Water-based Basecoat is mainly used these days and the polyester type basecoat is still available for some types of vehicle. Basecoat needs to be mixed with thinners before spraying and is reasonably easy to apply providing you get good overlap on your spray passes. It is not only available in metallic and pearl/mica colours but also in straight/flat colours (i.e. red, blue, yellow, etc.).
Basecoat paint looks wet and glossy when applied and will dry to a matt finish.
Tips:
The Number of Coats required depends on whether you have spot primed the damaged area or fully primed the panel, if you have a lot of pearl pigment in your paint, or the paint is an ink colour. Some colours are more opaque than others and will need fewer coats. On average you will spray one light coat, which acts as an adhesion layer, followed by two full coats; but can be up to 5 coats especially with colours that contain a lot of pearl pigment and ink colours which are more translucent.
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