Larry Blackman
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Hey Jeremy, you’re not alone in the Matrix nightmare. In fact, we won’t use it. We haven’t had the experience ourselves, but, friends of ours in the business have. One case in point was a custom job done by a shop in our area owned by a good friend of ours. The vehicle involved belonged to good customer of his and had requested Matrix on his vehicle. The car was prepped and painted and they had exactly the same results that you had. Looked great for a day and then dulled down to an almost “flat” look. The shop attempted to “fix” the problem only to have the same thing happen again. After contacting the company, the shop received the same type of answers you did and the company assumed that the shop had done something wrong. We’ve known these guys for a long time and although they are probably one of our biggest competitors, they are also good friends of ours and we know what type of work they do. Our guess is that if you did some research, you’d find that you’re definitely not the only ones who have had this problem.
Sorry I missed this one from the beginning. I agree with all that was mentioned here. Nason base, although, definitely the lower end of the DuPont line, can be used successfully for most applications, but, as was stated earlier, needs to be used with it’s Nason counterparts. As Ben and chumpi pointed out, using the Nason specific hardner is NOT an option and it’s pricing is minimal, so no reason to not use it.
We use Nason base coat for many of our lower end paint jobs here at LDJ and have had a lot of success using the product. It’s a great way to keep the price down for the customer that is really looking for the “lowest possible” pricing when doing a re-paint. Although, the coverage is not near as good as some of the better bases, if you are doing a re-paint and covering the same color, it works well.
When spraying ANY metallic base, ie. gold, silver, make sure you let the paint completely flash between coats. If you try to spray over still wet base, tiger striping is inevitable and it won’t matter what base you’re using. Metallic colors are harder to get used to and as Ben mentioned, practice on whatever you can get your hands on when using something you’re not used to. It will save you money in the long run.
As Ben mentioned, reading the tech sheet for ANY paint you’re not familiar with is key to making sure you don’t have any problems. Make sure to use Nason base with it’s Nason counterparts and you shouldn’t have any of the problems you experienced.
I’ve been following this post and after looking at the pictures, I agree that this is a “shrinkage” problem compounded by improper sanding and blocking of the hood.
What you need to do is sand the clear and the color, and [i]if you can[/i], bring it down to the original primer, that would be the best. Re-prime it and [i][b]make sure[/b][/i] that you are mixing your primer properly (right amount of hardener and activator). Make sure the primer is good and dry. Block the primer out again and then let it sit. If you don’t have a bake cycle booth, let it sit in the sun [i]after[/i] it’s blocked out to ensure that if there is going to be any shrinkage this time during the curing stage, you’ll see it this time. Bring the car back in and visually inspect the hood [i]carefully[/i] to be sure that there are no spots that shrunk up. A good idea at this point would be to use a 2K sealer over the primer. (Be sure you’re using a 2K sealer with a catalyst and not a 1K sealer) DuPont makes a “white” 2K sealer and since the car is pearl white, that would be a good base color to start with. This will hold everything down to a nice flat finish even if you broke thru any of the coats of primer. Make sure to prep the area as if you were going to apply your base coat. In other words, blow it off, tack it, and re-tack it. The key is to get the sealer to lay down as clean as if you were laying a base coat. If you have dust nibs or anything in the sealer, they make a “white” scuff pad that is finer than the grey that can used to remove any nibs. The sealer is a non-sanding sealer, so ideally, you don’t want to sand it if you don’t need to. There is a time frame for laying your base coat over the sealer. Be [i]sure[/i] you are ready to continue with your base, pearl,and clear [i]before[/i] you seal it. In other words, wait till you’re ready to do the WHOLE job to ensure you can comply with the recommended flash and cure times for the sealer. Follow the directions on the can. There is a reason for them spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in research to determine the best cure times for these products. If you don’t have the time to complete this procedure in it’s entirety, wait until you can make the time to follow through with the [i]complete job[/i]. (primer, sealer, base, pearl, clear).