Ok guys here is my 2 cents worth on paint. First, I am talking about our babies here. Budget paints have their place on an older commuter car that has seen better days, but not on any full on restoration.

I used to be a painter at a body shop, and have been around body shops and collision repair in some capacity or another as a professional for 30 years. With paint, much like anything else, you get about what you pay for. There is no way that I would spend 4k on a new engine and then put quaker state or bulk oil in it. Same thing with paint. All the work is in the prep. Why cover all that work with a budget line paint? There is a reason they are cheaper- fewer mixing colors mean poorer matches, lower solids mean more coats/time in the booth/ and materials on the car, and metallics are cheaper and not as sharp.

The best products for my money are PPG DBC base coat with PPG Global clear. DBC base system offers the best color match of any out there. True it may not matter when you are painting a car all over, but if you drive it at all it will need work again somewhere down the line. DBC line base covers better, so it means less coats, which means less material and less paint mileage, and less time in the booth (all good). Global clear is their highest level clear and was made to meet OEM specs for high end European imports. Glasurit and Sikkens are similar quality, but do not have the same color match capability and are harder to find.

I have sprayed Chromabase and Centari (dupont), Nason enamel, acrylic enamel, and base clear, Omni (PPG's budget line), Sikkens, Acme Probase, Western, Sherwin Williams (yes they do auto paint) and I can't remember what else. I would take the PPG DBC line and the Global clear over any of them. It will last longer

One exception. If I were painting a truck that was to be used as a truck and not a show car, I would use Dupont Imron 6000 base clear. Imron is what is used by heavy equipment manufacturers on semis, buses, airliners, etc. Something about Imron's chemical compounds makes it harden like no other paint and it has 10 times the scratch resistance of any other automotive paint I have used. You can spray this stuff and forget it. Left outside for 10 years with no care it will still look the same as when it was sprayed, assuming you just washed the car.

This is not meant in any way to offend anyone or come across as a know it all. Every painter has their own methods and preferred products. If you used something else that you are happy with, that is all that matters. Some of the differences in appearance between products would be difficult to discern for most, unless you had two cars side by side. Some other differences would only begin to show a couple of years after the paint job.

We are all car guys. Most of us know someone who works in a body shop. If you can get them to call in your paint order under the shop's name, and have them put it on a cash ticket, you can go pick it up pay cash and usually get a 30% or so discount off of the retail price. This makes high end not much more expensive than the retail price for the budget line stuff.

Hope this helps someone.