SPI products
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I’ve heard great things about SPI epoxy primer, bed liner and clear coats.
How are their other products? Wax and grease remover? other little things?
I’m also curious how many of you guys have tried them. It seems like almost all the scratch and dent shops stick with a clear from the same outfit they get the base from. I understand ties to a manufacturer, I’m just curious who has had experience with SPI. It sure seems like !05 gallons of clear with fantastic reputations are worth a try!
I like the Universal Clear and Solvent w&g remover. For everything else they sell there is another product I like better and cost less.
Even Epoxy? Ive tried 2 other epoxies – Martin Senour and PPG. I thought SPI was better at 1/4 the price of PPG and 1/3 of MS.
I’ll get some of the solvent cleaner next order.
thanks
The Martin Senour epoxy is awful IMO.
The SPI epoxy is nicer than that, but I’m still not a huge fan.
It is a nice product to use for one thing IMO and that is if you have a complete body in bare metal that needs total refinishing. The spi is nice on the floor pans and other areas that need to be sealed but not neccesarily topcoated because it does dry to a sheen that is close in appearance to OEM e-coat and it is durable on it’s own as a topcoat in areas not subject to the elements.
I don’t like it under filler, I don’t like it as a wet on wet sealer before base and I don’t like it as a wet on wet product under 2K.
The SPI is very slow and will bite you in the ass if you use it in cooler temps. I’ve had lifting issues in 60 degree temps when I sprayed 1 coat of epoxy on a bare metal surface then waited 8 hrs to put 3 coats of 2K on it. Next day had huge bubbles where the solvents in the epoxy blistered up the 2K. Epoxy was still adhering to the metal but the 2K wasn’t stuck to the epoxy. User error? Yes, I probably should have given the epoxy a full 24 hrs before applying 2K, but this was when I worked in a resto shop and time is money. No sense in using something that kills that much of your time when there’s other products out there that get the job done without the headaches.
I’d just as soon use Kirker or Omni epoxy as a sealer or when topcoating with 2K. Better still just stick with etch over bare metal then get 2K on it within a few minutes vs. a few hours.
The Kirker epoxy is the best one I’ve used for the money spent. Not much of a fan of their other products but the epoxy has treated me well. I’ve got 10 year old jobs that aren’t garaged done with Kirker over bare metal that are still holding up fine. The Kirker sprays quite nice as a sealer and is fairly fast for an epoxy. It sands easy if needed and is forgiving in cooler temps. It’s the least gummy fastest drying epoxy I’ve used.
If taking several days to do something that could be done in a few hours is how you like to do things then the spi isn’t a bad choice. Even if you have all the time in the world I’d still stay away from using it in the winter time unless you have a well insulated and heated shop.
My favourite epoxy was the DuPont 2580CR, only 20-30 minutes flash time before topcoating with paint or primer surfacer. Or overnight for filler. Personally never had any issues with it.
DP40 :rock
X2 Dp40 not the dplf crap.Utech 350 is nice as is Sikkens EP.
bob, i have been using spi for about 10 years. i have pretty much used most of their products and love most of them. if you have been on my website, every single thing there is spi with either hok or diamont for color. i personally love the epoxy. as said it is slow but most epoxies are. the thing to remember with epoxies is that they are meant to make a waterproof barrier and inhibit corrosion which the spi stuff does fantastic. it does not build. it may however not be the most user friendly but it does its job better than most do. i use it as sealer all the time and every job i do it is put down first then filler over. you really just have to get used to it a bit. in the shop i personally use the universal for most stuff and euro clear here and there. the 2k urethane primer/sealer is basically a copy of hok koseal. thats pretty good stuff. i dont like the regular build primer but i do like the high build primer. it sprays smoother for some reason. intercoat clear is awesome. as with any paint company not every single product they have is absolutely awesome. some i dont like but 90% i do and for what you get for the $ is great.
For the stuff I’m doing, in a cold, damp environment, I don’t mind having to wait. I use Fast reducers on everything, and I still double the flash times on certain things :rock
I’m in the process of building a ’77 F150. It’s got some issues, but I am hoping to get it into paint this winter, if I can scrape up the funds for the rest of the parts.
SPI should work for me.
I’ll try the HB primer and W&G remover.
thanks fellas
I have used the Euro clear. It seemed to hold a good gloss but it didn’t impress me a whole lot over other clears. The clear seemed too fast to be used in a downdraft in warm weather. In a garage I bet it would perform better. To be honest it kinda reminded me of an easier to run Lesonal Pro-Air clear. A little thinner spraying maybe.
As for epoxy I have never used SPI but I agree with Ben, Dupont makes a really nice epoxy. It is the only product I really miss of theirs!
One thing i will note is that spi clears are quick. They have come out with very slow activators for most of their clears to help with this. Also the 2.1 voc clears are much slower than their higher voc counterparts so there are slower options for each clear. With spi you just cant expect their slow to be the same as another companies slow. Their slow would possibly be equal to normal or fast. For anyone ordering keep that in mind. I know ryan uses superior 250. 250 with medium would be equal to 2.1 euro with slow or maybe very slow.
[quote=”ding” post=22599]DP40 :rock[/quote]
Is DP40 still availible for sale?No. its now replaced with DP4000 http://www.ppg.com/coatings/refinishscandinavia/en/Download/Brochures/Documents/PPG%20DP4000%206pp%20UK_lowrez.pdf
i love their epoxies.ive used it on three bare metal completes.no issues.I also like there universal clear.
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