Hi, starting the first of June Canada will adopt the European rules/law
about water base paint. That mean you won't be able to buy anything else
then water base paint. Enamel may be sold a bit longer (older style of paint
and colour).

No more Acrylic - urethane! No more base/clear coat solvent base.

What does that mean: Let's take a gallon of paint, well the water base base
coat will be 3 time the price but will last 3 time longer. So to paint a van
you will only need 1 quart. Clear coat will be similar to existing product
in therm of quantity. Base coat will now be only 1.5 coat and same for clear
coat. Ok, so far so good... NO!!!! Water base paint doesn't dry easy and
doesn't like ANY kind of humidity and dust. On top, very dangerous for the
painter because the body want to absorb water and the water base paint still
contain some solvent. So, water base paint doesn't dry easy so it mean
inverting in a dryer system, an air conditioning (humidity removal -
control) for the compressor, more complex air filter-dryer, anodize spay gun
= 4500$ MINIMUM. This is the real reason i'm stopping body work in the shop.
It's not a problem for normal body shop who do small job like quarter panel,
front end. 2 dryer are enough but for guy like me who only do complete job
it's simply a nightmare. I would have to buy at least 10 dryer and built a
solid paint booth.

To your question: if you Enamel, the van as been primed everywhere and don't
do the pop-top, it's anything between 2/3 gallon to 1 and even more
depending on  the colour. Some colour use more than 3 coats.

To end that long post, you can STILL buy Urethane paint and solvent
base/clear coat, just look around.

I always buy a gallon anyway. If you make mistake and heavy run you may have
to redo part of the van.

Ben
http://www.benplace.com/vw2.htm

On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:40:03 -0800, Courtney Hook <courtneyhook@SHAW.CA> wrote:

>So how much paint is needed to paint a baywindow westy? I'm using HVLP and
probably enamel. I just found out lacquer is illegal in Canada???
>Courtney
>
>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>Always be yourself, because the people that matter don't mind,
>and the ones who mind, don't matter.