Another question about sealer color for two tone and more

P

peepaw

Getting ready to shoot the base on a 79 ford pick up cab, doors and fenders the bed is another project.The color will be dark blue metallic top and bottom and light silver in the middle using ppg dbc and uv clear. Should I two tone the sealer as well? Black for the for the dark color and grey for the light color.I did the firewall in the blue over black epoxy and it turned out nice.Also just to double check the 885 reducer is recommended for the dbc and the base should be activated also.Thanks for the help.
 
i wouldnt go that far. silver will usually cover really well unless its super coarse. i would just seal the whole thing in black then start in with your base. 885 is fine for an overall and always activate your base.
 
I really like the coating stores silver metallic silver under all metallics, especially silver. Does not mean you need to not use epoxy as your final seal, just treat that as a first coat, or, probably better yet, you might just spray the entire vehicle with the silver and then tape that off and shoot the blue over that.
 
Thanks, I'm a first timer so i need all the help I can get.Also do I activate all coats of the base.
 
You could probably shoot a sealer color like 75% black, 25% gray, or I just did 2 dk. blue/silver trucks and sprayed the dk. blue first, then sprayed the silver over the dk. blue and it covered well. Lots of different ways to do it, but be careful if you spray the silver first and have an overspray edge you have to cover with the dark blue. It can be hard to cover, and can fool you into thinking it's covered until you pull it outside. The only time I would 2 tone the sealer would be a red/black, med. blue/black or other combination that uses one color that doesn't cover dark sealer well.
 
Last edited:
Getting ready to shoot the base on a 79 ford pick up cab, doors and fenders the bed is another project.The color will be dark blue metallic top and bottom and light silver in the middle using ppg dbc and uv clear. Should I two tone the sealer as well? Black for the for the dark color and grey for the light color.I did the firewall in the blue over black epoxy and it turned out nice.Also just to double check the 885 reducer is recommended for the dbc and the base should be activated also.Thanks for the help.

No need to overthink it. Two toning the sealer would be a mistake IMO. The way that has always worked well on trucks like that, for me would be to seal the truck in a medium to dark gray. Usually I'll just use a medium gray. After spraying the sealer and giving it the proper time before base (read the TDS of the sealer you are using) Urethane based usually in 30 minutes, SPI epoxy overnight. Spray the silver. After spraying the silver, wait 45 minutes minimum (longer would be better depending on the sealer you used) and tape off the area that is to be silver. Don't worry if you sprayed some silver in areas outside of where you taped. Blue will cover that.
Once you have it masked off, then spray your blue. Remove the masking over the silver as soon as you finish shooting the blue. If you aren't going to do both colors in one day wait to mask the silver until you are ready to shoot the blue. This is important as it minimizes any chance of the tape imprinting on the silver base. Then clear it when you are ready.
Another tip when using fine line tape (such as when you are doing the edge of the silver and blue) always pull straight back, pull the tape over itself. This will give you the cleanest line.
And ideally you would want to use SPI epoxy for sealer mixed somewhere around 1:1:20%. Example 10 oz epoxy, 10 oz activator, 4 oz reducer.
Using the epoxy mixed this way would give you time to do the job whereas using a urethane sealer you gotta rush to stay in the re-coat window of the sealer. Usually about 2 hours. So use epoxy.:)
 
Last edited:
When activating the base coat due you activate all the coats or just the last coat.How many coats of base would be normal?
 
Activate all the coats. 3 coats is normal, but it depends on the color and quality of the base and the undercoat color you're spraying it over. Most of the older silvers cover well because the flake is finer.
 
When activating the base coat due you activate all the coats or just the last coat.How many coats of base would be normal?
To add to what Texas said, activate as you go. Don't put any leftover activated base back with any unactivated base. As for how many coats, for me the answer is as many as it takes to get true coverage. Hopefully 3 but it could take more. When you think it's covered, it's a good idea to spray one more coat. Never spray base heavy, you want light-medium to medium coats, consistent overlap and keep the gun parallel to the panel at all times.
 
Back
Top