Caveat: I painted a classic Corvette and this was part of the "candy" system.
Okay, the missing link is that this covers about nothing when you're using it. You really need to buy about 10 to even 20 times what they recommend for coverage.
I went through a personal trial by fire with this product. I wanted a really great paint job for a classic Corvette. This was a totally down to bare earth, frame-off, resto-mod where the paint job had to be borderline perfect. I wanted something that would really demonstrate the classy lines of the Stingray body style and look smokin' hot whether at a distance or millimeters away.
This really is a good product. Unfortunately, I can't honestly recommend it for anybody but the most astute paint "guy" (I know there are some gals out there you can whip any guy in paint).
First, by the time you add up all of the individual quarts of primer, base, color and clear, you could easily buy gallons from a paint store. And, it takes a LOT. I don't mean a LOT..lot. A really lot lot lot. I must have bought every single quart in the south to try to get the job done.
Let me tell you that the folks at Amazon are just fantastic. I had an abbreviated "personal hell" when it came to ordering and actually receiving the paint. Since I was buying it like I had nothing better to do, I was ordering it from several different vendors, Amazon being just one of many. I literally bought at least 30 cans (not all the base, doh!) from the local Advance Auto. I ordered several quarts from Summit and probably a dozen or more from Jegs. It got to the point where I was ordering it from anybody who could get it to me. At least 5 shipments (through UPS) were indicated as "destroyed in transit" or some such thing. The Amazon team were absolutely fantastic in rectifying it to the best of their abilities, but when you're painting a car, you need the paint NOW. And when you're shooting lacquer, you really need it well before you actually need it...if that makes sense at all!
So, I'd never go down this path again. Roughly 9 million quarts later, I ended up with a Corvette that looks a cherry Popsicle and is at least a mile and a half deep. My budget wasn't even approximately what I'd planned for it. I don't even remember the last time that $200 or $300 was a consideration for what "more" I had to spend to get just that much closer to the finish line. Seriously, I would *never* go down this road again. If you're dying for pain and excruciating torture, hey, we've got a product just for you!
Don't get me wrong. It looks absolutely fantastic. You really just have to buy and buy and buy and buy and did I say buy? Please. Go to the paint store. Buy gallons. If you're doing lacquer you already know that you're in for some work.
As a note, I sent a few emails to the Duplicolor folks. And, they responded. One message told me to get like 5 quarts for the base and another 2 or 3 for the color...as if I'd be done in under 10,000 quarts or so...yeah. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Not counting screw-ups and waste and miscellaneous wannabe attempts at "seeing how it will look," I probably (I don't really want to know) bought at least 20 quarts of each part a minimum of twice and likely three times.
Am I happy with the result? It came out smokin' hot. The 'vette looks like it should be eaten. Plastic fruit doesn't look this good. Would I rather spend about a bazillion fewer dollars with a urethane-based product? Uh...yeah...'specially if I don't have to do another damn thing to it.
Short answer: The paint is great. Strain it. Shoot it. Keep shooting it. The fiberglass Corvette drank it like cheap wine on a really hot date. Would a metal car mean less paint? I can't say. All I know is that if there was a local store within about 50 miles, I was up in their stuff getting yet another quart of the stuff like a crack ho...between orders from everyone who sold it online for "serious volume." Seriously guys (and paint gals), buy from a real paint store whatever you need and get the DuPont so that you're actually spending time painting and not chasing. If you *really* want to do this, imagine whatever money you have in your pocket leaving immediately. It does come out frickin' great, but you will pay the piper and guess what, he's charging quadruple this week...
The Amazon team are absolutely fantastic and helped me get more quarts to finish the job. They worked closely with me when the shipments were "destroyed" in-transit, which only happened like 5 times with several vendors...maybe the "UPS guy" is painting his car and figured out how many quarts it really takes?
Last word? Don't even consider this if you're on any kind of budget where the final dollar amount has any sort of meaning whatsoever...particularly if you were led to believe that you can do your car with something like 20 (or fewer) quarts of the total set of products. If you happen to get through it with fewer than 20 quarts of each product, consider yourself lucky. I probably shot 40 coats of the Candy Apple Red before it was "right."
Just to let you know, after 12 coats of the base, this stuff looked really good and you could almost see yourself driving around in a really slick, silver 'vette if only you put a clear coat on this stuff! Seriously, if you want a killer silver, this is it. Everybody I talked to thought that the 'vette looked fantastic in the base coat.
DiTeacha
Rob Wehrli