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I have recently got into restoring some pumps. I did one Bennett 541 and used PPG Concept CLV which was pretty costly, but gave a great finish. I am doing 4 more pumps and am trying to match the colors (Texaco, Poly)The paint store suggested Dupont Chromabase. It's $96 a quart plus reducer, hardner and then the clear.
Any suggestions on less expensive paint that can be matched good to the colors that still gives a good finish? What are you guys using out there? I do live in California, so I hear some types have been banned.

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Tony. I use the Crossfire brand from NAPA in Basecoat Clearcoat with good success and you can get single stage urethane, as well as acrylic enamel and the all match. I use this on all my pumps and do not sand and buff. Clear with Catalyst is about $85.00 a gallon.
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On most pumps we use Omni, which is PPG's cheaper line. If we are going to paint a pump in signle stage (enamel, or urathane) we will either use omni mae (acrylic enamel) or omni mtk (enamel urathane) The mae is usually around 25 dollars a quart, depending on the color, and the mtk is usually about the same. The mae is really easy to spray, and you can get it to lay out nice. It will fade out over time. The mtk is very comparable to the concept line, which is a high solids single stage. This paint will cover better, and shine better. It will not fade out like the mae will.

Most pumps we do get a base/clear coat paint job. On pumps we will use omni mbc (base coat). You dont need to spend a ton of money on a base coat when doing pumps. The expensive paints are expensive because they have excellent color match for todays cars. For the most part, color coats are just that, color.

I would recommend using a decent clear coat. You can get cheap clear coats, but they will dry slow, polish hard, probably have an amber tint to them, and have poor UV protection for your paint. Clears have come along way in the last few years, and there are many out there that dry very fast and are easy to polish. We use a product here that is called USC it is made by US chemicals and costs around 100 dollars for the gallon of clear and the quart of catylist. The part numbers are usc50 & usc 52. I would stay away from Transtar clear. We have used the auto body master clear before and it works good too.

Ryan


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I use PPG Omni single stage urethane for most things. I've also found that if you're doing a pump that is a basic color, say "red" for Texaco or Frontier, Tractor Supply sells a series of single stage paints called "Valspar Restoration Series" that are for restoring antique tractors. The're about 12 bucks a quart. Reducer and Hardener are about 8 bucks each respectively and you'll have enough for probably 4-5 quarts of paint. It lays out pretty nice, dries quick and you can wet sand and buff easily. I did a Frontier pump with it and it worked very nicely.

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Long time collector now restoring my first pair of pumps. (Tok. 39's) I'm using Omni by PPG also. Used Omni etching primer over porcelain panels and getting ready to paint. I've got a couple MS 80s and a couple A38's to do next and they're all getting Omni also.

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I use O'Leary Paints TTM. Just like the tractor supply paint. It is a very cheap acrylic enamel used for industrial applications. It has a good shine and is only $25-$40/gallon (depends on color, off the shelf cheap, custom more expensive) The bad side is it never gets hard, fades easy, and God help you if you have to re-coat. I sprayed one of my pumps and a week later if I pushed on the paint it would leave a hand print. I ran the paint on one door. After sanding it out, I sprayed it again and the paint reacted with the old paint and orange peeled really bad. I tried painting the door 3 MORE TIMES with the same results.

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Great options. Thanks a bunch to everyone!

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Mike,

Are you sure there isn't supposed to be a hardener added to it? You could also just use the generic enamel hardener they sell at TSC. Even the cheapest enamel paint shouldn't let you leave hand prints after it dries.

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Mike, I too learned the hard way about 1 step acrylic enamels when I first started. The trick was that you have to add a small amount of proper thinner to the paint regardless of how thin it is to begin with. This acts as a release agent to let the paint cure out. Since then I've had very good results using acrylic 1 step enamels. If you're not a purist on absolutely perfect color matches, Massey-Ferguson red acrylic enamel works great for Texaco, Atlantic, & Mobil reds. Don't need hardener with this paint. Dries quickly, keeps nice shine, & rather inexpensive. Sam

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The funny thing is that I used to work at a sandblasting shop. I would blast trucks and then the boss would set up the paint and the guns then I would paint the trucks. They turned out great every time. If I am in my back yard spraying the pumps with paint and a gun that I set up it never dries right. I can't figure out if I am mixing it wrong or just putting too much on. I think that I may not be using enough thinner. I use a hardener which seems to help a bit, but it still never gets hard. I may have the gun set wrong. When I sprayed the door, my cheap Harbor Freight gun fell apart in my hand and dumped paint on the doors, and this is when I learned about re-coating with this stuff.

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Thinner or reducer will not help a paint dry, all it does is thin or reduce the paint. Most single stage paints are mixed with a drier in them that help cure them. Changing your gun settings is not going to help the paint dry, if you were putting it on too thick, it would drip all over the place. Change paint.
Hope this helps, Ryan


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I have been using Southern Polyurethanes epoxy primer and clear products.
I think they make the best epoxy primer out there.
Their clear is superb as well and it is compatible over any base or acrylic with a hardener.
Their prices are really good for premium quality products.
Southern Polyurethanes

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I have used dupont chromabase on all of mine with fantastic results. I do have to admit that I have never had to pay for my paint. That is one of the perks of being in the autobody industry.


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