are all poly-sprays created equal?

danp76

danp76

Oldtimer
Seeing how Glasurit and Sikkens are now rediculously priced I have been using Evercoat's poly spray...and it's WAY cheaper!! Am I missing something here?...Why is the Glasurit and Sikkens poly soooo much more money? I can buy the Evercoat product for like $20.00 a quart...which is like a third of the price! What's the deal? Is the Glasurit or Sikkens any better?..am I sacrificing any quality by using the Evercoat?...my thought is it's all just sprayable glazing putty...am I wrong?
 
sikkens is more solids. ive sprayed it. yes they come from about the same place on most all polys but its made to sikkens specs, lets face it.. its sikkens there not the most expensive for nothing(watch the debate start). sikkens u need a poly gun or a LARGE orifice to spray out of. evercoat u can practically spray out of a 1.4. BIG DIFF. if u need a ton of build look into some vinylester boat type surfacers. they get MASSIVE amount of build out of them.
 
Sik, have you used any of these vinylester boat surfacers on auto work?
 
I used Sikkens poly surfacer years ago and thought it was the same build as Evercoat's Slick Sand. If you have the tech sheet for Sikkens you can compare % of solids. I never noticed a difference.
 
vinylester ( or tooling gel coat ) was the go to gel coat for vettes in the 70's . then featherfil slowly replaced it. the only problem with the vinylester was it was hard to shoot and could have adhesion problems. i have also seen it shatter .
 
not sure which solids to go by, but weight solids sikkens is 94%. Slicksand is 71-74%. Volume solids, sikkens is 89% - slicksand 57-62% . I've used slicksand a few times recently and have noticed the difference from using the sikkens. The sikkens is a great deal thicker, imo. I need a bigger tip to spray the sikkens than i do the slicksand also. It took me nearly 2 galons of slicksand to do what i normaly do with sikkens in 1 gallon. I've talked to others who say they've never noticed the difference either...it was pretty obvious to me.
 
The build alone does not justify the price difference to me, imo, but if they have made it tougher and more flexible than the average Evercoat poly, that would get my attention!
 
If I remember right when I was using the Sikkens primer it was $75/quart, Slicksand was $42/gallon at that time. Slicksand offers enough build for me. There's many others out there, Upol, Clausen, Shop Line, Morton, USC, Sherwin Williams
 
i gotta agree with crash. the extra few percent of solids doesnt justify 5 times the cost. not to mention a slightly lower solids product will usually lay a little smoother and spray easier. 3 coats of the ffg2 is more than enough to take care of anything i need.

bob, i have used duratec polyprimer on automotive stuff which is completely a marine product. works fine but my only complaint was like shine said, it sanded like a rock compared to the ffg2 i normally use or any other automotive primer. it was atleast twice as hard. duratec has one polyprimer where the build is recommended to be 140mils. thats completely nuts.
 
Jim, thanks for the info. I'd like to try some of the vinylester stuff and I'd bet over SPI epoxy adhesion wouldn't be an issue. I seen a sample of Standox a few years ago at a big car show in St. Paul MN, wish I could get that stuff around here, it was high build for sure and seemed really durable-have you tried it? Last few jobs I've switched back to original Slick Sand-just seems to cure a little better than FFG2-no tackiness. I think the G2 is better for those using it over bare metal areas but there's epoxy under everything I coat so the Slick Sand works well and is a higher build than G2 IMO. I think people should also be wary of some of the low volume poly suppliers-there is a shelf life on this stuff and it does go bad. I got burned on some MEKP that was bad and it made for a mess. I'll stick with the products that move quickly. Evercoat's MEKP has a date code on the tube if anyone wants to check the shelf life.
 
danp76;4104 said:
Seeing how Glasurit and Sikkens are now rediculously priced QUOTE]

You can imagine what their cost is on this stuff and profit margin, look at what Evercoat's prices are and I don't think they are hurting financially. Makes you wonder if the same profit margin applies to their paints and clears. Isn't Sikken's a Dutch owned company? Who owns Glasurit? What paint companies are US these days?
Click to expand...
 
bob i have not tried the standox stuff. other than evercoat i have used the marhyde quicksand which was nice, duratec and evercoat. i will not use duratec anymore. its just way too hard to sand. i used it on a hood once and found it difficult to get the hood flat because you end up having to push on the block too hard to get it to cut. i mean it really is hard stuff. its just a hair softer then blocking straight gelcoat. like i said i really have no reason to look beyond evercoat for for a poly primer. they have more than enough to fill anyone's needs and they perform great.
 
i have not yet but next time i order thats what it will be. i think they have 2 different ones.
 
they came out with the 4:1 then came out with the 4:1 high build. i'm not a fan of poly but am curious about it. inderweed will have a ton of metal work on it so i thought of trying it. evercoat has never let me down so far.
 
ive tried pcl with the 4:1 mix and did not like it better at all compared to the regular.
 
I've got a gallon of the Evercoat 4:1 high build, its pretty good sands nice and good price.
 
been looking at that super build. scares me that they recommend applying over bare metal. i might give it a try on the camaro. It is next in line for poly. I picked up a gallon of slicksand today for 65 bucks total...which is what i get a quart of sikkens for.... Kinda crazy. Even if you do use twice the amount, still come out cheaper. Looks like the superbuild is priced around 90-100 bucks a gallon. I think im convinced to leaving the sikkens/spies stuff behind. We'll see how the 4:1 sands i suppose.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top