[68protouring454]

that makes no sense.
most normal 3 stage paints, have a ground coat, which usually is alot light and full of pearl/metallic. then the mid coat is a darker shade of main color (lets say red) and very translucent (does not cover well) and it takes 3-5 coats to darken the ground coat or till you reach the color you want or are trying to match, dodge did a bunch of 3 stage colors on there cars etc in the early 2000's, a real **** up, heres some i just did last week, and there is no way you could get same color from ground coat with no mid, or by mixing same color in 2 stage, no way.
this is a pic of the 3 stage i just did i repair to, on a 2001 dodge mini van, color is inferno red.
first pic is mid coat(2nd coat) 2nd pic is color of mid coat, 3rd pic is ground coat can,4th pic is ground coat, which is first coat
see how in mid coat pic, it is very translucent on top where you can see right thru it then on bottom it is dark as there is more down there, then over on ground coat you can see how much pearl/metallic is it, thats the whole deal to 3 stage is you can spray the mid coat till you get desired darkness or effect if doing an overall, and it will look entirely different if you put one coat of mid coat or 4 coats of mid coat.