painting 101 questions

As some of you may know, I am on the verge of painting my 47 sedan. I have done small touch up jobs but never a complete spray. I am most likely going with a flat metallic paint(not black). My questions regaurd types of paint. Can you pease share your knowledge or acrylic enamal, urathanes and bc/cc paint jobs. Maybe a recommendation as to ease of use for a newbie painter. the car will be a driver with alot of cruise ins and local shows. I have gotten the body pretty strqaight but am by no means a body man, just have the time right now to put in a lot of effort. thanks for helping an ignorant rodder. I'll get some pics up soon. Also any tips on using icing would be appreciated. thanks

Don't waste your time learning to use different paints. Go right to urethane BC/CC. That is the standard of the industry now. You will be able to buy in anywhere, and the others will eventually disappear. You might as well learn how it works now, instead of later.

The only thing you will have to do for the flat finish is to buy a flattened clear, or mix your own using a product like PPG DX685, which can be mixed in anybody's clear.

HRP would be the guy to ask but like he said BC/CC is the way to go and can be forgiving to a certain point. This is assuming you are going to wet sand and buff.
Things to make sure of.
Have good air flow and to get to the point where it is going on just wet enough not to run. If you lay it on dry you will never get the shine you are looking for

Years ago I started with lacquer, and eventually had about 350 cans of it on the shelf. The problem was that the industry eventually phased it out. I was trying to combine paints, and figure out how I could use them together. It never worked out 100%. Eventually I found that I could not get any late model colors mixed....only one store in this town of 800,000 people, had a lacquer mixing system.... and they only had one customer! Me. :-)

The problem was that every paint sprays and acts different, so when I finally had to switch, I had to go through about a year of figuring out what products I liked, and how to get the best out of them. I still have a problem pop up once in a while, as I try different things. It is easier if you just start with the products that will be here for the next 20-40 years, and go through the "learning phase" once.

Waterbase will eventually take over, but that is a long ways away (unless you are on the left coast) and they haven't got it working well yet. Everyone I hear from says it it harder to use, and they still have you finish it with Urethane clears.