I have to buy from a shop. luckily it is very close to my house.
More and more shops seem to be moving away from carrying these kinds of lacquers here, so I consider myself lucky to have easy access to it.
There are so many restrictions on shipping it, especially across borders, that it in Canada we have very limited access to guitar finishing products. no easy source of loaded pre-coloured rattle cans like a couple companies offer in the states.

I will probably have to mix my own colours, but then if i am doing a DIY project why not do that step too, right?

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Twelvebar, since you're around, does Niki have to put a clear coat on top of automotive acrylic or can he just get enough color paint on and then buff that to a gloss?

Never sprayed a car. Don't know how that goes...

Cheers - C

YZFJOE could probably answer that question better than i can.

I believe (could easily be wrong,) that a lot of these paints are developed in a system. They really seem to have clear coating as a finishing step. it will add deepness to the colour, and it serves to protect the coloured layers. however, depending on niki's play style and/or temper I'm not sure if he poses more or less of a danger to the finish than 'road wear' has to car's finish. clear coating may be optional.

keep in mind that even on a much softer nitro finish fender didn't always clearcoat either. as their clear coat was Uv reactive and yellowed over time there were more than a few white or red guitars that just had the colour coats buffed out. Any old guitars that are still white, and not a shade of crwam or yellow now, were done without clear.

i think generally clear coats have the same composition as the colour coats, but just lack the pigment. They are primarily added layers to protect the colour coat i think the added percieved depth to the colour was just a happy side effect.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

The base/color coat will not buff out to any kind of a shine and will actually chip and scratch much easier than the clearcoat. Clearcoats are typically much harder when they cure to protect the color coat underneath them. If you are after a matt or semi-gloss finish there are additives for the clear that accomplish just that.

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There you go Ceri. superior knowledge. Thanks YZFJOE!

This must be a bit different in the hard finishes for autos, compared to the old lacquers, since in any material I have seen about guitar finishing with nitro the directions for mixing the colour coats of lacquer involve adding various pigments to the clear.

I know for the one acrylic based finish I am looking to do, I am using all stages of product from the one product line, i am scared of getting reactions if i use noncompatible products.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Mmm. Though I'm still a little confused, because I was in a large autoparts shop the other day looking at the paints and there was guidance being given in their literature that their metallic / candy type finishes would require a clear coat. The implication being that the others wouldn't.

As I say, I've never painted a car - sort of in awe of that process, if only because of the speed and scale on which those fellas work.

When they paint the original car at the factory they surely aren't buffing all over the bodywork on each one in our labor intensive way? I presume there's some sort of baking or UV process involved to cure the lacquer - would that put a shine on it too?

Wow, the acreage of knowledge waiting to be walked!

Cheers - C

I would assume they're baked. I may try popping a guitar in the oven hah!! Not really.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Everything we paint is done in a temperature and humidity controlled booth and is baked in the same booth before being buffed. As far as metallic and non-metallic finishes go it is much easier to shoot a non-metallic finish. Metal flake can be very difficult if you don't use the right thinner in your formula. A good example of this would be the appearance of tiger strips in the finish. The actual metal flakes need time to lay down and if the paint dries to fast or to slow the finish is ruined. Oh, and as a side note, this topic started based on orange peel. Orange peel, at least in auto paint, is a sign of a perfect paint job with no dirt or imperfections in the finish. If you look at a new car closely you will see orange peel because the factory has spent a lot of time and effort to optimize the conditions under which they apply paint. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Automotive paints are a mixture of ingredients including resins, binders, fillers, additives, and carrying agents (typically solvents, sometimes water). Clear coat paint is simply paint, or resin without pigment. Non-clear coat paints (also called single-stage paint) is paint (or resin) with pigment added to give the paint color.

