Single stage and rock chip prevention

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Hello. More questions. I didn't want to hijack @dhutton01's 69 Mustang thread. My 1995 Corvette sits very low and will also see 130 MPH in short bursts. I am painting it with SPI Black Single Stage with SPI Black epoxy as a base. Can I add some kind of hardener besides the activator to be less prone to chips? The reason I ask is a friend mine was telling me he painted a truck once and it had a bunch of rock chips in short order. Going back and forth with DuPont for a solution, they told him to put 2 capfuls of hardener in it and it solved his problem. I don't know what paint it was or if it was BC/CC, so I can't relay that information. It piqued my curiosity. Thanks again!
 
He was most likely told to add activator to his base. It doesn’t apply to single stage.

Best thing you can do is use a reduced epoxy sealer to get a good bond to the single stage. I reduce it 25%.

Don
 
Right now I have 2 coats of epoxy drying and plan to sand it with 600 Monday (I have a few pieces close to ready). I was going to paint it after that, (within the time frame). So I only have to put down the 4 coats of color. What I should be doing is sanding what I have with 600, apply a coat of reduced epoxy and 4 coats of color? I should lay the 5 final coats of paint in one session? I always fight dirt. Sorry if I'm being dense.
 
I decided to paint the body first, so it took a little longer. I'm not complaining, I just have a few questions so I am extending this thread. I think i have excessive orange peel. I'm not sure what I'm not doing right. It's laying down pretty wet, ( I have 2 minor sags).This paint is easy enough to sand, so it's no big deal for the most part, but the gill panels and moldings will be challenging to buff, so I'd like to get a better technique. I have an Iwata LPH 400, with a silver cap. My fan is 1 1/4 turns out. It's about 7 or so inches wide. My fluid is 2.5 turns out. My pressure is 31 psi with the trigger pulled. I have a 5 horse compressor with a 60 gallon tank that keeps up fine. if i make my fan any wider, I have to move really slow and it doesn't work out for me and looks really crappy. I'm already going slow at these settings. Maybe I'm too far away, It feels like I'm right on top of it. Pictures attached. I'm shooting SPI single stage with very slow activator, 4 coats on top of 25% reduced epoxy that flashed for about 4 hours. Like I said, I'm not complaining, making another orange peel thread. I'd like to get sharper. TIA.
 

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Did the first coat have too much orange peel? The first coat needs to look like it is finished. If it has too much texture, with every coat a little more is added. It is not easy to get that many coats to lay down slick, for anybody. Looks fine.
 
The first coat was not my best effort. I cleaned the gun the night before and had it set wrong at first. I tried the fan settings others use and did not like it. Thanks for pointing that out.
 
Something to try.

Hold your gun where you spray at, then with the other hand and a tape measure see how far away from the panel you are. Depending on what you find there take a cut down paint stick and tape it to the gun so it sticks out about 5 to no more than 6 inches from the tip, that's about how far you probably should be from the panel. Leave that stick on and run through the motions several times to get a feel for it and get comfortable. I usually ran my fan all the way out, then back in a 1/2 to 1 turn.

Always double check your settings before you spray and hit a quick test pattern on the wall. One that bit me once was the little air knob on the bottom of the gun, make sure its backed all the way out.
 
Reduce stone chipping:
Epoxy as a sealer and spray the single-stage 5 to 6 " away from the panel, 8" will increase stone chipping, and adding extra iso will also make paint harder, and you do not want that; flex is what you want.
 
Reduce stone chipping:
Epoxy as a sealer and spray the single stage we 5 to 6 " away from pane, 8" will increase stone chipping and adding extra iso will also make paint harder and you do not want that, flex is what you want.
What do mean by adding extra iso? By reducing it?
 
I went to seal my hood and was 2 trigger pulls short of completion when my cup went dry. Will the reduced epoxy shorten my recoat window or do I still have 7 days? I was going to sand the edges where I ran out of sealer and put another coat of sealer on as long as I get the epoxy within the recoat window. I thinned it 50% on this coat. Thoughts?
 
No you do not have 7 days if you reduced it for a sealer. If you mixed it 1:1:1 (50% reduction) you only have a matter of hours. Sand before you re-coat.

Keep in mind too that the same holds true for applying base over reduced epoxy. You need to get your base on before it goes out of the re-coat window. Applying it 1:1:1 means you need to be ready to shoot your base in 45 minutes up to 3 hours or so after applying. Barry can give you exact times but those are pretty safe and what I usually go by. If you need more time reduce your epoxy less. 1:1:25% down to 1:1:10%. You have a loger re-coat window when you use less reducer.
 
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Should I wait to re-sand my hood with 400 for sealer until the black epoxy ships? I don't want to sand it too soon and have to redo it. Thanks
 
Sorry to ask so many questions, but I wouldn't have got this far without you guy's help and I really appreciate it.
I'm really having trouble with the hood.
I painted my hood with 4 coats and it looked horrible. My biggest problem is I can't reach to the middle and do one sweep of paint, among other things. Anyway. I sanded it with 400 until it was slick. I applied 4 more coats and it looked good enough to knock down and polish.I sanded with 1000 and it was going good. I have a piece of dirt that is now a white speck in the top of the hood I tried to sand out and I sanded to the previous layer. There is a halo in the picture if you look really close. By the way, that spot is 1200. it seems less noticeable than 1000, but the halo is bigger. If I keep going to 3000 or further, will it diminish or do I need to paint the hood again? I read a thread where the solution was to repaint the panel because it was single stage.(Not quite the same problem, though) At this point I guess I could live with the speck if I didn't have to paint the hood again. I'm unsure what my options are. At least it's on the passenger side where I won't be focused on it. Thanks again for your thoughts.

Edit: The halo is the size of an oval quarter.
 

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If you keep sanding it's not going to look better. Hard to tell without being there in person but it looks like you've sanded through to top of the first 4 coats you sprayed. First I would run my hand over it and also spray some solvent W&G remover or even water (if it doesn't bead) to see if there is a low spot there. Very possible if you have concentrated sanding in that area.
If you can feel a low spot (close your eyes and run your hand palm down over the panel use a cloth or paper towel to help with the feel if you need to) then you will need to spot prime or use something like dolphin glaze over that area to level it. Use epoxy for your primer, mask everything but that immediate area, but don't leave hard lines when you prime. Block the area carefully and then proceed to spot/blend some color over the area (no need to seal if you have not broken through the primer)
Then re-clear the entire panel.
If you search my member name and keyword "blender" you can find some posts where I have gone into a lot of detail about blending.

If it's not low you can blend directly on the surface. I would give it a good scuff with a grey scotchbrite and scuff stuff first, as 1000 grit scratches are too fine to re-coat. If you don't have any scuff stuff or other sanding paste, go over it lightly with 600-800 grit. I enphasize lightly. All you need to do is get the 600 or 800 scratches on it. Then proceed to spot in some color over the halo area and re-clear the entire panel.

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You mentioned that you had trouble reaching the middle of the hood (assuming it was on the car). I'm short, (5'6") and working in a production environment it can be a challenge. You should be able to rig up something that would allow you to reach the middle. Two empty five gallon barrels and 8 " inch board work well in a pinch. There are also van stands available commercially. Sometimes letting air out of the tires of something big, helps as well. I've taken the wheels off fullsize trucks before as well. Just have to make sure you lean and reach without touching anything. Practice it some before you paint.
 
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