what is the best paint

Comparing to paints from the 72 time frame Acrylic Urethanes spray as easy as a lacquer and have the gloss out of the gun that is better than an enamel. Base / Clear is definately the way to go if you decide on a metallic color but for a solid color like Petty Blue a single stage is fine. My car was orginally painted with base / clear Sub-Lime and since i have done some spot repairs with single stage since then and you can't tell where the repairs were made. So if you go Petty Blue or your son's choice of Competition Orange you are not going to give away anything by not going base / clear.

I normally use Dupont products because I can get them a couple of miles from the house. In the Acrylic Urethanes their premium line is Chroma and their second tier products carry the Nason name. In most cases the Nason line will be 1/2 the cost of the Chroma.

Imron is an epoxy paint Dupont developed for aircraft usage. It is much more durable, is less forgiving to use, costs even more than the Acrylic Urethanes and has the highest potential health hazard of all the paints used in automotive applications.