[Arrowhead]

I'm in process of building a T-Bucket and I've painted the chassis parts with Omni epoxy, PPG base coat and PPG clearcoat. I've been very carefull, but there are about 1/2 a dozen spots where I sligthly tapped the finish with a wrench or other metal part and a bb sized chip falls off. It seems to chip down to the primer. Some parts have been painted for over a month, and some only a couple of days, doesn't seem to matter.

I tried to follow all the instuctions properly concerning flash times and such. The PPG rep told me that I didn't have to scuff between coats if I followed the reccomended time frames. I did scuff up some parts just to be sure and I still found some spots that chipped off anyway. The only thing I can think of is it was too cold when I painted or there is not enough clear to hold everything together. I know there is not much I can do about it now except repair when they show up (which will be extensive when it gets on the road), but I want to prevent it from happening on the body when I start on it. Any ideas? Thanks

[poncho62]

Paint is too brittle.......did you go overboard on the catalyst because of the cold.

[Arrowhead]

I don't think so, but they did give me low temp catalyst for the clear, but the base coat just used reducer.

[BarryK]

It may be nothing to worry about?
Its been cold and unless that car has been in a heated garage day and night may not be set up good.
100 things can cause your problem, but hope for best
and hope its just lack of heat?

[MARTINSR]

Is there primer on the backs of the chips?

[Arrowhead]

From what I can tell, it's the base coat flaking off the primer. I haven't actually examined the backside of a chip, but he primer seems intact where the chip came off.

[MARTINSR]

Well, of course we all hope it is the temp and when the paint fully "kicks" it's chip resistance it will improve . But I have to wonder about that primer. If you added some solvent to help it flow out, it could have still been trapped it it when you applied the base. Or, on the other end, if you let it set too long and didn't give it a good scuff before the base.