Clear Coat Question...

RebelAir

Air-Valve Autobot!
For the auto guys out there, I'm currently knee deep in a paintjob on a Harley Tank..I went out and bought some Dupont but I'm really not liking it, the bases I bought are very transparent when mixed well enough to spray right and its creating a lot more work than needed and even worse the black is shifting to a brown look over white..I rang up the dudes that mixed up the paint for me and he said basically its a very transparent black tint..Long story short is I'm contemplating sanding this ****** off and possibly doing it in either SpectraTex or Etac as I have plenty of both to do the job and I know it will take half the time to get the full coverage of color and thus save me a lot of time and build up grief..Only prob is that the guy I'm doing it for wants to use Protec to clear it (2PAC) I've never had any issues before clearing such paints as Etac and Spectra with an acrylic base clear...Not 100% sure what Protec is in that regards but am wondering if anyones cleared Etac or SpectraTex with a 2 pac clear and how its held out...Any cracking issues or such?
 
As it's for a Harley tank, you do know that the Sectratex in not lightfast, and not recommended for full sun exposure. As for the Protec, not sure, not a brand I am familiar with. All I know is it has to be a catalyzed clear , otherwise if you get fuel on it, it will melt.
 
The brand of clear shouldn't make a massive difference. So long as the paint is able to be cleared over and its a 2 pack urethane clear coat you should be fine.
As for clearing over those specific brand paints you mentioned, I can't say for sure as I have never used them.
 
I agree with Kaotik....As long as the 2k clear is a quality product, I wouldn't stress too much about it. I'm not familiar with Protec clear, but I would check and see if it has any UV inhibitors prior to using it. I haven't used SpectraTex or Etac paint either, but can offer one piece of advice when clearing over water based artwork... Be sure and spray a light tac coat first and let it flash. This will allow the under lying paint and the clear to acclimate to each other. I've seen some wicked, and very undesirable, reactions when clear is initially hammered over water based paints...
 
You should be fine clearing over the etac. Jody Barrio has done it. Rick Primeau has done it. Using 2k over waterborne/base is ok as long as you follow a couple tips here.
First coat needs to be a "hi how ya doin" coat, not a "tonsil hockey, french kiss, slobbery" wet coat. Then you can do a few medium wet coats after that. Of course letting it flash off and tack in between. Follow the tech sheet religiously.
I usually don't count that first coat as an actual first coat, the one following is usually the first one I count if I'm going to clear stuff.
 
I've cleared over Etac with 2k clear many times and it works just fine. I would stay away from Spectratex only because as previously mentioned, its not considered light fast. Depending upon your design, I would hit it with a heat gun every so often to make sure all the water is evaporated 100%. Don't wait until you're finished to heat set the paint. Residual moisture in the paint is the only thing that will affect the clear coat. Rebel, I'm not that familiar with the Dupont paint you used, but they may have given you tints instead of base coats, which are much more opaque than a tint. You may want to check the Dupont paint product number on the Dupont web site to see what you really have (tint or base coat?).
 
Cheerz guys ya've given me some food for thought..I think your right JT, I went in and told the dude I wanted base coat, chatted to him on the phone yesterday and he kept using the word tint. I explained that I didn't want tints and got the "oh well" you can come back and change it, problem is its 2 hrs away LOL, but may have to bite the bullet and go change it out..I will suss out the Dupont website and see what the code is for the paint he made up for me..Only prob is its wasted nearly a week of my time....Darn..Chatted to Bill Edwards about Etac and 2pac and he confirmed that in most test cases it was fine, the main prob there is I won't be clearing it so I cant control what the person who does will do in the sense of the first coat which I tend to do the same as been suggested, he wants me to intercoat clear it and if I don't stick with auto paint I'm thinking it could be an issue..Tell ya I'm over airbrushing LOL
 
I use U-pol, which is a 2K clear for my stuff rebel, although it's not over spectra, or etac , it works really well over wicked paints. So I can't see etac being waterbased as an issue . I would give it a light coat of something even if it's just some transparent base to give it a bit of protection on the way to the painters. I don't know how sturdy etac is, but wicked is fairly tough and have had to repair damage with that before.
Just threaten your clearcoat guy with instanteneous death, or worse, if he doesn't give it all the lightest of dustcoats first, but as far as I can remember, it's recommended you do that with any 2K anyway and not just over artwork, so if he knows what he's about, which I'm sure he does as you picked him, should be all good.

"......Tell ya I'm over airbrushing LOL....." Yeah right, you love it Lol!!! Will there be any skulls on this tank, after all they are your favourite LOL LOL LOL!
 
Haha Squishy, no skulls on this one, the bugger didn't want to make my life easy, its an dark angel theme m8, and I didn't pick who will clear it m8, so I have no idea on his normal process but as I'll be intercoat clearing it I think it shld be OK if I do decide to try to talk him into the benefits of waterbased..My main prob is the dupont needs to be reduced to about 70% which basically turns the base coat to pretty much a transparent and its taking 5 times as long to lay it down to the intensity I need which then kind of makes it look overpainted..Will keep on ticking on and see where it gets me LOL and if worse comes to worse I have a lot of thinners ;)
 
Rebel, Rick Primeau of primocustoms did an entire Ford pickup truck (pretty much every inch is covered with airbrushing) we call the "Shark Tank". He did the entire thing in E'tac PS. He cleared it, cut n buffed it and it's doin ok. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...9871868.-2207520000.1364091004&type=3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...9871868.-2207520000.1364091004&type=3&theater

Don't know if you'll be able to see those. It is his page not his personal fb. But yeah that's all e'tac.
 
Cheerz BG, I actually got onto Bill Edwards to chat to him about how Etac has tested under 2 Pak and he also said all good in 99% of conditions..Its my customer that doesn't have good feelings about ETAC or any waterbased as a previous artist using such caused him some major issues (Dunno what that artist was using)..But will continue on with the job with the DuPont and then see if I can switch for other potential jobs he may have for me..Its just a bugger that its taking the extra time for buildup of the base layers..Cheerz for the responses :)
 
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