Thread: What ever happened to Dupont paint?

Tweet

Up here in Ontario, I painted literally hundreds of cars in the mid to late 1970's and early eighties, and one of the best paints around was Dupont. I used their Dulux synthetic enamel for quickie one colour jobs, Centari acrilique enamel for 2 tone and /or custom paint jobs, (flames, graphics, colour blends, etc.), and occasionally their Imron polyurethane (although I couldn't get consistent results with it). To me, it was a great paint, and the paint reps were very knowledgeable and helpfull. In the 1990's I messed around a bit on a much smaller scale with their base/clear system, with good results. Now nobody in my town even sells Dupont paint anymore. The popular paint here is PPG, and I find that the local shop that sells it don't seem to know s##t about the product they sell. I asked about Dupont and was told---nobody sells it anymore cause its too expensive, they didn't keep up with new technologies, blah, blah, blah. I find this hard to believe. Anybody out there have more insight into this------is this just a local phenomenon????

Anybody around here that sold Dupont now has PPG on the shelf. Never asked why. Jeff Gordon's Dupont #24 took first place @ Talladega a couple hours ago, so they must still be around.
Sumbudie' here that's in the "loop" should have an answer.

Denny---are you that far along with your 34 Pickup? I didn't think you were working on it over the winter months. I would be a bit leary of buying paint from a paint warehouse---what immediately comes to mind is "how can they do it so much cheaper?"

Denny---Damn man, I'm glad we're talking again.

Follow this link to the DuPont home page and you'll find the jobber locator in the left margin.l

Tom

DuPont

I have heard of some horror stories about one of the Dupont paints (Satin). I know of one guy who has a 46 ford and was having it painted with Dupont Satin Black. The car was finished andl ooked great, but once touched the paint scratched. The paint and body work was done by a highly respected bodyshop. He found out that other bodyshops had the same problem with Dupont Satin paint. Dupont hasn't addressed the issue yet and just refunds the paint cost.

Like you Brian I used Dupont Centari over the years and had good luck with it until a few years ago. The last 2 paint jobs I did with it just didn't come out well.

I talked to the guy at the paint store before I did my wife's car a couple of months ago and he recommended I go with a urethane. I was really happy with the way it went on and the way the paint job turned out. Another plus was that it was cheaper than the Centari would have been. If you want I'll dig up the brand name for you.

dupoint had dropped most areas outside the larger metroplex. cutting cost and the reps never came around anyway. they left here so i switched back to ppg. i use both bc/cc and single stage. i get pretty much the same results with either.

we still use dupont , but they have branched to other names .
dupont top of the line is standox
then dupont brand
it is allover the place here , we wont use ppg to paint trash cans !

What goes around comes around?? When I joined this Forum I mentioned that I really liked the Dupont acrylic I got on my MG Midget since it stayed glossy like wet for several years without even waxing it. At that time I got a lot of boos here for favoring the Dupont acrylic. I don't know if it is readily available here but as said above Jeff Gordon still had it on his car yesterday. I though it was amazing that after he was passed by Waltrip and another car forming a slip stream he just came around and passed them rather easily as if he had plenty of more rpm he was saving. On the restrictor plate tracks the Gordon team really has it dialed in! I don't know about metallics and clearcoating, but for solid colors (Brian's yellow) I would think the Dupont acrylic would really be great!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Dupont Automotive Refinish has been for sale for 20 years and no one wants it. They are more profitable in other adventures .

I have been to a few Dupont refinish schools , and when the Head of Dupont went around the room asking what everyone shot I told them I used PPG's DBU and this guy actually said that product was going to be hard to beat !

I dont like getting into paint brand wars as it shows childish behavior, some guys like different brands and I say use whatever works for you , but bashing a product doesnt solve anything !

Dupont was on all the pealing GM cars and trucks.

Don,

An interesting tidbit: When I was a young college boy, the head of the Chrysler performance program came to talk to us. Since we were then in aerodynamics class, we asked about the effect of a wax job on a car. He said that they had tried a NASCAR car with a "sand" texture paint job and couldnt measure a difference; shape meant mucho more than finish. This was in the Petty era. He said that the waxing was a distraction for the other teams.....they worried more about wax than they did the important things. So.....Gordon may have won but it wasnt the paint that did it!!!!!

Originally posted by DennyW
I like Dupont. The chevy silver paints were the big pealers. A lot of that was base coat, and primers, wrong prepping.
No war here. I used that brand for 6 years, with no problems, as long as the prep was done correctly. Todays paints, any bodies guess. Paint, paint type, person painting, person prep, and if you want to rub it to finish, or paint it to a finish, and look at it.

It wasnt just the silvers, it was mostly the light metallics, but they all pealed, I ought to know I striped and refinished them for 13 years at the GM dealership I painted at. Anywhere from 3 -15 a week.

it was a little of everything , sealer was drying to hard, and they were trying out a new type base, From what I was told by the GM chemists it was inbetween a lacquer/ water borne type base , the clear didnt have enough UV protection either.
The UV's went right through the clear and attacked the sealer and then the base let go.

GM was cought behind the 8 ball as their lacquer was their big selling point, and every other Auto manufactuer was using Base Clear. So GM tried to go Base Clear fast , with no R&D.
And it ended up costing them Billions !

Tech is right ,we used Dupont for 20years. Had great results doing Chroma Base custom jobs to grandma allovers. PPG has stepped up and widened there customer service base. There paint is super painter friendly. When painting trash can I would recomend either companies.