In a paint class we just Wanda and Lesonal. We called the Wanda clear 'beer clear' because it literally looked like beer sitting there in the mixing cup. It was very yellow.
One thing I hate are those yellow clears. You dont have to use ALL wanda products ,I do have a favorite clear that I always use and just because I'm not totally dedicated to any particular brand of base I am very dedicated to my clear and the company that makes it..
I find its best to keep an open mind and value other pros opinions ,sometimes THEY stumble onto something great at a good price,and sometimes I do...If I find something that works great and share it with others I'd want them to at least concider what I'm saying has some value also...5-6 yrs ago I wasnt so dedicated to any particular brand of clear until someone said "hey ,you gotta try this stuff" I've been a big fan of SPI ever since....The Wanda story sounds a lot like the SPI story and I just cant help betting on the underdog..
Putting out a better product at a lower price should be everybodys motto
sorry, but i've been using wanda for about a year and a half now (switching from sikkens) and have never seen this "yellow" clear. They only offer 2 clears..Neither which are yellow.
Jeremyb,Your fairly close by ,If you dont mind would you give my tel # to your supplier and have them call me so I can find out who has this Wanda paint near me. I'm trying this paint....I'll send you a PM...
I've used wanda paint on a few job over the last maybe yr and a half. I like it both the way it goes on and the way it looks when cleared. Also like the price a lot. Did a dodge that needed the side painted. Cost of a pnt. of ppg $130. Cost of a pnt of wanda $ 38.00.Do you really need to guess which one I went with?
I have used Wanda several times - lastly on my own car. I am a custom painter, so I usually just stick to what I know works. Well, I ventured out and used Wanda on my car - lots of custom paint work. I REALLY like Wanda base and clear. The clear is so easy to spray - it lays down smooth, sands and buffs great and the shine is unbelievable. Most other companies had my color as 3 stage, but Wanda had it in 2 stage. I can not tell the difference and it looks superb. Yes the price is great, but I do not look at the price when doing these high end jobs. I look for a great product - and Wanda stands with the best. I have used Martin, PPG, Omni, Standox, ICI-Nexa, and others. I am very happy with Wanda and its performance. Give it an honest try, if you can spray, you will not have much to complain about with this product.
My supplier was talking about opening up his business to the internet and shippping it. Contact me if you are interested. I just checked the Wanda site, apparently there is a place called Byrd's Automotive in Chattanooga, Nashville and Madison. They should have it for you.
I've never had my car painted fully nor do I have any friends that paid a shop to fully paint their car. Any idea how much a good paint job would cost where they would also fix little dents as well? :welcome:
Depends on type of car, color, condition, labor rate, and what you want done. I've done $2500 up to $20,000+ paint jobs and done full builds over $150,000.
I have been looking over some of the comments here and even though it's an older thread, the Wanda paint line is still around and I'm sure people have questions... I thought I would update some of the concerns I have read here.
I have been in the Auto body field for almost 25 years and I have used just about every paint line from Chromabase to Acme... both water based and solvent systems. I have worked in production collision shops to high-end restoration shops.
I have always liked Sikkens paint as it is a very high performance product and I have used both Autobase Plus and Lesonal mix machines in one of my shops that I had owned. I recently ran into the Sikkens paint rep in Tucson (which is now carried by Keystone) and he told me about a "new" paint line that AkzoNobel brought in to compete with the lower end lines here in the US (like Nason and Limco), but that the high quality and simplicity of the system were getting a lot of people to stand up and pay attention.
So I got some to try and I will say that I was very impressed. The base handled as well as any high end paint system that I have ever used. The base is smooth and dries to an even flat sheen. You can repair it (sand) without it tearing or gumming up the paper and the color matches so far have been fantastic. Metallic control is easy, no "drop coats" or "X patterns" are needed to make sure the flakes are even and not mottled or striped. Coverage is excellent, so far 2-3 coats and you are done. Nason and Limco take a bit more than that to get even coverage...
He then talked me into trying the Wanda clear and again, it performed as well as any of the high end clears out there at over half the cost! It lays down smooth, dries quickly and buffs like butter. The shine on the Wanda clear is fantastic to say the least and holds up very well.
After buying a few colors and a few gallons of clear I decided to switch to Wanda. It is very affordable and so far all of my customers and friends who have seen the final product are really impressed with the product. I just had my mix machine put in today and I look forward to using more of this paint line.
The guys at AkzoNobel are pretty smart. They have only taken on paint lines that perform really well. One of the other paint lines I have used from them is a line called U-Tech. The clear coats were fantastic and very affordable. I have learned to trust Sikkens products and the Wanda paint line is no exception to this.
It's a very simple system, (1 sealer, 1 primer, 1 clear coat... etc...) simple mix ratios, 4:1, 2:1, etc... and the color support is very well documented. There are variant colors for all of the major OEM vehicles and color chips for support.
It's been mentioned is how can it be so good if it's so cheap and the answer is simple. There really is NO support for the product in terms of training or warranty here in the US. Basically you buy the product and use it. BUT, in return you get a mid to high-end system that really shouldn't give you many problems to begin with. Honestly? I wouldn't call Wanda a budget system. I wouldn't call it a mid-grade system either. In my opinion, it is a high end system that WILL give DuPont and BASF a run for their money once more and more people discover and find out about it. I have YET to hear anything bad from the people around Tucson who have USED the system and have seen the results.
Besides, ask anyone who has worked as a painter in a production shop when a problem arose. How many times did the paint supplier step up and warranty the product? Probably not very many times, they always came up with some excuse as to why it was anything but their paint. The paint shop and technician's footed that bill and they always will. I wasn't worried about the "lack" of warranty because I don't really get one with any of the other systems anyway when you really get down and really think about it.
It really is a good product that sprays well, covers excellent and has fantastic pearl/metallic control. It doesn't seem to have any bad habits so far that I can see and I am personally glad I made the switch. I can offer my customers competitive pricing that lands my shop the job while knowing I can provide a quality product while still turning a profit on materials.
I have included a couple of photos of a complete color change (it was red) I did for one of my customers on their Dodge Ram quadcab P/U using Wanda. I only used 3 quarts of color and less than 3 quarts of clear. I painted inside and out and took the whole truck apart. The customer was very happy with the results and so was I. Even on the biggest job I would not hesitate to use this product over and over.
Its funny this came up at this particluar time. My supplier has moved and I was thinking about switching to Wanda for my base coats...I've been wanting to try it but my supplier was only a mile away....and were always in a hurry so.....
We hear good things about it as well. Wanda is made and imported from Brazil which helps with the cost. I spent some time in Brazil and it was amazing how inexpensive automotive paint was down there. Even name brands imported from here were really cheap down there.
What is most impressive to me about it is the color documentation they have provided with it. As I understand it, they have many of the same color tools that they offer with Sikkens and Lesonal brands. I would imagine the Sikkens jobbers are not too happy about that since they let a lot of dealers have Wanda as opposed to a select number allowed to have Sikkens.
I finally tried the Wanda base and its dam good for the price 69.00 a Qt. (4.00 more a qt than Omini plus) and the coverage is great,color match was dead on (solid red) I plan on using a lot of it from now on...
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