Clear Coat

[Cleve]

Getting ready to buy some clear coat. The best clear coat is $900. The medium grade is $300. Is it worth it or necessary to buy the Best , or is the medium grade sufficient. We have Diamont paint and the Diamont clear coat is the Best. The medium coat is Duxone DX800.

[Jeff Kleiner]

Don’t skimp on the clear. I know nothing about Diamond or Duxone and spray PPG exclusively using either their high end Deltron DCU 2021 or Vibrance VC5700 clears. My price is about $800/gallon. They are both a high solid crystal clear that sprays well, cuts & buffs great and won’t die out…they look as good after 10+ years as they did on day 1. You usually can’t say that about the bargain clears.

Jeff

[Rsnake]

I am going to wade into this pool. I had a friend who sold automotive paint for Sherwin Williams. He said the only difference between the Sherwin Williams high end clear and the budget clear is the label. He said it was more cost effective to just relabel the clear to compete with the "budget clear" instead of coming up with a new formula.
I have used Summit racing clear at a little of $100 per gallon and just used Amazon Acme Finish one at $90 per gallon. Both brands look great and everyone loves the paint job.

[cob427sc]

I have used the Summit paint and clear coat on numerous cars, some now more than 10 years old and it has held up well. For the cost and ease of application (paint and clear) it seems to be a reasonable choice. I have used PPG on some cars - I'm not a professional by any means - and I don't think the cost difference is justified unless maybe on a pure show vehicle. If you are driving on the street you are going to get chips, scratches, etc. which require repair. I usually spray 5-6 coats of clear over the color. PPG has the ability to get you nearly any color you want while the Summit colors are limited. Obviously someone makes the paint for summit - could be PPG, S-W or maybe some little shop in China.

[rich grsc]

I don't paint, but I have experience with clear coat performance. Jeff painted my car, and the clear he used was amazing. 7 years and VERY few chips, no scratches, it was hard as nails. When I had my accident and decided to sand the body back to primer for a complete repaint, it was a bear to sand off, used 40 & 60 grit on a random orbit sander. In fact I called him and asked what the hell he used as I couldn't get it off. As compared to a friend who had a local painter do his car, and on the very first road trip he had a dozen rock chips on the nose of his car. His clear was very soft and damaged easy. So, go cheap for a great looking paint job when it rolls out the booth, but a year latter looks like cr-p, or get the right clear and pay more the first time, so 10 years latter it's still looks great.

[canuck1]

Paint is expensive. My first paint job looked great when I took delivery, but within 6 months my wife asked me why the stripes at the back of the car looked slightly more off-white than the ones at the front of the car? Painter described it as some kind of failure of the clearcoat. Painter was good for it but I travelled a LONG way for a warranty fix. All I'm trying to say is you don't want to take the chance when you've got so much invested already. Use a well known brand, high quality product that's recommended by qualified experts and don't ask how much it costs.

Sean