james caruso
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if they use regular fiberglass resin doing method #2 its a guaranteed failure. they must use epoxy resin resin like west system or equivalent. polyester laminating resin will eventually release off metal.
hmmm dry times. those prob arent listed because there are just so many variables there. i would say universal dries to where you can buff it faster but once they are both set up i would say the euro gets harder quicker. in my case i can package parts up to be shipped sooner when done in euro and not have to worry about packing imprinting on the clear. obviously hardeners and humidity play a role as well. you will find the universal to be prob one cat grade faster than many other clears so for instance if you currently use slow on an all over then with universal you will want the very slow. for reduction on the 2.1 clears 10-20% is fine. i have sprayed euro up to 2 parts reduction. reduction is a good way to match the peel on an oem finish. i never sprayed any of the rm clears so i dont really know how to compare. the only other clears i have sprayed in the past 6-7 years other than spi has been sikkens autoclear pc, energy pro and superior 250.
yeah give the euro a try. its not like its super expensive so if you for some reason dont feel its for you then not a huge loss. even though i dont have to where i am but i always use 2.1 clears. for some reason i like them better. the euro with slow activator will flow out great and lay out slick if you spray it slick. i do think they have a very slow act as well for overalls in mid summer. you really spray it the way you want the stuff to look. you can make it match the peel on a gm truck or flow out to match a benz. you can easily do an overall with it or even a single panel no problem. for the 2.1 euro, i dont have to but i like to reduce it maybe 10%. it doesnt dull out and really doesnt need cutting and buffing. i do however cut and buff everything that comes out of my shop. the universal buffs super easy with the euro coming in second. as for airbrushing, there are 2 of us here. i have been custom painting for maybe 15 years or so and ed 30.
the euro is probably more for you. i do use both here. as far as the universal being soft, dont get the wrong idea. its not actually “soft” like you can forever fingernail mark it or anything like that. its not a rock hard clear though. the trick with clears is finding one the right balance. you dont want one thats rock hard because that makes them more brittle and they will chip easier, however they will scratch less. a soft clear will swirl easier but chip less. i dont feel the universal is too soft but for bodyshop work on a black car i would use euro. its just a little harder and will swirl a little less. customers dont usually understand all that and the first thing they see is swirls. both clears are great though and i would consider both to be spi’s more premium clear. to compare both of them to another clear i would say they are very close to the sikkens autoclear pc. not so much on speed but the way they spray and look. not sure if you have ever sprayed that. that is great stuff as well but expensive.
the coarser you go the harder it is to get coverage. if you dont mind seeing the primer through the flakes and you dont end up with 100% coverage then thats fine. there is one thing i found out a long time ago, every time i have ever tried to save money when doing a custom job it has bit me in the ass in some way shape or form. its just not the type of job to be thrifty on.
ive been using spi clear for atleast 10-11 years now. i have used matrix’s premium clear and one other, forget which ones but wasnt the one ding recommended. they were nice but extremely hard and brittle. i paint a ton of plastic so those didnt work for me. i have used spi on every piece that has come out of my shop. stuff is great and will last as long as any premium clear out there. i have stuff out there that i have done 10 years ago and still looks like i did it yesterday. i am not a production shop though so i cant really offer you info on how to work it into your normal workflow. i have a whole gallery of online pics i have done with the stuff if you care to view. http://www.xtremekreations.com.
well i guess you could if you wanted to but why really? flakes are more coarse than silver so they will not cover anywhere near as good. it will take a ton of it to get full coverage if you were going to do that. its much faster and less overalll build to put down a med silver first then the flakes.
add just a little bit of your clearcoat or basecoat activator to it. clear and base activator are the same thing. iso based urethane activators. they dont need any reactivity with what you are putting them in. they harden on their own with moisture. like basecoat its obviously not required but does the same thing for the adpro. better adhesion and locks it up a bit since its a 1k product. of course this is for your regular 1k adpros like bulldog or the hok ap01. if you have one that is supposed to be 2k then stick with the system.
ahhh, oh well then just do it with adhesion promoter. something like bulldog or similar but put activator in it. same amt as you would in a basecoat. do one coat then goto your clearcoat with the candy dye mixed in. adpro with cat does really well. its much better than just adpro alone.
i have done a ton of this over the years. ap01 is the same as any other adhesion promoter for plastic. using ap01 is certainly better than using nothing but the best thing i have used and what i normally use is a product from alsa called “clear4chrome”. sprays a little funny but it works and bonds to chrome and polished metals extremely well. because of it spraying a little strange i will usually reduce it a bit, spray one coat to get the bond then switch to your normal clear with the candy dye added to it. here are some pics of some wheels i did this way. if you decide to go the adhesion promoter route then i would catalyze it the same as you would a basecoat. it kicks up the adhesion and durability quite a bit. you can use bulldog or any other clear adpro.
i have used superior 250 off an on on small stuff in the shop for a few years now. i am in a standard crossflow booth. nothing special and i dont bake. it does work fine and you dont have to run the fans. i shut the fans off when the overspray clears. it is a slow clear though. if your not baking and you spray in the morning you wont be removing the parts from the booth until the next morning. i am not a production shop so i can get away with that but if you need to move things through then forget it. i have tried the energy pro a while back but i dont remember if i liked it or not. i did recently try the PC clear and thought it was fantastic…atleast on smaller motorcycle parts. i dont know how it would do on an overall. maybe a bit fast for that but it looked every bit as good as the superior when it was done and you could sand and buff it no problem where superior is a PIA. superior works just fine over solvent.
yes i do it with .004. i dont do it with .002 though. if they arent buried then the candy likes to hang around the flakes making each flake look darker. same as if you had a dist speck in your metallic base color. the candy would make the dirt speck dark and stick out.
well they are separate filters. to trap moisture you need to have cool air so you would need a refrigerated drier or you would need a desiccant type filter. desiccant type are cheaper but require constant maintenance and new media so they quickly become as expensive as a refrigerated drier. you aint gettin anything for $200 though except for the oil separator filter. desiccant systems are around $500 or more and refers are $1000 and up depending on compressor size. you can get good used refers on ebay all the time.
i have been using diamont for about 10 years. sprays good, matches are good not that i do alot of matching. great metallic control. its quite expensive however so is spies. diamont is a great line and i dont know anyone who has been unhappy with it. is it the best for coverage, probably not but its not bad at coverage either. i do know someone who has used both and said the spies does cover better. i dont think you can wrong either way. compare cost of the two and take that into consideration. spies i believe is a two price system or something like that. one for solids and one for metallics so you will make out price wise with some colors compared to diamont. imo diamont has just gotten out of hand with the prices.
welcome and nice work. i had to stop an laugh when i got to the pumpkin. that was great lol!
