I’m looking to purchase some automotive quality paint to use with an air compressor / spray gun. I did some general searches online and came up with numerous companies that sell various brands of paint (all acrylic enamel). I also contacted a few shops that are advertised in the yellow pages. Per usual, the prices certainly do vary! One of the NAPA stores that I do business with has a paint made by Sherwin Williams (under a sub brand name) which costs $80 per quart. They estimated that it would take approximately two quarts to do a car the size of mine (a prelude). Then I would need to purchase reducer (inexpensive) and hardener (not quite as inexpensive).

My questions are:

Do you know of any other companies that I should contact to supply the paint? I’m looking for a pearl (yellow) acrylic enamel paint.

How much paint would you estimate it will take for a car the size of a prelude? Does two quarts sound about right? (I do not want really thin coats.)

If I were to run out of paint during the process, how harmful would it be to let the paint fully dry then spray it with another coat later?

What type of primer should I utilize? (I will verify that the primer, paint and possibly clear coat are compatible.)

Thanks for the advice!