without primer?
👉 Can I paint over sanded clearcoat?
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