I am new to this whole auto body thing and fou d out my craftsman compressor is not big enough for really anything. I am looking at 2 IR comprossors. One is a 60 gallon single stage and the other is an 80 gallon dual stage. Is there a benefit to a dual stage?

Dual stage
http://www.ingersollrandproducts.com/en ... ts4n5.html

Single stage compressor
http://www.ingersollrandcompressedair.c ... _p_14.html

Brandon

Brandon, welcome....and yes, compressor shopping is pretty confusing. First, let me say either one of those compressors is fine for doing what we do. There is also a lot of controversy about this very subject, though. This is just an opinion, but is based on using the same large 2 stage shop compressor for 25 years in our wood shop. We got over 35,000 hours out of it before it required a major rebuild. I've had buddies at some other shops that got as little as 3000 hours out of single stage units but with one guy that I know that did get over 15,000 hours on his single stage. Don't know what you plan on doing but you would find a two stage to usually work a little "easier" as the first stage only pumps the air up to 70 psi, then the air is cooled through an intercooler pipe, and finally into the second stage to bring final pressure up to 175 psi. A single stage can only bring pressure up to 150 psi along with the latent heat that it develops at that one shot of compression. Soooo....the two stage should run/cycle less and develop less water in the tank as the compressed air temp.s should be lower. Lower air temps. in the tank mean less moisture to deal with in your lines as well. Our shop two stage can run 12 hours with maybe only putting out a quart of water in the tank. Cycling less also should mean less electricity use. Most (not all) are quieter than the single stages.
Since I am assuming you are just going into this as a hobby really either model would work. Usually, if you really shop around you'll find that most of the two stage units are not that much more in price.

Darrel has good information, and you can also turn the final air pressure setting down to the maximum pressure that you will need, for less wear and tear on the compressor, less heat, and less moisture. Personally, I don't need pressure any higher than 120 pounds. But you do still need the higher CFM of the bigger compressors.
Not sure if all compressors can be turned down.

Yeah, I didn't really get into the actual system set up but line pressures (as Chevman is pointing out) are generally in the 80 to 90 pound area for most of the tools and stuff we run. My 2 stage is adjustable for kick-in (we set that at about 115 psi) and kick-out (150 psi for us). We control the overall line pressure after the compressor tank just before it hits the stainless steel isolator hose and our air to air aftercooler.

The single stage puts out more CFM.
That's the bottom line.
And lower pressure means less heat.