Enamel Paint and clear

I have been having some problems painting my caprice and am hoping that you guys can help.
The paint I got was an enamel Burgandy metalic

Everything was going fine up until I put on clear coat. It came out all orange peel and wasnt all that shiny. The clear I used was also enamel. So I tried just wet sanding one fender and re shooting the clear. This time it came out nearly perfect but with a couple fisheyes. So then I decided to wet sand the whole car and try it.
So I did all the wetsanding and reshot the clear. The car came out looking almost as bad as it did the first time.

Then someone told me that I couldnt use clear over enamel paint...is this true??
i heard that enamel paint takes a long time to cure. so do u think this is my problem

Thanks for any help


Register now (free) or login to remove ads

Your gonna have to tell what brand / company / what it says on the can etc...

ebay paint Burgandy metalic

Clear coat

What happens when you call the phone number?

Attached Thumbnails

 

Fisheyes are caused by some sort of contamination either in the paint..oil in sth air line or something left from cleaning the surface..Guys even get fisheyes from sweat getting on the car..

Orange peel is a gun adjustment..when changing products from primer to base coat to clear one needs to do a sprayout to see that the gun is adjusted to spray that product well..

I have never used any of what you are using so cannot comment on that..

Sam

__________________
I would rather make it work than make it popular..And if it does not work it will not be popular..

is it true though that you cant spray clear over enamel paint???

Yes, (you're talking about clear urethane, right?)
it's recommended to wait 24 hrs to use urethane over enamel.
I would stay with the enamel clear myself.

NO it is not true.

You can spray urethane clear over alkyd enamel or acrylic enamel but the requirement is you must activate the enamel and let set 4 hours or overnight for best results and then clear.

Sounds like your problems may be coming from not activating the enamel??
The fish-eyes are most likely advanced solvent pop or gassing.

Does it matter with the enamel clear I'm using??

[QUOTE=cutsupreme]Does it matter with the enamel clear I'm using??


If the clear must be activated, then yes.

If the clear is not an activated clear then no.

I used
4 parts clear
1 part reducer
1 part hardener

What would be the advantage of spraying say a urethane clear over acrylic enamel? Also by activating it you mean adding a hardner right? Sorry for butting in but I am just curious.

Ist I'm not sure anyone even makes an enamel clear anymore but if they do you would have a choice of whether to activate or not.

The advantage to using a urethane is it will have better gloss, last longer and be much more durable.

An enamel cures air dry, but would be a long long time till it cures all the way through. Probably many many years from what I understand. It can be activated to make it more like a urethane. Urethanes must be activated and they cure chemically by crosslinking (adding a hardener). The flash times and cure times and time to clearcoat window are much longer with an enamel, at least a single stage system as opposed to a converted enamel basecoat, I've seen a week time to clearcoat, really don't pay much attention to tech sheets for enamel anymore. I suspect barry is on the money. That enamel probably hasn't cured enough and solvents are building up or have not gassed and then your getting solvent pop in the clear. I would activate the enamel and extend your time to clear. I am not aware of enamel automotive clear, but if there was I think I would pass and use a urethane. With the problems, repainting, and the extra wait time, how much of a bargain is using that ebay paint over a base/clear system, if you were planning on clearing anyways. Some lines of urethane singlestage aren't too steep on price.
Its not true you can't clear over enamel paint. Many painters for years would spray the last coat of single stage with clear mixed in. And if you plan on buffing metallic you need a clear on top to do so. Many of the cheaper basecoats are a converted enamel which has to be cleared.

I went to my local Napa auto parts store yesterday and they recommended using Transtar Urethane Clear. It cost about $90 for the high gloss stuff, plus the price of the activator.

Does this seem like a good option?