Wife had a fender bender a couple of weeks ago, and I need to paint a fender, and door.

I still have some left over paint in the right color left over from another minor accident.

The paint is Nason single stage urethane, for which all I need is the small can of activator.

Here is the problem.

The local paint shop I've used for around 20 years has closed their other branches, and now the older son, who was never at the store I frequent, has stepped up to run the store. He doesn't like small job painters like myself, and refuses to order the small can of activator. [he is, and always has been difficult to work with on the few occasions over the years that I've had to deal with him].

After being refused I won't do business with this store again, which is why I won't buy the big can of 483-15 Nason activator. [even though I have a few full paint jobs to do in the near future].

The only other store within driving distance carries only the PPG line of paint. For which I've never had a problem buying from them [just don't use them much out of loyalty for the other paint store].

So can I use the OMNI brand of activator with the Nason urethane single stage paint for this very small job?

Also, if using a urethane activator from another brand is out, then does anyone have a link where I can buy the Nason activator online?

I find crossing chemistries between brands especially activators to be giant step into the unknown..... Hey, do you have O'Reillys' Auto Parts near you? They do carry Nason and several of my car show guys have gotten small amounts of stuff to finish off projects from them. If you don't have one close maybe they could still direct ship.....???

Oh, I just noticed this in some older links I had....
https://www.johnsonautobodysupply.com/n ... ishes.html

DarrelK wrote:I find crossing chemistries between brands especially activators to be giant step into the unknown..... Hey, do you have O'Reillys' Auto Parts near you? They do carry Nason and several of my car show guys have gotten small amounts of stuff to finish off projects from them. If you don't have one close maybe they could still direct ship.....???

Yes, last night I did in fact find [much to my surprise] Nason paint supplies online from O'Reilly's. However, they didn't seem to have the activator I needed.

Here is what I did. Today I went through all of my left over paint supplies, and happened on a urethane activator [I can't remember the name at the moment].

I also found a little Nason single stage urethane.

I mixed a very tiny amount of paint in the 4-2-1 ratio, and then, using a small paint brush, applied the mixed paint to an already prepped spot of metal on another vehicle.

I waited about an hour, and the paint was almost dry to touch. After another hour the paint was fully dry to touch, and very glossy.

So, since this is a very small job, and not a show car [daily driver], I'm going to use the "generic" activator I found today, and finish the job.

I don't think I would be brave enough to try this on any of my vintage/show vehicles, but for this it should be fine.

I also have to wonder about the Summit Racing brand of activator as I was tempted to order a quart of it as its only around $23. Same rules which would be to mix a small amount, then shoot a scrap panel, and wait a few days to see how it goes.

Well, I do get it.....if it is that small of a job I can see why you are trying to stretch the process. You are doing exactly what I would do....experiment.... and test..... The only other thing that I do as somewhat of a guide is to try comparing MSDS sheets for basic chemical similarities.....

I used the same approach when doing the trunk in my TA with tinted Raptor bed liner. The activator was toast from sitting. I went to the jobber and found an activator that matched that for the Raptor as best as I could and did a test area. It worked out OK and I went ahead with doing the whole trunk.

UPDATE!

Well I got everything done, and painted the two side doors, and fenders with the generic activator, and everything turned out fine..........................................EXCEPT, I didn't take a small piece of the body, and have it color matched for fading. Now the car is two colors

Its on me, my fault, as I'm old enough, and have been painting enough that I should know better.

I guess I will end up painting the whole car to make everything match. May have to wait until fall as I really hate doing this kind of stuff in the heat of summer.

But, the activator did just fine.