I need to so some repainting, which I may do myself. The only paints availavle in my area are DuPont - which have low and High grades. And Martin Senour at NAPA. I realize that Glaserit. The other German paint Herbert Standox was bought out by Du Pont. I have been told that Glaserit has the hands down best and clearest clear coat available for restoration quality work.

G on the color code under the hood is for Glaserit and H was for Standox.
The best body shop in town here uses the NAPA Martin Senour.

Consumer Reports has no auto body paint ratings.

I am having a set of 126 rims bead blasted to paint as well. I will use the brightest silver available unless anyone has a color code number. They will be blasted, etching primered, base coated and clear coated as there is no one here who powder coats and people debate putting rims in an oven anyway.

Someone tell me what paint holds up the longest (clear coat too).

Willrev,

I have been painting cars, motorcycles, airplanes, etc. for about 30 years and have used Dupont for most of the work. I have used PPG and Glasurit occasionally when the customer demands it. My humble opinion is that the finished product of each brand is so very close in cosmetic quality that it is not worth spending an inordinate amount of time finding a particular brand. If there is a Glasurit jobber near you then I would use him, same with Dupont, and so forth.I did several cars 20 or so years ago (with Dupont) and they still look great, but they are also well cared for and garaged. The products in all companies have changed considerably since 20 years ago, hopefully for the better in longevity, but certainly in ease of use. An outside-air breathing apparatus is necessary for any of the catalytic type paints from any manufacturer, though.
If you want to really get into the details of painting, go to the forum at Autobodystore.com. The site is populated with knowledgeable, friendly people. (Just like here)

Tom

Willrev,
ytr1903 gave some good advice! I had my wifes car painted about a year ago. I asked a lot of questions and the advice I got was more of who and how well the prep work was done rather than the paint manufacturer. FWIW, my buddy's shop that did the work used an Akzo Nobel product and it came out great. Of course there are quite a few rock chips in the front of the car now as my wife likes to follow too closely to dump trucks and whatnot but that is hardly the paints fault. I saved money by doing all the disassembly work myself. Remove the bumpers, door handles, chrome, sunroof, wipers, locks, lights, etc. and you will make friends at the bodyshop. They would much rather spend their time sanding, filling, prepping and painting than doing that stuff. RT

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