• 4lts of Multi Purpose thinners (this is for mixing etch primer and cleaning.)
• 20lts of Acrylic Thinners. This only for Acrylic Paint, you can use it for cleaning but its not nearly as effective. You will need 20lts; you may have as much as 5lts left over but 20lts is cheaper than 3X5lts. It is maybe 10% more expensive than Multi Purpose but it is more refined than Multi. You will not get a pro quality job using Multi for mixing paint.
• 2lts of 1k etch primer (that’s 1 part or acrylic, "k" is the first letter of the German word for component, 1k one part 2k two part or 2 Pak).
• 4lts of primer surfacer
• 1lt of black paint or GMH Black if you like, this is for guide coat so it won't be staying on the car, it gets sanded off. GMH Black is a cheaper than full quality black paint. Another name for GMH black is body black. Its poor quality paint so only use it for guide coating
• A tack rag (you can get these at paint shops for about $2.50)
• 4lts of colour
• 1-4lts of retarder thinners (this is a slow drying thinners ideal for final coats of paint. If it is humid buy 4lts as you can replace 20% of your normal thinners in the paint mix with this and it will cure humidity defects)
• 4lts of clear (if a metallic is to be used otherwise just one liter)

whatever you go with, get to supercheap asap! 50% off ALL 3M products

just picked up 16 ltrs of thinners amongst a whole host of other things aha.

yeah certainly caught us by surprise. But tbh from my point of view anyway it'd been selling just as well if not better than the septone they're bringing back in. managed by numpties.

In that case, colour and clear it is. I thought direct gloss was the cheaper version.

So, what's the big shopping list for a colour and clear bare metal job?
Thanks for all the input so far painting gurus.