Two tone paint sealer question

Josh

Josh

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Hey guys, thinking about my process this week as I hope to get the body painted this week. Working on a 77 Sierra that will be two tone white center with candy red top n bottom. I have black epoxy to use as sealer for the red so my question is on the white.

If my sealer is thin coat can I get away with my white base over it. Ir should I seal in different colors? I was thinking different colors means more tape lines. Am I over thinking it

Thanks as always for any advice
 

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Black would not be the correct color for either the red or white. Black would require you apply 2X as many coats of red to get what is called coverage, which is the true color without any influence from the undercoats (in this case the black epoxy). White would be even worse. You will end up using 2X the amount of basecoat that you would with the correct color sealer. You want to use gray for your sealer color.

How I would do what you are asking about is to reduce the epoxy 1:1:25% (1/2) and apply one medium coat. Seal the entire truck. Being that you are doing two colors you have to work fairly quickly to stay in the open window of the sealer. 2 hours would be considered the absolute minimum time before you can base. If you can wait 4 hours that would be safer. Many will give it overnight but in this case seeing you have two colors to do you want to get to base ASAP so that you have enough time to get the second color on while the sealer is still in the open window. Open window for the epoxy mixed as sealer is about 18 hours max.

So when ready shoot your first color which should be the white because it will be much easier to mask off that area than it will be to shoot the red and mask off the entire truck. Shoot the white, medium coats, giving 20-30 minutes flash between coats. When you have coverage, wait 1 hour minimum then mask off the white. Immediately after masking shoot the rest of the truck and remove your masking as soon as you are finished. You do not want tape/mask to stay on the fresh base any longer than absolutely necessary. Doing what you are doing, you should be able to have the masking on and off in about 2 hours. When you finish with the base, let it sit overnight and come back the next day and clear.

Should go without saying but use only high quality tape designed for automotive refinishing. And remember it's important to not let the tape/mask sit any longer than it takes to spray the second color. And when removing tape, for clean lines always pull the tape back over on itself when removing.
 
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Hey Chris, thanks for your input. I went with Black based off the manufacturer of the red. They recommend black to get the deeper color. With 3-4 coats.

I did the cowl and jambs in black sealer with 3 coats base and two of euro ( will do 3 of euro on ext).

Also to be clear I'm a amateur and maybe shot these coats heavy.
 

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crashtech said:
I would like to speak with whoever is recommending black under red.
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Agreed. Sounds like a load of horse manure. I have no idea why black would be recommended because it throws reds way off. It aint going make it deeper, just a darker color. It gives it that odd look that you can see in the bottom right side of the pic posted. Whoever reco'd that is talking out of their ass IMO.

Guy I worked with a few years ago was doing a new Silverado that was painted GM Radiant Red. Tri-coat IIRC. Anyways all he had to do was the fender (blend within). He came to me after he had sealed it and sprayed base and said "man I can't get it to blend. I think you mixed the paint wrong" I had to mix all his paint because mixing was above his level of comprehension. I go in and look at the truck and see the mess he created. He tells me he sealed it and everything. I asked what color and he replied black. The color was so far off because of the black sealer it wasn't funny. He gave up on it and I ended up having to repair it. Ended up priming over the black and had to go into the door on the blend.

Your truck, do what you want to do. What I outlined above is normally how it's done though.
 
no way black under red. you want the undercoat to be the same value (brightness) as your base. what is your base color? a metallic red or are you going straight silver then candy red over it?
 
I don't disagree, I'm sure everyone here has more experience than myself, this is the first color I have shot and am pretty happy with everything so far.

To clarify I said deeper and maybe should have said darker, that's my fault.

I'm goin on the recommendation of the base supplier. The color is seductive red by trop. Glitz
 
Using undercoats to vary the final appearance of a job is such bad practice. I am too tired of trying to explain why, so I guess Tropical Glitz gets to not only admit their product has crap coverage, they're also setting people up to fail in a repair environment. Blending color with incomplete coverage is no picnic.

Sorry if it seems like I am picking on you, OP, it's just a pet peeve of mine. The pics you posted look nice!
 
crashtech said:
Using undercoats to vary the final appearance of a job is such bad practice. I am too tired of trying to explain why, so I guess Tropical Glitz gets to not only admit their product has crap coverage, they're also setting people up to fail in a repair environment. Blending color with incomplete coverage is no picnic.

Sorry if it seems like I am picking on you, OP, it's just a pet peeve of mine. The pics you posted look nice!
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No worries this way about picking, I fully am aware as a beginner there will be things eventually I will look back at and not like. But I'm in the trench now so forward I go.

I just want to be clear I understand you vets have a lot of experience to draw from, in which I'm also trying to draw upon.

I can't speak to a repair, for me personally I've sprayed epoxy and 2k primer but the actual base clear has been a wall I get stuck on. I'm pretty darn happy with what I have so far (well except a couple poorly placed power sags in the clear) although I realize there may be issues I could face in the future.

I will say it seems to have covered well with 3 coats to my eye. I took it as the candy part is what affects the final base tone. Like a true candy over silver


I do appreciate ALL feedback this forum has been a tremendous help
 
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