Activated Base Coat

sprint_9

Rookie
Today I blocked down my fenders, then sprayed epoxy reduced down as a sealer. They then sat for a little over 2 hours, then I went to base. I mixed it half right, I got the base and reducer right but forgot to activate it, totally spaced off the activator. I only realized my mistake when I was sorting through my clear activators and ran across the one marked base coat.

So to my question, what kind of issues can I expect? Id like to activate the rest of my panels, but now I have 2 fenders that dont have activated base.

As of right now my fenders are sitting in the booth overnight and I had planned to clear tomorrow.

Need to note using Wanda base, blue solid color. Universal clear
 
Alot of people don't activate their base. Benefits of activating base are that if you sand thru the clear later on, when rebasing, the new base has less chance of lifting. The solvents from the new base bite into the paint and the activator forms sort of a barrier to help prevent lifting. It helps it to dry more stable. If I start out and forget to activate base, I just don't add it from there on out. If i were you, I wouldn't worry about what isn't activated and activate everything else. There are several threads on here about this in more detail.
 
Thanks elwood. I remember reading over some of those posts but don't remember much of the reasoning, just that it was something good to do. I'm a novice at this so I jump to worst case scenario right away.

I'll keep activating my future panels and try my best on these not to sand through the clear.
 
Activation increases chip resistance and adhesion also. For example, most paint mfrs. require base to be activated when painting flexible parts. I think the front end is where activated base is needed most, to increase stone chip resistance. Sometimes if I am refinishing a door on an older driver car, I will not activate. But hoods and fenders, always.
 
I still kick myself over it but there's not much I can do about it now. Everything else will be activated but my fenders won't be as they are pretty much done, hopefully the base bites good into the epoxy sealer.
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It looks great! My guess is that your truck won't see the kind of use that a regular driver will, so rock chips ought to be few and far between.
 
Once again, I absolutely love your truck!
It looks great! My guess is that your truck won't see the kind of use that a regular driver will, so rock chips ought to be few and far between.

Thank you. I'd say my truck will be an occasional drive to work and weekend cruiser. With that being well into the summer driving season when there isnt crap all over the road and no chance of rain within 400 miles, LOL
 
I think I got it, turned my gun way down and lightly layered to get coverage. It's been about 3 hours since I got done with 3 more coats of clear.
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Looks like an LS swap????

It's an Gen 4 5.3 ls with a mild cam, it's brand new so I'm kind of excited to fire it, sometime this fall maybe.
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Long story short I wasn't happy with my fenders and how the final rounds of clear turned out, I made some mistakes and didnt want to risk not having enough clear on for longevity by the time I blocked out those mistakes. So I blocked them down with the intention of clearing them again, everything went pretty well, with the exception of a small break through on one edge. I touched it up with some base at noon today and it looked good, just like every other spot I have touched up. I sprayed my clear tonight around 5:30 and when I was looking over the fenders right before I sprayed my final coat I could see the touch up, not the break through, but the actual base itself, mainly the edge of the spray pattern. Its almost as if that touch up is higher than the original base below it, is that even a thing? I think I can live with it as you have to be right on it to see it, stand up and you really cant see it, even with a good light shining on it, of coarse a light isnt the sun.

The thing that gets me with this is that Ive touched up spots before the same way and never had a problem, but I have never had this much clear on and touched up. I had 3 coats blocked down with 800, 3 more coats and then I blocked with 320 dry and 600 wet to fix my mistakes. Then over that the touch up, and more clear.
Here is a pic, I cant get it to show up on camera.
20180618_183201.jpg

I have a couple touch ups to do on my doors, Im half scared of what will happen. I only have 3 coats of clear on them though, blocked down with 600 wet.

Is there anything I should do different on touch ups? Usually I just turn my gun down, spray the base fairly light in a smaller pattern over the spot with enough to get coverage, and then clear over it.
 
Personally, I would rebase the entire door on a build of that quality just to be safe... Assuming you have enough basecoat left from the original mix?? Otherwise maybe a slightly larger blend area using closer to your normal basecoat gun settings?? Hopefully some of the collision folks on here can share some tips... They do a lot of blending!!!
 
I find putting base over epoxy like you did makes way more
difference for better adhesion than activating the base.
I never activate my base, but I do use epoxy on my bumpers and
have seen tremendous improvement on less road rash.
You'll be fine.
 
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