RETARDER and why?

Barry

Barry

Paint Fanatic
Staff member
Had a great call for education purposes last night.

The guy had shot three coats of clear on car in last week and wet sanded and was now putting on three more coats.

He called after second coat and had small solvent pop on some of the flat surfaces.

We were coming up to the 30 minutes mark so kind of cut him off and asked if he had any retarder and fortunately he did.

I suggested he hurry up and mix more clear and add 35-50% retarder to the mix and hammer a coat on flat surfaces and a medium wet coat on side so don’t run.

He called back and said the flats were clearing up and I said I would hammer another coat right away on the flats just to make sure they go away.

Once again, the retarder has saved a painter and it would have been a lot of extra work if he did not have retarder on the shelf.

Like a friend told me 30 years ago better to have a gun on you and not need it, than need it and not have it or was he talking retarder.
 
Barry said:
Had a great call for education purposes last night.

The guy had shot three coats of clear on car in last week and wet sanded and was now putting on three more coats.

He called after second coat and had small solvent pop on some of the flat surfaces.

We were coming up to the 30 minutes mark so kind of cut him off and asked if he had any retarder and fortunately he did.

I suggested he hurry up and mix more clear and add 35-50% retarder to the mix and hammer a coat on flat surfaces and a medium wet coat on side so don’t run.

He called back and said the flats were clearing up and I said I would hammer another coat right away on the flats just to make sure they go away.

Once again, the retarder has saved a painter and it would have been a lot of extra work if he did not have retarder on the shelf.

Like a friend told me 30 years ago better to have a gun on you and not need it, than need it and not have it or was he talking retarder.
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What do think caused this problem, and how could it be prevented?
 
Really did not get into that once I found out how long the 2nd coat had been on there, he said waited exactly 30 minutes and then said no water issue, so at that point, I have no clue as everything is perfect so went on to retarder.
 
Inside the shop with no sun maybe..

Barry so is best to add the retarder if you doing a flow coat just to be safe
 
Your retarder saved my bacon last week as well Barry. I was out of the Euro2020 and Owner wanted me to use what we had before I placed another order. I had an overall I had to do with Nason 465 which is a fairly fast clear and by the time I got around the car it was leaving some dry spray on the fisrt panels I shot. So I crossed my fingers and looked at the MSDS of the Nason clear and noticed it had the same ingredients as the retarder so I figured why not? Used 2 oz per 32 oz RTS shot 2 more coats and it worked out well. Thank you again for the great products and your dedication. :)
 
Danny23 said:
Inside the shop with no sun maybe..

Barry so is best to add the retarder if you doing a flow coat just to be safe
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People do add to be safe but I really have no opinion for that reason.
I like it for a super flow coat but most important for life's little screw ups we all get once in a while and having it on the shelf just makes life easier.
If this guy did not have it, he would have been mad at me and had at least another days work ahead of himself.
 
All the retarder does is slow the flash time and totally evaporates in hours, does not affect anything else with the clear.
 
Thanks B.
I mix 16oz ready to spray in clean mason jar cause-
1- i have gun in lap as i roll around & refil gun twice per mix so it doesn't slop around & nice having lid to screw on as i spray.
2- second half of mix does become slightly thicker and sometimes add a tiny splash of reducer to it.

I always use slowest activator, medium reducer for everything.
Would it keep 2nd half of mix thin as 1st half? 1-2oz? I have the retarder in my goodie box.
Florida
 
Thanks CT. I admit i get medium reducer to save a few bucks but the few cars i work on, yes it makes sense to spend a few dollars extra. I'm worth it.
Will do when i reorder activator.
 
Well, it could be that a shot of retarder could pretty much turn 870 into 885, maybe Barry could shed light on that. From experience, we just have better results using at least a blend of 885 and 870, straight 870 in our shop is for primer, jambs, small parts, things like that.
 
For what it's worth, I only buy slow activators and reducers. In cooler temperatures I simply wait longer for the product to flash and clear to leave the stringy state.
I put about 2 ozs of Retarder per 26 ozs of Ready To Spray clear on the last coat only. Works so well that I didn't even buff the passenger side door on the 55 Chevy truck before it left and nobody noticed. LOL
The truck will be coming back for some finish work so I'll rebuff the entire thing then just to keep the customer happy and my conscience clear.
 
'68 Coronet R/T said:
For what it's worth, I only buy slow activators and reducers. In cooler temperatures I simply wait longer for the product to flash and clear to leave the stringy state.
I put about 2 ozs of Retarder per 26 ozs of Ready To Spray clear on the last coat only. Works so well that I didn't even buff the passenger side door on the 55 Chevy truck before it left and nobody noticed. LOL
The truck will be coming back for some finish work so I'll rebuff the entire thing then just to keep the customer happy and my conscience clear.
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Which clear?
 
Me 4000 & 4004.
Retarder is "old formula" guessing. Tried it maybe once to brush one 1st & final coat 1 shot.
 
crashtech said:
Well, it could be that a shot of retarder could pretty much turn 870 into 885, maybe Barry could shed light on that. From experience, we just have better results using at least a blend of 885 and 870, straight 870 in our shop is for primer, jambs, small parts, things like that.
Click to expand...

This is fairly true but no one procedure works the same for every painter or shop, so my favorite saying is if a mix of reducers or activators work for you, DON'T change a thing as only the net result counts.
 
Funny, I've been using retarder for a couple of decades now, but about 10 yrs ago
I got blasted by a few on various (not to mention) forums telling me how it's not needed
and I should learn how to paint.
It works great for me. I even use it in my woodworking finishing.
 
Next project i'll try 1oz in 16oz sprayable mix. Will be great if it keeps mix as if i just mixed it for 10 more min without adding reducer.

Guessing i put double that to brush on/preserve whatever white vinyl canvas like material came on my 93 Caddy roof. Still looks great.
 
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