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Clear coat feels soft/rubbery

1454 Views 1 Reply 2 Participants Last post by  chasracer
Hey guys. So I’ll start by mention I’m not a body man or painter. Not even close, in fact I hate doing body work and paint. Anyway I’m in the middle of a new build for my 72 nova and before I put the new power plant into the car I wanted to paint the firewall and make it look nice. So I laid down some gunmetal grey. It laid down nicely and then I sprayed the clear coat in in a few heavy coats I know for a fact I didn’t wait long enough between clear coats. Approximately 8-10 minutes. So my clear coat feels soft, or even rubbery to the touch, it feels dry to the touch but almost like it hasn’t cured. It doesn’t feel like hardened like paint should. Also I should mention this whole project was done from a rattle can. AnywAy, my question to the guys who have a lot of experience is, how long will it take to for this to cure. And second question is when can I safely polish the clear with some sort of cut/buff compound. Thanks guys.
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Is this some of the new 2-part rattle cans that have a hardener that gets mixed into clear or just the old style single stage clear? If it's the older stuff, then one you just have to wait it out until the solvents gas off as putting the second on too soon trapped solvents of the first coating. On the cut and buff deal, I doubt seriously if you got enough clear on there to allow for that to happen. Most of the time with a regular gun setup, we are putting at least three-four clear coats on if not more to give enough depth to cut it. A rattle can isn't going to be able to put out the same thickness of material as the paint itself has to be thinner to even spray it out of the can. If you used the newer stuff, then just keep your fingers crossed that it will harden with time and not lift the second coating. The same issue of trapped solvents is going on probably but hardened paints make it harder (no pun intended) for the solvents to gas out.
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