I'm am not a professional painter. I am learning on panels in my garage. I prepped a panel and laid down a base coat. A few day later I went back and sprayed clear over it. I used something called PCL Super Pro Clear 2600 with Medium reduced. I mixed it 4:1. It sprayed nice and laid smoothly. The next day I wanted to tape out a panel and spray a clear with coloerd candy. The tape started to stick and lift up the clear a little. The clear still felt just slightly gummy. I waited another day and it still feels a little gummy. What am I doing wrong?
Waiting between putting the base on and clear on was not the right move. But thats probably no your issue. Seems like you didn't use any hardener like Ed said.
Happened to me too one time. When I mixed the clear the second time around I was surprised that the hardener bottle was still full and the reducer half gone!
One thing I learned was if you paint base coat then clear coat you can not spray candy over the clear unless you use inter coat clear (if I am spelling it right). If you spray candy over clear, it will lift. I learned this on a dash and misc parts 10 years ago.
With any base coat/clear coat you shouldn't wait more than 24 hrs to clear. If the clear is still gummy you didn't use enough hardner or the wrong hardner. You have a mess on your hands.
Website says 4:1 Clear to hardner. Don't see that reducer is mentioned but I might be missing something.
looks like lots O rags and thinner in your future....or spray on a really wet coat of double hardened clear with double the tip pressure to push the hardner into the old clear!!!!!!! just kidding dont do that...
DARN. I just noticed that I had another bottle labeled 2600 CATALYST. I used the wrong bottle! will this ever dry?
Stick it out in the sun let bake,I think you were smart enough to use hardener ,The only thing that might be a problem is you waited to clear ,Let bake for awhile and if you have to block the clear .....
Just read your thread Oh Oh .No comment ,I have no idea where to go from there ,Catalyst is the hardener .I would try gas before laquer thinner and rags .Start wiping it off ,After let bake and wetsand entire car blocking with 400 or 600 .......
It's just a panel that I was doing for fun and a little practice. It's not worth the trouble of stripping and starting over again. But will it ever dry?
it will dry but depending on how thick it is , it could take years to get unsticky and will never be as hard as it would be with hardner.
Failure is the first step in learning ....Just keep on trying Read all labels before painting number one rule.2 nd is a good mask ,3 wrap something on your head unless your bald ,My first cars I always got hair in the paint .Lol
I painted a whole car once using degreaser as the hardner, I had both quart cans on my mixing table and used the wrong one. (DOH) spent the next 3 days scraping the gooey mess off. Now I only have what I need on my mixing table! And dont use gas to strip it just let it soak in laquer thinner.
Yes, thankfully only a pratice panel, sounds like either you put too little or hadner that was old in it,if it was part of the car it would eventually peel off. I have seen this done too many times, ever try to strip the paint off a cement mixer when the painter didn't put in the hardner or too little. I can give you the names of quite a few
It should never dry, it may but it shouldn't, if it has no filler on it you can clean it with acetone, be careful.
no, its not going to cure. as its a practice panel, chuck it and make another one. as for your desire to spray candy on top., you must be careful.. if its an urethane based candy you wont have any trouble, but if its base coat, you will have to spray it pretty dry over recently sprayed clear , or wrinkling is likely. naturally this is for properly catylized clear. some paints work with, or without hardner, but the clears dont. watch carefully when you mix the stuff, as they are pretty touchy about being even a little off on the ratios. skull
Now, imagine doing that to the whole car! you learned a good lesson, but you don't have to spend the 2 weeks correcting it. I'd say thats a good thing!
Wow, words to live by .... "Now I only have what I need on my mixing table". I can't even begin to imagine how pissed I would have been after that mix-up. Thanks for mentioning your issue, just goes to show how easy it would be to make the same mistake.
When ever you buy paint or clear that you are not familiar with, ask the person selling it to give you a "tech sheet". The tech sheet has all the info you will ever need. Those sheets will answer any questions you have about the product you are useing. They will have everything from drying times...... to what you can and can not do with the product. Keep all your tech sheets in a folder by your mixing table, or hang them on the wall.
Strip it all off and try again...you said it was a learning experience, and you definately learned the WRONG things to do. #1. Don't wait over 24 hours to clearcoat a base. #2. Remember to put your hardener in the clear #3. If shooting candy over a basecoat, it is "usually" better to use a basecoat type clear (made to spray without a hardener) to seal the base. It dries faster, tapes in less time, and doesn't have recoat problems. But I've done it both ways, depending on the type of graphic paint job going on top, the time frame I need to work with, and other factors. #4. you really need to sand your cleared base before taping and recoating with paint for graphics. Any time you recoat, if it's past your "shoot" window (usually 2-24 hours, depending on the brand/type paint) you need to sand for full adhesion. If you're finished with your graphics, you just unmask and clear. If you are doing more color... again, seal with some more clear, wait til the next day, and sand the clear and continue. The reason for clearing is that basecoat shouldn't be sanded before clearing, you'll see the sanding marks.
I painted everyday in a body shop and it happened to me one time. Luckily I only did 3 panels. It will probably never fully dry. I used cheap laquer thinner and plenty of clean rags. Keep it wiped off and dried. Its a mess, but it needs to be done. By the way, dont use gas or you will end up with a bigger mess-fisheyes!! And do this in a well ventilated area.
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