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Author Topic: Acrylic vs Enamel body paint  (Read 3529 times)

DarkAngel

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Acrylic vs Enamel body paint
« on: April 10, 2017, 09:08:49 PM »

Hi Guys, I looking at doing a respray to freshen up my paint on the exterior of my Capri.

The paint shop seems to only have an Acrylic based paint, I'm a bit concerned about spraying Acrylic over Enamel.

What is the original paint type used on Capri's... does anyone know ?
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(VJ 11/14), helical LSD, 5th gear cog, 2.5 exhaust
stiffer springs, heated seats, electronic booster
tracker gps, respray

DarkAngel

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Re: Acrylic vs Enamel body paint
« Reply #1 on: April 12, 2017, 08:06:37 AM »

What type of paint have you guys used to respray your Capri ?
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Current Project XR2 SE

To Do
(VJ 11/14), helical LSD, 5th gear cog, 2.5 exhaust
stiffer springs, heated seats, electronic booster
tracker gps, respray

greywolf27030

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Re: Acrylic vs Enamel body paint
« Reply #2 on: April 12, 2017, 10:52:07 AM »

What ever you decide to paint with, use a sealer between your existing paint, repairs and primer and the new top coat.

Jack Byrd
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Jack Byrd

greywolf27030

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Re: Acrylic vs Enamel body paint
« Reply #3 on: April 12, 2017, 10:54:14 AM »

This was the period when manufactures were transitioning to water based paints.  I don't know if they were doing it in Aus or not..

Jack Byrd
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Jack Byrd

greywolf27030

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Re: Acrylic vs Enamel body paint
« Reply #4 on: April 12, 2017, 10:57:43 AM »

By using a sealer, you can put most anything over anything.  The most important thing is to base preparation.  If you don't properly prepare, it doesn't matter what top coat your use, there will be problems.

Jack Byrd
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Jack Byrd

greywolf27030

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Re: Acrylic vs Enamel body paint
« Reply #5 on: April 12, 2017, 11:00:31 AM »

In my experience, if you're using a solid color, use single stage paint.  Using base coat, clear coat, you introduce another possibility of failure without adding any additional performance.

Jack Byrd
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Jack Byrd

DarkAngel

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Re: Acrylic vs Enamel body paint
« Reply #6 on: April 12, 2017, 03:22:43 PM »

Thanks Jack for the range of responses.

I guess the best way to paint is always to strip back to metal and start again with primer etc...

I'm using the original black pearl sparkle which has the J4 color code. Painting over sanded fibreglass for the f140 wing at the moment, and maybe a spot patch on a clubsprint rear bumper.

Something else I'm thinking about instead of beefing up the alternator is to add a flexible 2mm silicon black 12v 100w solar panel on the boot for my dual battery housed next to my spare tyre.
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Current Project XR2 SE

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(VJ 11/14), helical LSD, 5th gear cog, 2.5 exhaust
stiffer springs, heated seats, electronic booster
tracker gps, respray

greywolf27030

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Re: Acrylic vs Enamel body paint
« Reply #7 on: April 13, 2017, 07:57:41 AM »

Absolutely, the best results will result from going all the way to base metal.  Be sure to acid etch it to insure that there isn't any surface rust lurking and follow with a good epoxy etching primer.  Manufacturers suggest applying your body filler to the primer for better adherance.  On rubber bumpers and other non steel parts use an adhesion promoter for a base.  We use a product called Bull Dog which allows painting on glass with confidence.

Jack Byrd
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Jack Byrd

DarkAngel

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Re: Acrylic vs Enamel body paint
« Reply #8 on: April 13, 2017, 08:13:40 AM »

Thanks Jack :)

Next question is about thinning, I'm using an air compressor with a gravity fed spray gun... what kind of thinning ratio do you recommend for spray painting. This will be my first attempt using this type of setup.
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Current Project XR2 SE

To Do
(VJ 11/14), helical LSD, 5th gear cog, 2.5 exhaust
stiffer springs, heated seats, electronic booster
tracker gps, respray

greywolf27030

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Re: Acrylic vs Enamel body paint
« Reply #9 on: April 14, 2017, 09:14:33 AM »

Follow the directions of the manufacturer.  Use all products from one family.  There will be explicit instructions as to proportions.  Thinners are used for lacquer and cleaning paint guns.  Modern paints use reducers.  You'll buy them according to the temperatures you'll be painting in.  The instructions will also tell you how much to use.  You will buy mixing cups that are marked on the sides to indicate your mix proportions.  Modern paints use catalysts, ie hardeners, to combine with the base to create a tough, long lasting coating.  These chemicals need to be in the correct proportions to work properly.  These are not like the hardeners that years ago were added to enamel paints to make them harder.  Those enamels never really dried and manufacturers were trying to fix them.  I'll assume you don't even want to start talking about water borne coatings.

