Paint recomendations

Hi,

Yes, paint has changed greatly since our cars were built. The original paint was acrylic enamel. The old acrylic enamels had lead and other heavy metals that gave them their durability. Today's newer acrylic enamels are no where near as good if you can find them. For a solid color single stage urethanes are a good way to go and save the extra step of clear coating. Although clear coating a single stage will give you a very chip resistant paint job.

Base/clear coat is the most popular system today. The base coat is very soft and depends on the clear coat for shine, UV resistance and durability. To further confuse matters in paint choices there are lower line , mid line and high quality upper line paints available from many makers. Back when our cars were built it was pretty much Dupont and Ditzler (PPG). I would suggest using the highest quality paint your budget will allow. A good paint job requires a lot of prep work and it doesn't make sense to me to do all that work and use the cheapest paint you can find. You will likely get many recommendations on paint. brands. It all depends on how much your willing to spend on paint and what your goals are for the finished paint job. Do you want it to look good for a few years, will it be mostly stored in a garage or will it be outdoors all the time and you want it to look good 15 years down the road?

By the way , I don't know of any majors who private label their first line paints.