I used to hate waterborne paint until I tried it on a classic car last month

Been spraying solvent forever and figured waterborne was just for the big shops with expensive booths. But a customer dropped off a '68 Mustang and insisted on it, and the color match on that old Ford candy apple red was dead nuts perfect. Has anyone else had luck with waterborne on older paint codes?

2 comments

2 Comments

clark.joel26d ago

Well I'll be darned, that's really something. I read a piece in one of the old car magazines a few months back about a guy restoring a '57 Chevy who had the same experience. He said the waterborne paint laid down so smooth on that old lacquer-based red that he barely had to cut and buff it. It makes sense to me if you think about it, those older single-stage paints had a lot of metal flake and the waterborne stuff seems to really suspend the pigment evenly. I always figured waterborne was just for the EPA crowd, but if the color match is that good maybe the old dogs can learn a new trick. I might have to give it a shot on my next project, a '72 C10 with some tricky gold metallic paint.

jamiekim24d agoMost Upvoted

Funny thing is, my own paint booth looks like a crime scene after every job, so maybe the waterborne stuff would actually be an improvement. @clark.joel, that C10 gold sounds like a nightmare, so if the pigment suspension really is that even, you might come out ahead of me on this one. Heck, if it lays down that smooth, I might just let the old spray gun gather dust and see if my neighbors stop complaining about the fumes.