Jack Byrd
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Jack Byrd

SHOwn

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Re: Acrylic vs Enamel body paint
« Reply #10 on: April 14, 2017, 06:03:02 PM »

All good advice. I began painting cars back in 1976.   We used lacquer (not durable or very protective) back then, and if you wanted durability at the expense of depth of finish, we used hardened enamels. Eventually, DuPont developed Imron, which was a urethane based product which eventually gave way (despite its excellent performance) to base coat/clear coat urethanes due to lower pricing and easier application. Imron is still the king of durability, but it has a high difficulty factor due to the need to force dry to achieve good depth of gloss. My mentor nailed it with his usage of lacquers finish coated with clear Imron with metal flake in the clear coat. He liked to paint the pinstripes on before the clear coat laden with metal flake over the lacquer. The depth was awesome and the finish was durable.

I love today''s polyurethane clear coat systems which are designed to work with their polyester base coat. The stuff is extremely forgiving, easy to work with and offers decent durability. I painted the Redmobile III with WandaBase HS from AkzoNobel (yup Alfred's chemical company). AkzoNobel makes most of the German automakers OEM paint, including Mercedes and Porshe IIRC. WandaBaase HS is their value line, but the pigments are a high quality, and my jobber recommended I try it. It is really inexpensive compared to the Deltron I was looking at, but so far it has held up well (3.5 years).

One thing I will warn you about. Read up on how to handle the urethane bumper covers. I hadn't touched them in years (my day job is CAD developer, not bodyman anymore) and I found out the hard way that you shouldn't take them down to bare urethane. When sanding them bare, the surface tends to ball up, and nobody recommends that you try this. Unless you have a complete loss of paint, DON'T TAKE THE BUMPER COVERS DOWN TO BARE. I used tycoat adhesion promoter and some flex additive in all my primer fill coats to get my surface ready for the seal coat, base coat the clear coat.

Purchase more paint than you need and practice some before you begin. You want to avoid orange peel but if you get some, with base coat clear coat systems wetsanding and buffing is a lifesaver. I learned on my last spot paint job (my friend's Ford Excursion) that adding up to 10% reducer even though not instructed to really helped flow of the last few clear coats and they flashed beautifully.

Check out autobody101.com for lots of experienced advice.

HTH,
Ron
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R. Powell
'91 XR2, LM 16" Chrome Drifters, White Gauge Faces, Kuhmo 40's, Big Brake UG, 2.5" Mandrel Bent CATback, BMW318 Heated Seats, `94 console, '99 Dodge Neon Spoiler, '94 XR2 Sideskirts Bumpers and taillights, Fresh Basecoat-Clearcoat Cardinal Red (Jul2014), vj11/vj14 hybrid, manual boost CTL.

greywolf27030

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Re: Acrylic vs Enamel body paint
« Reply #11 on: April 17, 2017, 07:42:46 PM »

Great advice.  SEM makes stripper especially for plastic/rubber parts that minimizes sanding that sometimes causes especially rubber parts to ball up.

I'll second the recommendation on Wanda products.  We did a couple of jobs with it after it first came out and they came out very well, then our supplier closed and it's no longer available in this area.

I'll also second the advice of adding a small amount of reducer to the mix, but my buddy who I mix paint for hates it because it's so much easier to run when it's that little bid thinner.

If you orange peel the base coat and don't want to see it forever, let it cure and wet sand it out.   Then apply your clear.  If the base coat is orange peel, no amount of sanding the top coat will make it look smooth.  Unless of course your sand through the clear and smooth the base coat out.

Oddly enough, I was doing CAD/CAM work prior to getting back into body work after being out of it for years.

Jack Byrd
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Jack Byrd