paint now and 2 tone later?

[garyl24]

just curious so i thought i would ask. As soon as it starts to warm up i plan on painting my 86 cutlass. i have never painted before and want a 2 tone paint job. i got to thinking and now i am planning on painting it one solid color and plan on doing bc/cc. what is involved in making it a 2 tone paint job later? can i simply scuff up the lower half of the car and shoot the paint or do i need to remove the clear all the way to the basecoat? like i said the reason for doing this is because i have never painted before and figured it would be easier to start with a single color than 2 tone. thanks

 

[Ribbedroof]

You wouldn't need or WANT to remove all the clear. BUT, you'd need to scuff sand the whole car and do the second color, followed by clearing the whole thing. Basically, you're going to paint the car twice that way.

Basecoat is easy to work with, and flashes quickly, so taping it and doing the second color really isn't very much more work than doing a single color.

While theoretically you COULD do just the lower later, in reality, you'll have adhesion problems at the break. Plus, doing it all at once will let you bury the break under the clear for a nice smooth transition with no ridge.

Lots of people go nuts with the basecoat, thinking they're painting the car like we did with single-stage finishes. All you need is enough to cover (tinted sealer HIGHLY recommended), the film build will come with the clear.