Clear for chip resistance.

Anything goes in the world of fiberglass and plastic



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PostPosted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 7:01 am
The amount of clears and types on the market is mind boggling for a newer painter. All things being equal as far as application is concerned when it comes to clear technology what one out there performs best against chips and scratches?
To narrow it down even further
How would say the House of Kolor USC01 compare in hardness/chip scratch resistance to say ppg shopline 661 all over clear? Being a small time guy I don't have the luxury of trying out tons of different clears and of course the opinions out there are endless.

I was looking for something that might offer better durability then the HOK USC01.

Do the cermiclears and nano clears out there offer that much better durability?

Do the higher end clears offer better durability then the cheaper clears?

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PostPosted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 8:07 am
ceramic clears are pretty tough... i wouldnt recommend spraying them.
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 9:07 am
Prep and what is under the clear has a lot to do with chip resistance, too.

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PostPosted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 10:12 am
Exactly what are you spraying that brings the extra concern for chipping?
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 5:54 pm
I'm spraying small plastic parts. I use house of Kolor kd3000 for my primer and have no issues with it sticking to the plastic part. I let it dry overnight and then wetsand it back with 800 grit. I then spray a basecoat of house of kolor let it flash then my midcoat or whatever. Allowing for flash between coats. I generally let the color coat flash for 1-3 hours before I spray my clear which is USC01. I spray out 2 coats. So what i'm testing against is commercially available parted parts. In my testing if i hit them with a rounded hammer I will get a small chip that generally takes off th clear and basecoat but leaves the primer. The resulting chip edges are very secure in that I have to really try to get any more chipping to occur. Now compare that with a commercially available part painted down in Mexico and if i hit it with the same hammer it mearly marks the surface. It is a very very hard finish. It also seems much much thinner though almost like they sprayed a primer, silver basecoat and then a tinted clear coat to get a colored metallic.
I thing i hadn't tried yet was the technique from ********** in which you give everything a long time to flash even outside of the window recommended by the factory. I be scared to shoot a basecoat and not clear it within the recoat window outlined in the HOK spec sheets.

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PostPosted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 7:04 pm
I'd like to at least comment on "harder" coatings on plastics. First, I would say your testing is flawed there unless the finished parts are at least past 30 days of curing. Second a hammer hit is not proving that yours is failing at "chipping".... its' more like you are proving their thinner coating is more flexible and "giving" with the hit. Trust me, I was following this flawed thinking as well about 10 years ago with fiberglass surfaces. I built a fiberglass kit car using Auto Air Base coats (water based) and finished it off using Motostorm's Nano Ceramic clear. Because of the cars very low and pointed nose my goal was to avoid rock chipping, well, as much as possible anyway. What we found with the fully cured coating is that it would tend to "window pane" chip while the more flexible Auto Air actually deformed with the hit underneath that clear. A finish chemist with the University of Illinois explained to me that the clear coating that I applied had a harder surface value than the underlying fiberglass hence the chips. My point here is.... I think are trying to emulate a more flexible factory applied coating here... not a harder one.
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 7:18 am
This is not an add for them but the ********** clears do stay a tiny bit softer or flexable then the lower lines of clear. Redid my bumper on motorhome that is fiberglass in ********** URO clear 6 years ago has no chipping at all and even hit it with a snow plow. Just my 2 cents worth.



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PostPosted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 9:40 am
Thanks for the helps guys. I can't disagree with your thinking darrell. I honestly don't have the long term experience to know if I'm asking to much or not. I can tell you the part i tested on was over 30 days out of clear. So if I understand you correctly your saying that maybe it is the thickness that could be hurting me?

Also and more of a side question but how often does everyone clear within the window given by the manufactures? I've chatted with several guys that have said it isn't uncommon to go outside of that window and not have problems. My thought on this is that maybe I'm trapping solvents within the primer or basecoat.

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PostPosted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 10:18 am
I know that applying a quality epoxy primer will help reduce chipping due to the epoxy providing a somewhat flexible foundation.

I have left mixed ********** epoxy to dry in a mixing cup about 1/4" thick and it produces a rubbery hockey puck that you can bend a long way before it will crack.
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 1:47 pm
I definitely agree with the comments on the ********** clears being somewhat "softer" compared to most. When I later did a fiberglass hood my thinking was indeed to keep the coating at its' minimum acceptable mil spec. and use the ********** Universal Clear. After 2 years of exposure including long highway trips.... no chips at all. You could even see where rocks had hit but only lightly scuffed (hand buffed right out) the clear coat. And, yeah, that was ********** epoxy, PPG Deltron base, and the ********** clear.
As to the question on in/out of the time windows. I've done it both ways with no failures yet.
And, on those factory coated parts....you really have no clue as to how those things are finished. I keep up on a lot of new finishing industry tech. (I get every trade journal imaginable in my mail) and see that metals, plastics, and woods are being electrostatically coated and oven baked. Special fluxes are applied to plastics and wood that let them temporarily hold a charge which attracts the powder, then they go through new lower temp. baking processes. I'm sure they could end up with an extremely thin flexible coating with great chip resistance with those kind of manufacturing resources.
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