Additives are specialized chemicals that are often used to provide a specific characteristic to the paint, depending on the application. An example would be a Flex Agent. Flex Agents are used in paints that are applied to flexible components, such as flexible urethane bumpers, to help the paint resist cracking when the urethane bumper flexes. UV inhibitors are another clear coat additive that helps prevent the sun's ultra violet rays from fading the color coat under the clear coat.

Today, approximately 95% of all cars, trucks, and S.U.V.'s coming out of the factory have a clear coat finish.

Clear coat finishes (also referred to as two-stage paint systems) are simply a layer of clear resin applied over the top of colored resin. Although a clear coat does protect the base coat, just like a single-stage finish, the clear coat needs to be regularly maintained to keep it in top shape.

Contrary to what you may have heard clear coat finishes do need to be waxed periodically to maintain their appearance value. Don't buy into the false information that clear coat paints are paints that require no maintenance, this is simply not true. Simply look at any car with a clear coat finish that has been neglected and compare it to a car with a clear coat finish that has been recently detailed and your eyes, as well as your common sense, will tell you that clear coats look better when maintained, and accordingly will last longer when maintained.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

This is interesting ;Quote


Here are all the custom colors, their original paint type (remember, Duco is nitrocellulose, Lucite is acrylic), the years Fender used them, and what cars they originated. The "Car Year" column represents the years this color was available for the Car Make listed. Note some colors were also used on other makes within the same manufacturer, but with different names and for different years. These colors will have the same paint number, but a different paint name. See the individual color descriptions for a list of these paint names. Also note all metallic colors, except Candy Apple Red, are single-step metallic colors. That is, the actual color and the metallic particles are contained together in a single paint. This minimizes the application steps.




Fender's Original Custom Colors Color Paint
Type Paint
Number Fender
Years Car
Years Car
Make
Lake Placid Blue metallic Lucite 2876-L 60-73 58 Cadillac
Daphne Blue Duco 2804 60-65 58 Cadillac
Shoreline Gold metallic Lucite 2935-L 60-65 59-60 Pontiac
Olympic White Lucite 2818-L 60-80 58-62 Cadillac
Burgundy Mist metallic Lucite 2936-L 60-65 59 Oldsmobile
Inca Silver metallic Lucite 2436-L 60-65 57-59 Chevy Corvette
Fiesta Red Duco 2219-H 60-69 56 Ford Tbird
Dakota Red Duco 2590-H 60-69 58 Cadillac
Blue Ice metallic Lucite 4692L 65-69 65-66 Ford
Firemist Silver metallic Lucite 4576L 65-71 64 Cadillac
Firemist Gold metallic Lucite 4579L 65-71 64-65 Cadillac
Charcoal Frost metallic Lucite 4618L 65-69 65-66 Lincoln
Ocean Turquoise metallic Lucite 4607L 65-71 65 Mercury
Teal Green metallic Lucite 4297L 65-69 65-68 Lincoln
Black Duco 1711 60-84 all yrs all makes
Sonic Blue Duco 2295 60-72 56 Cadillac
Shell Pink Duco 2371 60-63 56 Desoto
Foam Green Duco 2253 60-69 56 Buick
Surf Green Duco 2461 60-65 57 Chevy
Sherwood Green metallic Duco 2526-H 60-65 57 Mercury
Candy Apple Red n/a none 63-73 n/a n/a

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Right on the money. You should see the paint locker full of additives and other chemicals I have here. Interesting that you mentioned water. The newest and best way to apply color coats is a water based system that gives a better color match and is more environmentally friendly.

HA! Excellent - a man after my own heart. Please spread the word on water based finishes!

Cheers - C

The only downside is that the clearcoat is still solvent based. The chemical engineers have not figured out how to change that yet.

is this still true? I thought i heard that there are a couple water based clears on the market now. In fact i have heard of some European luthiers that use water based finishes completely. But i have no first hand info. it's nice to have some folks attached to the paint industry to ask this stuff!

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

That may be true for the materials they use but so far for the urethane finishes that we use it's base/color only.