The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Windsor Blue Acrylic Enamel Paint

Sirs and/or Madams: My '52 Chevrolet 'Burb is to be done using light blue acrylic enamel paint to match factory color offered back in the day. My painter needs reducer, thinner, and hardening chemicals too, except Carter's doesn't carry these items. I'll just use my Advance Auto Parts/CARQUEST Store. Please, I have some questions that need to be answered: 1) Does it need to be same brand name as the paint? 2) Besides paint thinner, which is intuitive, what exactly do the other items do? and 3) Is acrylic enamel automotive paint going to be labor intensive to work with? V/r, Nick Cavallaro, Bel Air, MD

Hello, Nick,

Is "Carter's" Jim Carter Truck Parts?

What paint line does your painter like to use?

Does your painter buy paint locally, or does he/she get it shipped (from whom)?

I think it is recommended to use same-vendor products, if possible.

I like PPG products, but other people like other product lines.

Jim Carter sometimes uses Dupont Centari. I bought paint from him once, many years ago, and stopped buying from him because back then he would not indicate the paint line.

Nick, Find an automotive supply house and talk with them about what they would suggest. I could give you part numbers and my process for applying them, but it wouldn't help if you can't get the products....

If you are interested in my process it is as follows.

-Bare metal
-Rust repair/metal work
-DP40LF Epoxy primer
-All body work. Evercoat body filler
-Evercoat Slick Sand ( cheaper than K38. A sprayable body filler almost)
-Block with 80 touch up body work
-PPG K38 Block with 220 dry fill minor imperfections with body filler
-PPG K38 Block with 320 wet
-Wet sand with 500
-DP40LF Epoxy reduced with DT870
-PPG DBC base coat
-PPG 2002 clear with DFX11 hardener and reduced with DT 885

I have been spraying PPG product for 30 years and they do work well if you follow there procedures.

Hopefully your painted knows of what products to use. If he doesn't, do you know a painter that knows the automotive products that can do the work for you?

Windsor Blue 1947-1952 Chevrolet Truck (234H color code)

PPG/Ditzler: 10418
Dupont: 93-63225

to answer your questions, 1. You should use the same brand of thinner and hardener as the paint. Not just brand (Dupont, PPG, R-M, etc) but also for the same paint type. Urethane, Acrylic Enamel, etc...

2. Reducer for the most part is another name for thinner. Hardener is not required but recommended for acrylic enamel, required for most urethanes though. It helps the paint dry (chemical reaction) as well as helps it cure harder.

3. Acrylic enamel is not bad if you are use to painting it, anything can be difficult if you are use to something different!

Check with your painter, some painters are use to a certain brand and type of paint, not all are created equal!

Sirs: Yes, Carter's is Jim; Painter uses products locally and likes to use one state Urethane but agreed on acrylic because it's less expensive; don't know exactly what manufacturer Carter's is using; and bottom line, I am willing to use Carter's simply because it is the exact color from when my '52 'Burb rolled off the Tarrytown, New York assembly line. I appreciate you'all giving me answers to my questions. Thanks Tim and 69Cuda. V/r, Nick Cavallaro, Bel Air, Maryland

Thanks Tim, Randy, and 69Cuda. V/r, Nick Cavallaro, Bel Air, Maryland

Nick,

If you want to use Acrylic enamel and you want to use PPG, the PPG Color Library phone number is in the Tech Tip. Try calling them to see if they have a code/formula/offset for Windsor Blue.

I am not a painter but a few friends are. We use PPG DCC two-part single state urethane and buff it out - we do not use Base Coat/Clear Coat on our old trucks. The DCC is quite hard and should be buffed the day after painting or it might get very hard to buff.

We have also used PPG OMNI acrylic enamel with hardener and it buffed out very nicely, too.

If you do not have a local paint seller, some people have reported good service from TCP Global.

Nick, A search through my system shows an OEM code of 406 and a Brand code of 10418, as stated above. I use Jim Carter for my old truck needs. I do not use them for my painting needs. It is not what they do. Not trying to rag on them. They have good customer service and the parts are of decent quality. My business does 3-4 full restorations a year and we will probably buy 1000 gallons of paint this year...

Find yourself a good supply house that recognizes these paint codes and have them sell you the complete package. Things go wrong and you want to minimize things going wrong as much as you can. Mixing paint manufactures products is a quick road to disaster that could lead to you scraping everything down to bare metal after final paint if you catalyze something wrong, to much or not enough. The overall cost of the paint product should be less than 10% of the total project cost. Why would you try to save a few percent on something as important as paint?

Nick, the color is important, while the brand of paint is least important. The kind of paint is somewhat important because the technology in paint has changed significantly in the past 60 years. All the paint companies or stores that sell it can make your color.

Acrylic Enamel is more similar to aerosol paint...not exactly the same....just more similar. The new urethane coatings offer more color stability, longer shine, easier application (familiarity), better UV resistance and more. All of these features are available PLUS you can choose the brand. Tell folks whatever you want about the brand because nobody will be able to tell the difference.

There are two main kinds of automotive urethane; 1) single stage that has built in shine and 2) base coat / clear coat or (bc/cc) where the color is applied and then a shiny clear coat is applied on top. Both are widely used today so finding suppliers and painters I s very easy.

My recommendation is find a good shop and painter and worry less about the brand they use because a crappy paint job is your most important concern...in my opinion.

I've chosen to use PPG all the way thru. Can't see a great advantage to mix suppliers and could introduce more variables into an already complicated situation (complicated for me anyway). I'm still in the process so consider my comments as such.

Tim, on buffing it out, what is your buffing technique? I'm not looking forward to doing that. I plan on using the DCC product too.

Dennis

Dennis,

Here is an old post with our buffing/color-sanding "technique".

Here is an on-line write-up that might be listed in that thread.

Good luck.

Cool. Thanks Tim

Dennis

Sirs/Madams, The Windsor Blue Acrylic Enamel is made by PPG Commercial Coatings Inc.,Strongsville, OH. 10418 (thanks Tim) is the PPG # and I will confirm when I see the 3 gallons I bought from Carter's at the painter's shop when I make my next visit mid-Apr. I appreciate everyone whom opined. V/r, Nick Cavallaro, Bel Air, MD