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I'm far from being ready for paint, but I've got it on my mind. I haven't painted anything bigger than a motorcycle in a very long time and plan to paint my truck when I'm ready. Gonna shoot single color non-metallic acrylic enamel, 3 coats. How much paint do I need to order to do the exterior, interior of the cab and interior of the bed?

Two gallons will do it. If painting red or yellow use the "buff" colored primer. Then those colors will cover better. Go to "paintforcars.com" for some good prices on acryillic enamal.

Cool thanks! You got a `59 Panhead?

Why not use 2K urethane, harder and more durable than 2K acrylic enamel. Urethane is the newer technology.

I might, haven't decided and it's a ways off. I was mainly infering that I wasn't planning on a base coat/clear coat paint job.

I am painting my '52 with single stage Nason (Dupont) 2K urethane (aka Ful-Thane). Nason also makes a 2k single stage acrylic enamel (aka Ful-Cryl). I have used both and both are easy to spray. The Urethane is a harder and thus more durable paint over acrylic enamel. Both can be sprayed over urethane primer or lacquer primer.

Denny, that seems odd that TCP is calling the paint Polyurethane acrylic enamel. The convention is either urethane or acrylic enamel. Sort of makes me believe the TCP product is really a urethane paint, but not certain.

I am just now getting back into painting since I am restoring the truck. Back in my younger years, I painted with non-catylized enamel and it seemed ok because that was all I knew. I recently had to do a repair to a trunk lid on an old BMW that I remember painting waaay back. The paint checked on the deck lid for some reason. Trying to sand the paint off was a dissaster as the paint just gummed up with the fiction heat. No way 2k paints now-a-days are doing that whether acrylic enamel or urethane. So, either one is fine, but conventional wisdom says urethane is more durable.

yes, PPG's terminology does seem odd .... acrylic paints are an acrylic suspension, water based single part [lacquer or enamel] .... urethane paints with polyurethane plastics require a 'catalyst' - solvent based

Bill

I'm trying to understand it Denny, odd that PPG calls that paint [DAR] plain Acrylic Enamel everywhere else, including the MSDS for it ... my understanding has been that acrylics are a 'single component' paint [air cure] and poyurethanes are 'two component', requiring a catalyst [chemical cure] - wrong?

water based doesn't just mean latex paint, and "lacquer" ain't yer daddys shellac anymore using alcohol thinner - PPG acrylic lacquer .... that's why I'm curious, it appears terms are getting fuzzy nowadays as formulations get more complex - or maybe it's just part of their marketing dazzle

Bill

I am working on my 46 truck. My paint guy explained it to me this way - Acrylic Enamel is like asphalt and urethane is like cement harder and more durable. Both enamel and urethane are available with catylist. Mine body color is a single stage urethane catylist product. What I discovered is the urethane is much harder to apply without runs. You have apply lighter coats and wait a few minutes between them. I sprayed my engine with acrylic enamel. It was so much eaiser. The best product now is the epoxy primer. You can sandblast or strip the metal then epoxy primer the metal then do the body work. This is great for those of us doing this in your spare time. To get the urethane to really shine and look like glass you have to wet sand and buff it . It looks great when you do.

Acrylic enamel and single stage urethane both use hardener.
all of your enamels and acrylic laquer are all considered solvent solvent based paints.
There are cheaper enamels that do not use hardener, thse are what you would call "straight enamel". Not the best paint to use on your car or truck in my opinion.
base/clear or singlestage urethane is the way to go. If you go with enamel, acrylic enamel is it. Either Dupont's Centari or PPG's Delstar. They both lay down nice and are fairly durable.

I like single stage urethane compared to acrylic enamel, it is more durable, lays down nice, and just sprays better. its the same as spraying urethane clear. it uses the same hardener & reducer.
If you use the correct hardener & reducer for the temperature, you dont have to wetsand & buff it, unless if you have dust nibs in it or you are looking for the show car shine.

Pretty much spot on. I will say that you need to allow any paint to "flash" between coats or you might end up with die back as the solvent eventually escapes and the paint shrinks back. Read the can for the amount of time required to let the solvent flash off between coats. Doing so will greatly reduce the chances of having runs.

I pretty much spray 3 coats: light, medium, and full wet. The full wet coat is where you run into run problems but it also is what reduces orange peel (IMHO)