Euro 2020 Clear Question

J

John Reese

Hello, I've been using SPI products for a few years now and am trying to figure out this 5000 Euro clear. I am an enthusiast with a personal shop and a cross-flow booth. I'm confident in my air setup and have an inline refrigerated dryer and large desiccant system in the booth. I was working on a caprice wagon for a family member and had to repaint the massive roof and one rear pillar. I used SPI epoxy, 2K, and Chromabase color, with the Euro on top. The Euro was mixed 4:1:2.5, new can of regular activator. The color took 4 coats to cover the grey 2k and I waited about an hour to put the clear on. The vehicle was tacked before the clear, no W&G was used on the basecoat. The clear shot great, I used the ANI-F150 with a 1.3 tip. Laid one light coat, waited about 30 min then added a final wet coat. Looked like glass over the first 24 hours. I went into the shop today to reassemble the roof rack and was disappointed with what I found. The texture over the entire painted area changed and has a fine rippling effect. No bubbles or craters, minimal dust/trash.

I don't think it is "orangepeel" because it was so smooth the first few hours. It has to be some sort of solvent issue right? Is it possible that I used too much reducer? Is it a reaction to solvents in the basecoat? It still looks great from about 5 feet, and feels smooth to the touch, but just has haze texture. The factory paintjob is trash and looks barely any better. I really don't want to have to buff the entire roof, that would take forever. Anybody seen this before? What am I doing wrong?

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4 coats on a large roof is a lot of paint and solvent so maybe should have waited longer or over night to clear ? I use Euro clear on most of my repairs and when used over Wanda will give a little longer time for base to gas out or release solvents. I know Jim C said at one time said that Diamont base has a longer tail solvents released over a longer time. Leave out in sun and reclear or buff.
 
No had nothing to do with the amount of reducer in the clear if it did it would have shown the problem within 30 minutes.
What you have here is a minor base contraction as the solvents come out of the base the base contracted and the clear is magnifying. the contraction.
The good news is a 1500 wet sand and buff will slick out.
Watch reducer speeds used in base and give the first coat a little more flash, to fast base reducer is normally the culprit in this case with humidity being the 2nd problem.
 
I pulled the car outside into the NC sun (85deg) about 12 hours after I shot the clear. Did this accelerate the solvent issue, or would it have done this regardless?

Sounds about right. I paint maybe one car a month and have slowly fixed my mistakes one at a time. I have never come across this one until now. Frustrating when something looks so good and you think you're finished, only to come back later and it has changed. I'm not a fan of that light gold metallic color. Coverage was terrible, I didn't have a lighter primer on hand. Buffing will be tricky because of what it is, so I may let it rest for now.
 
This what happened to you is pretty common with Black, Dark blue or Dark green and OTHER colors that take extra coats to cover, most common in production work as the poor painter cannot after 5-8 coats of base to make it cover to take the time to let it set before clear.
Yours is very minor from the picture as a lot of my calls go like this.
My painter painted a quarter Friday and it was slick as glass today Monday the clear looks like a grapefruit and the worst orange peel we have ever seen.
95% of the time it was black and done about 4:30, so rush it is.
The correction is just 1500 the clear slick and buff and that's the end of the problem.
 
AAE said:
The mantra being pounded into my thick skull is "slow is faster".
Click to expand...

The best explanation you can test yourself.
80 degrees, same color and painted the same time, you use a fast reducer and I use a slow reducer and we paint the base the same time.
Now the truth comes out with who can wet sand without gumming their panel first.
First, yours will dry to touch by about 3-5 minutes before my slow will but I will wet sand with ease somewhere around half to 25% faster than you.
Summery, once the paint skims it slows down the rest of solvents from getting out, great statement AAE and very important to know.
 
AAE, there is more if it helps!
This morning had a call from a shop that does all high-end restro types, 5 jobs in the shop now for $180,000 to the $260,000 one.
Had a 55 chev hood had to put 5 coats of clear on today and paint stripes on it had to go next day and wanted to know if I could get some fast activator for the universal to him.
I said sure but tomorrow you will call me and ask why the hood is too soft to wet sand and clear.
The reason is it will be in 80"s today and by capping so fast it will not let the other solvents out, so what do we do?
Told him to use his slow and ad 1oz to a mixed quart of clear, strip in 5 hours after done and do buffing in morning.
This is a call I get every spring starting with out of the same gallon I sprayed 3 cars yesterday and 2 buffed great but one is too wet the next day.
The story is, 2 of the cars were done before noon and it was 65 to 70 the third was done in afternoon and it was hitting 80. (the fix is one to two days in full sun or set in the shop for a week.)

Thanks, AAE to me this is very important for everyone to know.
 
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