Does anyone know how much paint it will take to paint an entire 1972 Ranchero stripped down to bare metal? I'm doing an epoxy primer then base coat, candy and clear. Thanks in advance.
I used single stage from Summit Racing. Needed 1 1/2 gallons for the color coat. Probably 2 gallons of primer. This did not include the bed(used a bed coating there(after the prime). This was on a '64
Depending on the transparency of your paint I would say 2 gallons of color. if you are doing the door and gate jambs, underhood and bed maybe a third gallon. We don't do complete repaints at my shop but some of the candy colors are really transparent. Find out how much the mazda red is before you commit. That one is EXPENSIVE. all of the tri-coats are expensive. I spend thousands each month on just paint.
Man, that Mazda red is beautiful. It just pops in the sun and you can pick them out a mile away. It looks like the old candy reds that had a gold base coat.
Thanks everyone. You've all been a huge help. Totally agree on that Mazda red being beautiful. I'm going with a deep red candy color. Like the color of red wine over a course silver metal flake. I am painting, jambs, engine bay and of course the body but not the under carriage and I'm going with a grey spray in bed liner for the box. I order a total of 3 gal base, 3 gallons candy and 3 gallons clear which should mix up as 4.5 gal base, 4.5 gal candy and 4 gal clear spra able. Total cost me about $3k CAD. That should be enough in case I make a mistake or two.
Before spraying stir all the cans very well and mix each 3 gallons of color and candy (a good clean 5 gallon bucket works ) then put them back into their original cans . Each of your three gallons will all be exactly the same color with each other . Paint store mixes can have a slight variation depending on how focused the person is mixing the colors. A small drop of one toner can really change a color..
Woah! For real? I never would have thought of this. One gallon is a year old as well so it was made many batches ago. How important is this step for my metallic base paint? Thanks for the tip!!
Use the old gallon for the jambs and underhood , hopefully it hasn't gone seedy. The other two should be enough for the base coat. Keep a motorcycle license plate size panel of the sprayed base color so you can match it if needed later, If your base color doesn't match your top color never will. There is a lot more to painting cars now than even ten years ago.
