Omni base coat metallic

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PostPosted: Fri Jul 23, 2004 10:03 pm
I sprayed a medium blue base coat that was a very metallic rich color.
I was just playing around with an old trunk lid, on the first pass zebra stripes were noticeable and I must have slowed down a bit and got it on a little heavier toward the end of the panel. ( at the front of the panel it flashed dull very quickly, a few minutes maybe, the end of the panel it took maybe 6-8 minutes to flash dull) the second pass I went across the panel instead , got it on alot more even and flashed dull more consistantly( a few minutes) , third pass was a typical "drop coat" everything looked nice and even at this point. When I shot the clear to it I could see faint stripes on the end that was heavy on the first pass. How long should it take for omni base to flash dull? Was I to wet on the end of the panel or to dry on the front? Is anyone still surprised that it showed through even though I put on a second coat going the other way and a drop coat?

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PostPosted: Sat Jul 24, 2004 12:20 am
My P sheets for Omni MBC base coats sez: 5 to 10 minutes to flash & recoat, 20 minutes to top coat, 45 minutes to "tape dry" (you can apply and remove tape without leaving a mark) and must be topcoated within 24 hours or you must sand and respray the base.

"Tiger Stripes" is what you described, and can be "smoothed" over by finishing the panel like this: after you shoot for hiding, but still have some tiger stripey sections,.. turn the fluid knob out about a half turn, open the fan a little, and hold the gun about 6 inches away, and spray in circles in random directions to even out the metallic. Try that on that trunk, and you'll see after a few passes exactly how to do it.

As good as omni is, it doesn't hide very well, and this is especially noticible with the metallics, the lighter in color, the worse hiding qualities it has it seems, and the MR reducer is mostly acetone, so it will shrink most primers back, and you end up seeing the texture of the filler and glazing putty below.

I think it's the paints only shortcoming, but it can be worked around very easily.

Simply use an epoxy sealer right before you shoot the base coat, and shoot the base coat while the sealer is still tacky and glossy (makes the finished product really glossy) it also can save some time, as the sealer will hide sanding scratches down to about 220 (you usually have to sand the final prime coat to 500 before shooting the base) so you just block it down with 220, shoot the epoxy sealer, and go.

Using a final sealer thats the same color as your base also helps alot, and some sealers are tintable so you can get a base color thats almost the same as your color coat, but grey for metallics and dark colors, buff for solids and light colors works well.

There are some paints that use a catylized base coat (cross linked, like the clear coat) so it's it's own sealer, that stuff hides incredibly well and the systems are designed to give you maximum durability, like for fleet use.

Akzo Nobel coatings "U-TECH" line is the only one I know of that uses this "catylized ground coat" system, but I'm sure there are others.


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