[cyclopsblown34]

I sprayed some clear last night on the underside of a hood, it was Nason 497-00 with the mid temp activator. It sprayed out nice except it looks like when activator goes bad and the surface looks like somebody threw real fine sand all over the surface. The pollen was stupid high yesterday and i found out the outside door to the "booth" was open for a bit yesterday while I was at work. Could pollen cause such a thing? I filter the air into there while spraying and filter the exit air as well. Any ideas? This is a bay of the shop that is closed off from the rest of it with a 4x4 filter opening, the inlet filters were just pleated furnace filters since I was out of the sticky filters. I've never had this happen except when the activator was bad but this was new from the customer clear and activator. They bought it from my paint supplier yesterday.

Thanks,
Chip.

[MARTINSR]

Could it be that you applied it a little too heavy and it is solvent pop? If you really bomb something on you will get that "carbonated" look.

I have seen contamination issues from the darn-est things. Like microscopic little white spots that ended up being peeling paint from the booth doors. Or small little fish eye looking stuff from etch primer that was being shot in the shop and sucked into the booth.

You may need to do some testing to see, maybe go old school and wet the filters?

Brian

[cyclopsblown34]

Thanks Brian,
My best description of it is like sand laying half in the clear. it is quite possible I laid it on too heavy but I always use your gun adjustment instructions every time I spray. The hood is laying flat on a pair of sawhorses and my test pattern is always done on a vertical piece of paper. I'm sanding it tonight with 400 wet, rinse it thoroughly and do the wetted filters method in the morning and see what happens. My sticky filters won't be in til next week, I work days in industrial sales and they're the same ones I sell several factories for their booths, just much smaller.

[cyclopsblown34]

The more I think about it, it almost has to be activator. I only put down one coat and it is evenly seedy looking all over. The base had sat for about an hour before I sprayed the clear and it was 70 degrees in there. My son just sprayed some interior parts with a single stage urethane today and they're like glass.

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by cyclopsblown34

The more I think about it, it almost has to be activator. I only put down one coat and it is evenly seedy looking all over. The base had sat for about an hour before I sprayed the clear and it was 70 degrees in there. My son just sprayed some interior parts with a single stage urethane today and they're like glass.

I have to tell you, "bad" products that do such a thing are so rare it isn't funny. Let me say that I use to think that too until I became a rep and I have to say in 5 years servicing a large part of California with 77 stores in my territory. Over those five years I saw one "bad" product in the field. It was a black toner that had some metallic in it. Every once in a while there is a bad product that gets recalled, but never a full on failure like this, it was always some goofy thing like a clear that had yellowed or something like that.

Out and out failure like this from a product that looks good as you pour it together, realistically, it doesn't happen. Hardener will have a chunky look if it has failed, by my experience.

That all being said, go ahead and get more hardener but be looking for other things. I am telling you this so you don't loose sight of what may be the real problem and it comes back to bite you. That SS your son sprayed is not clear, HS clear can react quite different to something than a SS urethane paint.

Just leave the door open in your head to look at other things is my advice.

Brian

[cyclopsblown34]

I used activator from a different batch this morning and dampened the inlet air filters, it laid out like it should. The pollen count wasn't nearly as high as it was the other day either. I eliminated or minimized several other potential contributing factors by the shop having been closed up since about eight last night and being wide awake and not tired after a day at the office. I also now have a test panel I'll use every time I get ready to spray.
My initial thought was a contaminant of some sort from me or the environment but my paint supplier said it sounds to him like one of the very few times he's seen bad activator as in old material. He's going to check the lot number and see how old it is. I agree Brian, the one variable that is consistent and controlled enough to not be the problem is the materials.

Thanks for the advice and help,
Chip.

[MARTINSR]

Ahhhh, you are seeing it with a wide open door. Sounds like you got it handled no matter what it was.

Brian

[cyclopsblown34]

Originally Posted by MARTINSR

Ahhhh, you are seeing it with a wide open door. Sounds like you got it handled no matter what it was.

Brian

I didn't figure out what it was but I did think about that I never paint or clear in the evening and never have this problem. Like I said, I really appreciate your input.