[NOVA1958]

Hi everyone
I'm restoring a 72 Nova and I'm ready to paint the firewall and dash and was wondering whats a good durable satin paint to us.I've smoothed the firewall and painted with SPI epoxy and was thinking of just leaving it like that but I've noticed it scratches easily I painted the underside,inside and trunk with SPI epoxy primer and it seems pretty durable to chemicals but you can scratch it.When I say scratch I'm saying hitting it with something ,I guess all paint will scratch.You can rub on it all day with a rug and its good,I've even taken paint thinner and rubbed on it and it will not hurt it.Sitting here posting this makes me think this is some pretty good stuff.Has anybody used SPI epoxy like this and not put a top coat over it.

Thanks

[s10mikey]

use a good ruberized undercoating,, it will help with the heat plus it won,t rust or be afected by water or weather,, just an idea,,

[hinges56]

Damn! It must be nice to have a rotisserie! Looks good.

[Chevymon]

A lot of cars just had primer on the bottom side from the factory, and some restorers are using SPI black epoxy on the engine bay and misc parts that were originally satin black. The gloss can be controlled by the amount of reducer used. But I would use a top coat over the dash.

[66SSImp454]

Just some ideas.

Keep the SPI, it looks great! Last I heard SPI is good as a top coat, this suggests the scratches can be worked out... can you polish scratches out as they happen or touch them up? Once you are done, I doubt the firewall will be much of an area that is likely to get scratched.

Blitz Black (yep I said it) I think this is a great under hood paint, plus you can use a hardener.

Some sprayable sound deadner or bedliner (as suggested above)? It will not look as slick as you currently have it but it will keep heat and sound at a minimum.

Regardless, that is a good looking rig. Good work!

[ppgsprayer]

Do not use rubberized undercoating, your better off with just the epoxy. If it won't be exposed to UV it should hold up and look the same for a long time. You could top coat with a flattened clear possibly if you want to make it more UV resistant or mess around with the final finish of the epoxy.