Hi I am a newbe please be gentle. I am a hobbyist restorer . I have painted a few cars in the past with great results . my new project is a 21 ft. travco RV fiberglass did the body work a primed in 2k gray. I am looking at paint base clear . it will be white with brown metallic stripe paint .manufacture requires black sealer for brown .white for white .can I lay a heavy coat of brown on gray primer then spray white all on gray primer thanks

Of course you can.
If your primer makes a difference in the final color,
you're not putting enough paint on

Coverage, coverage, coverage.....don't cheap out and buy a crap base coat.

why would you spray so heavy of coats to cover ? now youre messing with mil thickness limits giving you a unsturdy paint job. you will end up using twice the amount of basecoat needed for the job, probably raising cost of the job.

if i was basecoating the RV i would seal the whole thing white put my white base down let that flash for a hour or two, lay out my stripes take some black basecoat and use that as my black undercoat for the stripe, two coats of brown unmask and clear the RV.


and no man dont pile and pile on basecoat because you have a bad undercoat color...

you could put 10 coats of red over gray primer and 2 coats of red over white and they will never match i dont care how much you pile on lol. use the proper undercoat buddy

depending on stripes placement and size there is another way to do this...

spray black basecoat where your stripe is going to go making sure to pass that edge 4 to 6 inches then spray your brown let that flash a hour or two THEN mask your brown strip SEAL the RV white then white basecoat.... unmask and clear.....

JCCLARK wrote:Of course you can.
If your primer makes a difference in the final color,
you're not putting enough paint on

no lol...

if your primer makes a difference then use the correct undercoat shade

A problem that I see with the younger crowd is that a lot of guys will buy lower line Shopline and Omni and try to get coverage, as you are saying hammering it on.... The worst combo I see around me is guys doing the primers which are close in color and "assuming" that a quick couple of thin base coats (again a lot of Omni/ Shopline) will achieve coverage..... ends up being a ghostly looking semi-transparent paint job.

yes that may be true, but for me when giving advice i will give the best advise possible,
up to them to follow that advice.

so you say since the basecoat dont cover well to go ahead and just pile it on so they aint fooled by the undercoat ?

use the appropriate sealer color and 90% of your colors in any paint line will cover in two to three coats. there will always be colors that take more or less.

but if a younger generation is doing it wrong like you say could that be partly because they are receiving bad advise ? time to steer them on the right path..


after all thats what they come to us for isnt it ?

Yeah, I get it.....I was a professional wood restoration instructor for 19 years....still had guys that should have "known better" literally applying myth and legends to finish woods. Most people just end up working with what they have or worse what their neighbor down the street told them to get...... so sure, tell em' how to do it Dave, before they start throwing more rattle cans at us..... Sorry, couldn't help myself....must be cabin fever.....

I believe what JC is getting at is spraying for true color. A quality base coat sprayed over a black and white checkered spray out card will reveal the number of coats necessary. Once there is no subtle shade differences in the color over the black areas as compared to the white areas, you have achieved full coverage and true color.

Granted the newer paint lines are leaning more toward a tri-color application where a particular shade of undercoat is necessary to achieve the desired color.

And PLEASE no more rattle can questions.