guide coat what to use?

S

ShaunD

I am just curious what you guys use for guide coat. Will any cheap spray paint work? Your not really caking it on and 95% of it is just being sanded off so can you use the cheap can of spray paint from walmart? Thanks
 
ShaunD,

That is what I use the cheapest flat black they have. Just mist it on :)
 
I use the 3M dry and the spray guide coat by SEM.
Both work good.
The spray cans at Wal-Mart work good if you get
lacquer primer that's labeled "sandable",
It sands off easier without gumming the paper
like some regular paints do.
I like it just as well except for the strong smell it gives off,
the SEM doesn't smell strong like the lacquer.
But I don't see much difference other than that.:cool:
 
Like JC said, if you use cheap spray paint, you will burn though too much expensive paper. I use the "sandable" cans of primer for small spots, or a different color of epoxy if I am doing multiple panels. Most of the time I just use black SPI primer and watch the gloss. Epoxy really shows the lows, but you can see what you're doing with Turbo pretty well too.
 
If I have a little paint left over from a previous job I reduce it a lot and use it as a guide coat. This way I get rid of old left over paint.

This was left over from a Chevelle we worked on about 4 years ago

81.jpg
 
Rusty. that's the way to go!!!
I'm sure most of us have a bunch of left over colors.
My problem is, it seems I always get most of the masking
removed before I remember to guide coat it(LOL)
 
The best bang for your buck is to buy a gallon of economy lacquer primer then reduce it 200-300%, keep an old siphon feed gun loaded and drop in 4 or 5 marbles for a shake and spray guidecoat whenever it's needed. You can find the cheap primer in black, grey, and red oxide. The dry guidecoat works OK but I have missed scratches with it when stepping down to finer grits.
 
I use 3m dry on some stuff. For larger stuff i mix some dykem blue in reducer and mist it on.
 
Bob Hollinshead;6986 said:
The best bang for your buck is to buy a gallon of economy lacquer primer then reduce it 200-300%, keep an old siphon feed gun loaded and drop in 4 or 5 marbles for a shake and spray guidecoat whenever it's needed. You can find the cheap primer in black, grey, and red oxide. The dry guidecoat works OK but I have missed scratches with it when stepping down to finer grits.
Click to expand...

i find the dry stuff hard to use in finer grits also, especially wetsanding...it wants to just wash off as you are sanding....laquer primer and old leftover over-reduced basecoat works wonders...i have a whole cabinet full lol.
 
I can usually pickup the cheap lacquer primer for about $30/gallon, gun wash quality lacquer thinner costs me about $9.70/gallon, reduce the primer 200% it ends up being 13.4cents per sprayable ounce. And it works better than anything else I've tried. Jim's dykem probably works better I bet. Cuts down on garbage, environmental impact is the same as the aresol-maybe better... compare pricing to how many ounces you get in the aresol cans and it's a no brainer. I've used old basecoat many times in the past but it's not sandpaper friendly when you get into the really fine grits-JMO.
 
I like the 3M dry, but for some reason I haven't been using it. I feel the panel for highs and lows and sand accodingly and using SPI primer, it's pretty easy to spot uneven areas. Maybe I'm missing out on something, but I barely touched the srtuff on the T Bird project and was very pleased w/ the results anyway.
 
I agree Arrowhead. I use guide coat sometimes with known problem areas, but I usually feel pretty confident just watching the primer itself. Maybe some of the pros on here could explain what stages of sanding would be best done with guidecoat.
 
Jim C;6987 said:
I use 3m dry on some stuff. For larger stuff i mix some dykem blue in reducer and mist it on.
Click to expand...

Man what a great idea. I have a full container of blue dykem sitting on the shelf and some left over cheapo reducer. Thanks Jim!
 
just keep in mind any chap chemicals you introduce into the job can bite you. i avoid lacquer like the plaque , especially cheap thinner . since i use epoxy i just shoot a reduced coat of black over gray for last coat.
 
I use the 3m dry for dry sanding and spray for wet sanding, no patience for anything that clogs paper
 
maybe be a petty thing, but I worry about guide coat getting into pin holes (powder or spray) and the next coat of whatever not sticking in the pin hole. I usually try to sand pinholes out and fill again, but sometimes I miss some.
 
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