Epoxy: matte finish the first time, shiny a year later

[StolenFox]

So I'm a little confused as to how my results were different. When I epoxy primed the front clip a year ago the epoxy dried with a satin finish but when I shot the drivers side on Sunday it came out very shiny. Here's the specs:

Same cheap (junk) LVLP gun from Summit, same settings (perhaps a little more fluid flow).

Same compressor

No refrigerated dryer when shooting clip, refrigerated dryer when shooting drivers side.

Clip had one layer of epoxy (over bare metal) that came out poorly so I sanded out the runs and then sprayed 2 additional layers. Drivers side was 3 layers over bare steel.

Clip = epoxy induced for over 1 hour, 45 minutes flash between coats. Drivers side = epoxy induced for approx 40 minutes, 30 minutes flash between coats.

Only things that I can think of think of that I did differently was to keep the floor wet throughout the entire session when spraying the drivers side (vs only wetting down once when spraying the clip) and no fans during the drivers side (vs a couple of box fans and hvac filters during the clip).

The original effort can be found here:

http://www.spiuserforum.com/showthread.php?2574-Well-that-didn-t-work&highlight=

Drivers side:

http://imageshack.com/i/geZVOIgYj
http://imageshack.com/i/pd8w6xslj
http://imageshack.com/i/iqYPQh2oj
http://imageshack.com/i/ipawnSHDj

Does the shine start to dull on epoxy over time? The car is garaged but in the year since I did the front clip, it was driven maybe 25 times and sat in the sun on those days.

What did I do different or wrong (either the first time or the second)?

S.F.

 

[MORE IMPATIENT]

same can of epoxy ?

Could be cause its a year old and maybe the temperature wasn't stable throughout the year causing some sort of breakdown, but honestly I have no real idea. Im pretty new to spi, only been about 9 months since Ive been using it but I like it.

 

[Barry]

No big deal, all went right!
Gloss can vary widely with the application of the SPI epoxy from dull to glossy.
Factor are, temp, humidity, gun, air pressure, distance of gun = wetness of spray.
not uncommon to get different gloss when sprayed at different times and none of it matters one bit, as to how the epoxy performs.

 

[StolenFox]

same can of epoxy ?

Could be cause its a year old and maybe the temperature wasn't stable throughout the year causing some sort of breakdown, but honestly I have no real idea. Im pretty new to spi, only been about 9 months since Ive been using it but I like it.

No, the epoxy was brand new from SPI direct.

No big deal, all went right!
Gloss can vary widely with the application of the SPI epoxy from dull to glossy.
Factor are, temp, humidity, gun, air pressure, distance of gun = wetness of spray.
not uncommon to get different gloss when sprayed at different times and none of it matters one bit, as to how the epoxy performs.

So happy to hear you say that! I knew it had to be me or the environmental conditions, thanks Barry!

S.F.

 

[Barry]

Same thing would happen with a metallic pearl, no painter is good enough to spray the exact same way or condition be the same, months later.