What is activator reducer?

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PostPosted: Sun Aug 02, 2015 5:48 pm
Hey everyone, long time lurker and finally have a need to post. The wing on my wife's car had bad clear coat so I decided to repaint it. I got nason brand primer 421-19 and activator 483-87. The tech sheet indicates to mix 4:1. I am new to painting and only had a couple paint classes like 10 years ago. I have a Finex FX300 hvlp gun with 1.4 tip and had to spend a lot of time cleaning it as I lent it to my brother and it was returned in bad shape. Anyway I feel I did a good job cleaning it.

After reading some posts online I thought I could add reducer to the primer and activator. So I mixed 4 parts primer, 1 part activator, and 1.5 parts of what I thought was reducer. But after spraying it on I notice it says activator reducer (nason 441-43). So I'm not sure if I did this right or if there is a difference in reducer vs activator reducer. Can someone explain.

It sprayed nicely and I got good coverage however it is rough to the touch. Prior to primer it was sanded to 320 and really smooth.

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PostPosted: Mon Aug 03, 2015 6:51 am
Some paints simply term their activator an "activator reducer"; most likely due to the activator already having the reduction components in the mix. You probably over-reduced the primer by adding more reducer but it's not a huge deal - you'll get less material thickness (film build).

There are many reasons why it may have come out rough. Your spray gun may not have been dialed in correctly, for example. Usually adding reducer makes paint lay out smoother.

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