I've seen two labels for basecoat.

One is just sold as basecoat. The other is 'ready to spray'

what's the difference exactly?

I bought a gallon of base from ebay, labeled online as simply urethane basecoat.

but when I received the paint, the receipt showed 'ready to spray'

the paint doesn't seem extra watery. So i'm wondering what's the difference between basecoat and RTS basecoat.

the metallic silver paint is definitely too viscous, so it's not ready to spray for me.

this is my first auto paint purchase, so i have nothing to compare to

Basically, i have got two cans of HOK brandywine Kandy and everywhere i have seen it says i need to use the specific HOK hardener and reducer, however i am not sure what the difference is with off the shelf stuff? I would invest in it if it actually creates a huge difference, however i am not sure. Mostly because a liter of generic reducer is $30 and HOK is $140.

I'm looking into getting prescription glasses and I'd really like to keep from breaking them completely while I'm at work. I don't mind if the frames get scuffed and I'll be getting scratch resistant lenses, for those in the field, what do you recommend I look for? I have a square style face so rectangular, aviators, and similar styles are in my range, thanks in advance!

1995 Pontiac Grand Prix. Just had a junkyard motor put in it. Trailing Arm mounts are rotten, and I was wondering if I could grind all of the rust out and use heavy duty rivets and maybe some big bolts with a nut on the top and put it through the floor to hold it in place. Floor is solid, but the little support "box" that the trailing arm is bolted into is all rotted out. Just need to drive this car for another year or so before I can afford a new car. I have all of the steel and also a rivet gun so it wouldnt cost anything...

(rest of the car is rust free, its just the design of the TA mount is a trap for salt)

I'm looking for a product to help me preserve a bit longer my old van. Any suggestions?

This is my first time looking into repairing paint. My driveway is rough and my car bottomed out going up it one night. The scrapes are not deep into the body of the bumper. I have the aerosol paint code available at my parts store. Any tips are appreciated.

So I've been working at a shop since last July. Friend got me in as his apprentice. Things were good for a while. He was rolling in the dough. I felt like I was learning some stuff. Fast forward to today, our friendship has gone to hell. He wouldn't let me get a $1 raise when I told him I was struggling. I went in at 6am and gave it 100 everyday. He'd take off for the gym for 2 hours a day and leave me there working. Nitpick everything I do, how I mix my filler(I don't stir it like him or that I use the whole board to mix it), how I spread my filler, stupid shit. On top of that I feel like he's been leading me down the wrong path. Panels that other people are replacing he's just hammering out a lil, slapping duraglass and bondo on it, and sending it.

Worst was a roof of a on a truck that came in. Tree came down on the roof of a newer Silverado. Shop ordered a skin. He opted throw 2 gallons of filler at it instead. Probably spent a week on that roof that could have been changed out in less than a day after I had the headliner and interior out. He'd get pissed that I couldn't get say a door or quarter straight that other techs in the shop admit they wouldn't be able to get straight either and would just replace. "You should be able to do this by now!"

Anyways Friday we got into it and I decided I was tired of his shit. Told the manager I couldn't work with him anymore. Bout 30 minutes later I'm touring another shop in the area. Went back the next day and spent 2 hours with this new guy I'm gonna be working with. I'm wondering how I should approach this new opportunity? I'm sure I have learned a bunch of bad habits from this other guy. Should I just basically forget everything I was taught by this other guy and tell the new guy to pretend I know nothing? I'm a bit nervous as my supposed friend made me feel like I never did anything right when other techs in the shop would tell me I was doing good. I guess I have a little PTSD. What should I do?

Not very familiar with cars at all but looking to buy this bmw. Paint doesn’t looks great and was wondering if any of y’all could diagnose

I recently purchased a 2018 Prius Prime. The salesman couldn’t remove one of the two license plate screws. Unknowingly to me he nonchalantly drilled a hole into the bottom portion of the rear trunk lid and put in a large self tapping screw!!!

The 4th Gen Prius (2016 - 2022) only have two upper license plate screw inserts. AFAIK the rear deck lid is made of carbon fibre or a composite material. I now have two problems a stuck bolt and a hole in my deck lid where Toyota never intended there to be one.

What is the proper repair procedure to fix the hole in the trunk lid? I don’t intend to do it myself but just want a general knowledge so the dealership doesn’t tell me they can put some bondo in there and a touch of paint and be done.

Edit: A few knowledge people on the r/Prius sub have all suggested the part should be replaced and not repaired. They’ve also suggested I contact Toyota Canada to back up this claim.

do i stuff a bunch of cotton swab sticks under the glass gasket, or do you guys use something proper?

I need to get paint under the gasket so it doesn't peel later

What causes this in the first place? it just happened on one side.. the driver side didn’t crack. The only other thing I can think of is this side would get parked in the sun more. What would the options be for fixing this? It was painted with 1k paint and clear from rattle cans 🥲 it’s a 20yo work truck guys

So my van has had rust since I got it, I’ve already sanded it down and painted over it with rustoleum oil based paint twice now. While I was away the rust all came back. I sanded it down tonight to do this whole process over again for the third time, and the hole that was there before only got bigger. I’m wondering what I can do, if anything, to stop this rust from spreading to the rest of my van.

Someone recommend using bondo with possibly some fiberglass cloth to bridge the gap in the metal and give it something to stick to. Then paint over it. The other option of course is to pay a local shop to weld more metal onto this spot, but the rust will inevitably just come back right?

I’m just not sure what to do at this point, but I don’t want to give up and let the rust eat my entire car up. Any insight is appreciated.

I finally decided to create an account for sharing pictures of my projects so I expect to be posting here when I have anything interesting to show ya. I hope that's okay!

Here's a bit about my journey to painting and how I ended up learning on classic cars: I took a 2 month course on refinishing in 2022, tried to power through the rest of the repair classes but I wanted to get to painting/working so I started applying places. I applied to everywhere with 4+ stars on Google in a 50 mile radius if my house and the only place that gave me a call back and a job was a restomod shop. I've been working here since early 2023 and painting occasionally for probably a year now but I'm finally getting to the place where I can do things alone. Pretty high stakes when I have to learn on such precious vehicles but I'm a perfectionist so I'll always make it right eventually. Sorry for all of the info that probably wasn't needed, I'll be briefer in the future. Let me know if you have any questions!

Hi guys, I'm in the planning stages of a custom paint job on bike frame. I'd like to have both matte and gloss elements. Would I be ok to do the finishing with 2k gloss, and use a high grit wet/dry sandpaper to knock off the shine for the matte parts, or should I use a gloss coat and a matte coat?

Many thanks.

Hey bois, hope you all doing well with filler in your lungs.

I’m an apprentice looking to invest in a good DA sander that would last for years. Right now I block everything, so I don’t know what size would fit the job, and I need your opinion what would be used most of the time. I have a hand me down orbital sander I use mostly for feather edging only. I want something that I can control the speed to smoothen the body work for primer.

Preferably pneumatic, no dust extractor yet.