i'm going to start preparing my chevelle for a seriously hi-gloss black paint job..can you guys give me your opinions on what brand and shade of black would be the deepest color and highest gloss with a basecoat/clearcoat system? i'm looking to obtain the most exremely beautiful finish i can get!has anyone experimented with black pearls or black golds? i know very little about automotive paints but i want to have a finished product that will be so beautiful it will make your eyes bleed! :eek:

Basecoat/clearcoat systems give you the best ability to correct imperfections by sanding the clear and buffing. I think you would be better off with this paint type for that reason alone.

I painted a black with metalflake in it about 20 years ago that really looked nice, you can probably get it with either silver or gold metalflake.

You mentioned Base/clear but the most buitiful black cars are usually single stage urethane.
None of them are actually black, the paint makers had to stop using charcoal in thier formulas, so it is actually just really really dark red, green, or blue. It isn't that the s/s has a more black pigment but it will look deeper.
For a killer black paint job I would go with a single stage urethane(tuxedo black) and shoot a couple coats of clear over it
The most impressive cars are black with a deep almost wet looking paint job with flawless body lines and impecably striaght.Just classy lookin. Not to say pearls arent cool, hell I have a pearl otne on my white stripes and I think it looks perfect but on a black car I dont think it will be as nice. Nice isnt really the right word because it will be nice it may not work as well is what I'M trying to say. The Black cars I like best are just Really Really Really clean super sttaight wet lookin black cars.
This is all just opinion you know, Everybody looks at a paint color a different way.

knownothing,would i need a special gun to shoot the urethane? nothing is definite right now although i was leaning towards the basecoat/clearcoat for simplicity.

eduardo69chevelle,thanks for the input! graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Bowtie,

Just so ya know, black is THE most difficult color to work with. It magnifies every little wave or imperfection ten fold. If you are experienced with body work and have some good looking paint jobs under your belt, go for it. Otherwise you may want to re-consider or find some help. I'd hate for you to spend a ton of time and money and be disappointed with the results.

Tom

For sure black it tough especially on a car with significant body work. Be sure to use a high build primer like the 2K urethane types and then plan on block sanding it to death and recoating it with more primer.

The last car I did was a red 69 convertible and I stripped it, applied 2 coats of etching primer, then 2 coats of 2K urethane surfacer. After that I blocked it starting with 180 on the body work then 220 over the whole car, fixed imperfections and gave it 2 more coats of 2K. The whole car was blocked again starting with 220.

If I was doing black I would probably plan on a 3rd time around the block (so to speak) because each time you will get it flatter and flatter. You may be really pleased with it until it is shiny black and small waves will be obvious.

thanks for the great advice everyone! :D

Am with Knownothing, you want a paint job that will "Make your eyes bleed" use a single stage urethane then topcoat with clear coat. Baseclear DOESNT have the depth that SS has and when you apply clear over SS it gets deeper. Park a baseclear black car next to a SS car, Ill tell ya which one is painted baseclear and SS.

Black is not the ONLY color where a SS will outperform a baseclear. My 70 that am working on now is going to be painted a SS yellow. Once applied allow a day or so for cure then wetsand with 1000 grit then topcoat with clear. Wetsand and buff the clear.

If you plan on using a metallic color or pearl then skip the SS and just use baseclear as its pretty tough to apply a metallic SS paintjob