Thanks for all the replies. My thought, knowing nothing about automotive paint, was that a decent single stage paint might be more cost effective, less labor intensive than base/clear. Secondarily, it might yield a more factory correct look.

But from what I'm gathering from you all here, neither is that simple it appears.

I'll just have to talk it over with my body guy, when I find one, see what he's comfortable with and go from there.

About 15-years ago I had the old school guy at the local PPG store call the color library and mix me up a pint of PPG Delstar Acrylic Enamel. They gave me the formula code list and said we'ed be good to go when I need to buy the rest. No problems. I wanted to shoot a test panel at the time and see how the color looked new and unfaded. Fast forward to now. The old guy is gone. The old store is gone. Now when I go to the new store with the new people and show them the formula code list I was given, they look at me like deer in the headlights. Tell me the best thing to do is bring in a sample so they can match it with their machine... I don't understand this paint stuff