Auto body repair & detailing: PAINT/ CLEAR COAT, ppg paint, framing hammer

Question
Hello Gary,
I don't know if this is a question you can answer or not, but I hope you can.

I purchased a vehicle with a damaged front end and other minor damage. It is ready foe paint. My body guy doesn't have a paint booth. I found a guy that will paint it for me. I purchased PPG paint and Transtar clear coat on my body guys advice cause I wanted a quality paint. The paint guy says that Transtar is no good and will not last and that I will need to buff it to make it shine every 6 months. He said he uses RM Crystal glass and will include that in the spray price. Says it a much better clear coat. Are you familiar with either clear coat ? Any suggestions which way I should go ? Also the body guy wants his buddy to paint it but the booth is cheap,heated with a propane heater and the paint guy has a booth he said cost 200k downdraft/bake booth.

Any recommendation would be appreciated.

Thanks

Answer
Hi Mike,

I am familiar with Transtar clear. In my opinion, do not use it! I have had nothing but bad experiences with it. My recommendation for a good finish would be to use a complete system all the way through. This will minimize the margin of error dramatically. You started well by choosing to buy PPG paints. Now follow through and go back to where you got the paint and get some PPG clear and the necessary components to go with it and do the job right.

As for the paint booth, I recommend using the guy that has the bake booth simply because he has more invested. So, chances are he or somebody in that shop has to know what they are doing. If I go out and buy a framing hammer and a nail pouch at the price of $9.95 and tell you I'll build you a house for $10 per hour and a general contractor is going to charge you $70 per hour who do you think will build you the better house? There is no 100% guarantee that the contractor is the better builder, but just with the amount of money he has invested in his business gives some clues as to who is more experienced. Just some food for thought.