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Any paint shines when it is wet, and still once it has cured, but my experience with synthetic enamel or soy based paints, which is what you get in a spray bomb or from Rustoleum, JD, TSC, any enamel you buy for general use, is that it look goods when it is new, and people like to show them off when the paint is new, but you never see many nice photos of them after 6 or 8 years and the wear, sun, grease, and fuel had got to them. Synthol will stain from diesel badly, and with gasoline, it will lift. It scuffs pretty easy, too. It will most assuredly fade, but you can slow that it if you use a hardener. Any paint will eventually fade and dull when exposed to sun, contaminants (like acid rain or fuel), and time. A walk through the local junkyard will show you which paints last the longest. In general terms, the longer lasting products cost more in terms of preparation, cost of product, and cost to finish.
Synthol enamels, like that sold at your dealer, have not been used by automotive manufacturers on production cars since the 60's. They can be made to be a bit more durable with the addition of a hardener. This can increase shine, but my old time body men friends will also tell you that the more hardener can begin to reduce over all shine, so keep that in mind. Those hardeners are all C-A (cyanoacrylate) based, just like Crazy Glue, so if you inhale it, you can have lungs full of deposits, and even develop sensitivities that run up to and including long-tern lung function loss. To apply hardener-enhanced paints, you need more than just a 3-M particle mask. You need to use a clean air mask and pump. If you don't have that equipment, have a shop do the work, or pay up your life insurance. Acrylic enamel is the next up the list, more expensive, dulls fast in the sun, can accept a hardener, and can lift easily if no hardener is used. I use this on many applications, then I wet sand it, then I apply a urethane clear coat to protect it from the sun, and to make it shine. Next up in terms of durability and expense are urethane systems. Very expensive, very durable, not as forgiving of a mistake that requires wet sanding and re-buffing. Last is the product used by automotive manufacturers today which is the base coat/clear coat system. Here the color goes down with a flat look, then you apply a clear top coat to give durability and to make it shine. It's tough to use on cast iron as it can change the feel of the finish, making it look almost unnatural in the amount of shine. Any of these products can be made to shine, but all of them can go down less than flat. If you want it to be shiny AND flat, you need to wet sand it. I apply PPG DAR acrylic enamel, wet sand that, apply clear coat, wet sand that, then buff it out. It takes a lot of work, and I practice at it a lot. If you plan on keeping your tractor away from work, dirt, and minimize the sun, you can probably get by with SE or AE. If you want a finish like the one on your car, and you need it to be durable enough to stand up to field grit, fuel, grease, hot oil, an occasional night outside, etc., and still have it clean up well enough to go to a show, you'll need to go the higher end systems. This means the complete system from epoxy primer, high-build primer, color, and clear. Just understand that you'll have to spend some real money. It's not just $50 worth of SE and paint thinner these days. Even a quart of Rustoleum alkyd enamel is $24 at Lowe's. So, if you want it smooth and flat, shiny and durable, and you know what you are doing, go for AE/Clear, or a urethane. and if you want a finish like that on a new Jaguar, be ready to wet sand and buff, buff, buff. And remember, the answers you get here will include some from people who have never applied most if any of these products, but they still like to comment. Judge the responses by what you paid for them. This is my '70'D, in PPG DAR AE green, and DuPont Fulcryl II yellow. I did all of the paint and body work myself, nothing went to a shop, so that's proof that you can do it, too. Frank
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