I am in Ontario, Canada, I own and run my own shop, one man operation, so I can pick and choose the paint lines...I don’t have paint system installed in my shop, I order from the suppliers PPG envirobase, Delbert 900+ water base, Valspar lvbr100 solvent and AA Motobase, any of these as they suit my needs..if tough color to match, I will even use Chromax as necesssary
I have used Valspar and Motobase for the last 3 yrs, here is what I think..
Motobase is “ stronger “ paint , to say it so broadly, it covers better, it has less binders, sands easier, less coats= less dirt, much better solid color coverage than Valspar.,.better for overall paint jobs..both paint lines blend quite nicely without the wet bed for me...Valspar has better color variance choices, better mettalics coverage and matches, their paint chips are available so usually prime and few variances so visual check is easy, I find Valspar tri coats pretty good, Valspar reds are pretty good, but Poor hiding power Valspar white and black solid colors take forever to cover, ..
Motobase paint is rated from 1-5 stars in their paint system, so if my jobber tells me that paint has 5 stars , it is always pretty good for color match...it only offers one or two variances, so less choices than Valspar, but I don’t have their mixing system and computer so I don’t know if there are more field variances available in database..
yes, in my experience, Valspar blue color matches are horrible for lighter blues, atrocious, for darker blues it is not bad..
Valspar paint line often calls for a correct color undercoat to work together with the color to achieve correct hiding, so very important to get that right.
Yes, using Valspar reducer with Valspar solvent base metallic is suggested And sometimes necessary
for tougher metallics and pearls so that the paint will lay down easier to avoid mottling....it does make a difference..
As far as Valspar lifting sealer on a bumper, well, any solvent paint line will do that if applied too heavily with stron reducer, so Valspar and Motobase both behave, well, like solvent paint, fry ups and burn trus if not sealed, it is up to operator..
I always spray out cards so I have small library for comparison, I also have PPG Envirobase color chips deck, just updated..
i have used Transtar solvent paint, it is inferior product to all these..