Mixing Car Paint Like a Pro Shop: 4:1:1 by the Stick, Then by the Numbers

Three mixes, three answers A quart of paint at four to one to one: a quarter quart of hardener, a quarter of reducer. Eight ounces at four to one: two ounces of hardener. Only four ounces of hardener left? Sixteen ounces of paint, a twenty-ounce batch. That's AutofxMart's free Paint Mixing Calculator. In the booth, a quart of 2K for the gun; in the driveway, a small batch for a bumper. Same ratio, any amount: it works out every part. It's free, at autofxmart.com, Paint Mixing Calculator. The link is below.

The ratio on the can It starts from the ratio on the can or its data sheet: eighteen to pick from, from one to one up to eight to three to one. Four to one to one is four parts paint, one part hardener, and one part reducer, the solvent that thins it. Then three ways in: by the amount you're mixing, by the job, or by what you have left.

In our shop: 4:1:1 by the stick Here's one in our shop: a black, mixed four to one to one by a ratio stick, in a cup on a scale. Its hardener and reducer go in, it's stirred, and the lid goes on until it's sprayed.

Mixing by weight? Read this first It works in quarts, ounces, millilitres, or grams: four hundred grams at four to one is a hundred grams of hardener. But a ratio by weight isn't the same as by volume: the page tells you to enter your product's by-weight ratio, and to tare the scale between components.

By job size: a hood, two coats By job size, it works backwards from the panel. A hood is twenty square feet; two coats. Coverage starts at two hundred square feet a gallon, but the right number is your product's, from its data sheet. Add ten percent, and that's about twenty-eight ounces ready to spray: twenty-two and a half of paint, five point six of hardener.

Only 4 oz of hardener left? And when one part runs low: tell it what you have. Four ounces of hardener, at four to one. It builds the batch around that: sixteen ounces of paint, twenty in all, with nothing left over.

The recipe card and its QR Every recipe prints as a card for the bench, or shows a QR code: point a phone at it, and the calculator opens with this exact mix. It's an estimate, the page says: always check it against the product's technical data sheet.

Every part of the mix A quart for the gun or a cup for a bumper: the ratio in, every part of the mix out.

Next: the Coverage Calculator What ratio is on your can? Tell us in the comments. Next on this channel: how much paint to buy before you start, for a bumper or the whole car. That's the Coverage Calculator. Subscribe so you don't miss it.