Nervous about epoxy as a sealer

Arrowhead

Arrowhead

Oldtimer
No, I'm not concerned about the product. I'm worried that my garage won't be warm enough and if it isn't cured properly, I'll have issues down the road with the base and clear. I can get my garage to about 60-70, but as everyone knows the metal temp may never get there.

The outside temps run about 20-30 during the day and 10-20 at night, and that's a heat wave.

It's kind of spotty too, like the back of the car is by the overhead door and it might not be as warm there.


I do have some polar accelerator, will that do anything?
 
Polar will do nothing.
Can you get a salamander heater from someone, or cheap to rent.
Got to get metal temp up in 65-70 range, then when done with epoxy let the heater run for 2-4 hours.
DON"T, PLEASE DON'T chance it other wise BECAUSE when I tell you how to fix, you will hate me.
 
jc clark method. put a heating blanket on it . or you can set a small electric heater under it and cover it.
 
The blanket is ONLY for dried mostly cured paint.

If it's not an entire car, just a panel or two, some lights
like halogens can keep a couple panels real warm even in
a cold garage. Like all night.
 
OK, I'm glad I asked. I have a couple of ideas, but I will definatly work out some kind of system, I have too much time in on this project to mess it up now. I have a hot water unit heater hung from the ceiling which does a pretty decent job. I also have a kerosene space heater I could fire up for extra insurace.

I feel a digital thermometer comming on.
 
Premix the sealer 2-4 hours in advance and make sure the epoxy itself is warm (I often warm it up to 120* during the induction stage), use slow reducer in it and I usually mix it 1:1:1 for one thin slick coat. Keep the heat on all night, denib the next day and shoot the paint. Can't beat the durability.
 
Bob, how does mixing the epoxy that much in advance help things? Does it change the consistency of the primer or the way it flows?
 
It flows better for me, there's never any seperation or texture problems. I struggled sometimes in the past getting a thin slick sealer coat on when I didn't give it any induction time. Goes on as slick as clear if you let it induce for awhile-just make sure to stir it once in awhile-important.
 
Bob Hollinshead;4798 said:
It flows better for me, there's never any seperation or texture problems. I struggled sometimes in the past getting a thin slick sealer coat on when I didn't give it any induction time. Goes on as slick as clear if you let it induce for awhile-just make sure to stir it once in awhile-important.
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Thank you Bob and you are exactly right!!!
If I'm going to shoot epoxy, I mix it up in morning and let it set, sometimes even wait over night.
 
For some reason I had in my mind it was a primer so it needed a large tip, but I tried shooting it some small areas with my base/clear gun and it came out much smoother.
 
I spray all my epoxy thru my 1.4 tip Iwata.. Does a beautiful job.. I also use my 1.2 Iwata mini gun for the same thing with unreduced epoxy.. sprays it like glass
 
This is great, I'm feeling better about the epoxy sealer already. I've been testing the temperature of the panels tha last couple of nights in the garage and it's not as bad as I thought. I do notice the down low like the rockers are cooler then say half way up the fenders. I need to raise it up about 6" to get better access for the gun on the rockers anyway, so maybe that will help too.
 
It's not unusual for us to see a 6-8° difference between the rocker and the roof on a job in the winter. It seems so strange to be sweating in our shirtsleeves in 70° air temps because we are used to winter, and have a rocker panel be 59-60°, but that's just the way it is here.
 
Bob, how do you warm up the epoxy?


Bob Hollinshead;4791 said:
Premix the sealer 2-4 hours in advance and make sure the epoxy itself is warm (I often warm it up to 120* during the induction stage), use slow reducer in it and I usually mix it 1:1:1 for one thin slick coat. Keep the heat on all night, denib the next day and shoot the paint. Can't beat the durability.
Click to expand...
 
i use epoxy as a primer and a sealer all the time. this time of year when i spray my booth temp is about 60 when running. heat in shop is set at 66 during the day and 60 at night. the parts i shoot have to be slightly colder than that and i have never had a single issue. with it at 60 deg and 2 coats i can still sand the epoxy next day. now 50 and below i would say that would be a problem.
 
C10chas;4923 said:
Bob, how do you warm up the epoxy?
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The hydronic heating system in the shop has a maximum boiler temp of 180* so I use the heat from that to safely warm the epoxy, you can also fill a bucket with hot water and mix your epoxy in a sealed container and place it in the hot water. It's definately not something a person needs to do but I've found it really gets the products induced well before application-way better than cold products. I keep the heat on 24/7 and maintain a minimum of 60* but some people do turn the heat down at nights in their shops-keep in mind it takes awhile for all of your paint products to stabilize in temps once the heat is turned up and often times a person ends up not thinking about it and sprays cold product-this can create a lot of problems-slow cure, poor application from a thicker viscosity...
 
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