Learning to paint is a pretty difficult thing if you are expecting to quickly achieve a level of proficiency that is marketable in a commercial shop or you just don’t want your friends laughing at your work.

For this reason you probably want to practice your skills for a while before you try to get yourself hired.

If you are considering technical school you should understand that your classmates will hog the paint booth and the rest of your day will be learning from a book. This means you can end up spending thousands of dollars and only get a couple shots in the booth.

Many painters have beginners luck and can actually paint their first car without a run or other method related problem but you can expect the first hundred cars to cause you headaches. Your skill won’t be fully developed until you can understand why you are creating problems and work around them. Sometimes its you and sometimes its something out of your control. When you run into something out of your control its often best to stop and cure the problem or find help.

Because you are likely to paint a lot of your relative’s or friend’s or even your own cars you find to make extra cash you want to do this on a budget without a loss of quality.

In all honesty I would never suggest that a new painter begin with synthetic paint. It is much cheaper but the quality of the paint is below standard so you can not build your skills.

On the other hand I would not suggest that you invest tons of money into water based systems for your first few dozen jobs.

What is the best paint for new painters?

I would suggest that you start off with an Acrylic paint that has a Hardener added. Hardeners will improve the quality of the paint by giving it durability and with the proper selection of hardener and reducer you can probably paint your very low budget vehicles with Acrylic with a Urethane Hardener in a Single Stage mixture that does not require but can get a top clear coat.

Adding a clear coat to your job will improve the quality of the finished paint for the customer but because you are likely to have paint problems in your first few jobs a clear that is put on top of a run or sag or flopped metallic will just mean more problems when you try to make your repairs.

You can always wait a few days and clean a clear the paint after you make your repairs.

Urethane paint is also an option and if you can get a factory urethane cheap you should use it rather than a single stage acrylic.

Should a beginner try a two stage basecoat clear coat system?

For your very first paint job I would not suggest a two stage system because you won’t get the full understanding of applying full wet coats on your painting passes.

Single Stage Paint will stay wet where a base coat system the color normally does not have a gloss that you can learn with.

Remember when you are learning you will need to make a 50% overlap with wide open fan setting and apply the widest stripe of paint with a good overlap.

So as a final note I would suggest that you get a Single Stage Acrylic or Urethane Paint and If you want to apply a couple coats of clear over your shiny single stage paint you will either need to continue painting after a final 30 minute color flash or wait until the manufacture’s suggested recoat period which is normally 24 to 36 hrs.