Maximum base coat time before clear?

[W.A.R.]

What if the base coat is activated? Does it still have an unlimited re-coat time?

 

[Jim C]

if activated, to be safe i would say 24hrs

 

[izzyscustoms]

As a painter 24 hours to a week come on guys that is not right painting base you spray one tac coat semi dry wait 10 to 15 min then spray a nice wet coat another 10 to 15 min 2nd coat and a 3rd so you get a nice rich color then 15 to 20 when It's hot outside or 20 to 25 @ 70 and up and 10 to 15 between clear coats here are some cars we painted

 

[RosharonRooster]

true but i think to topic at hand is, maximum base coat time before clear, not the shortest amount of time...

 

[jcclark]

Every brand is different,
DuPont Chromabase says 24 hrs maximum.
I read somewhere that after 24 hrs it needed to be stripped off.

 

[crashtech]

I've seen plenty of mediocre techs with pretty photo albums, so photos don't impress me all that much. Coming into a message board and telling everyone they are wrong as a first post is not all that impressive either, imo.

 

[texasking]

A lot of pretty pictures look good. Impressive would be still looking good 20 years later. Run on sentences make the clear peel

 

[shine]

as long as base never sees sunshine time is really not important. some of the wild stuff takes weeks to do.

 

[Chris_Hamilton]

As a painter 24 hours to a week come on guys that is not right painting base you spray one tac coat semi dry wait 10 to 15 min then spray a nice wet coat another 10 to 15 min 2nd coat and a 3rd so you get a nice rich color then 15 to 20 when It's hot outside or 20 to 25 @ 70 and up and 10 to 15 between clear coats here are some cars we painted

First off the question was not how to spray base but how long can you wait before clearing. Nobody was advising to wait a week before clearing. Sometimes things happen though. Personally nice stuff 12 hours is my minimum before clearing.
As for what you posted I kinda doubt you paint because how you described spraying base sounds more like how acrylic and synthetic enamels were sprayed. Why would you spray a tac coat for base? It's not going to run. And wet coats of base 10-15 minutes apart? That is a recipe for horrendous die back and delamination especially with the rest of the times you indicated. That's slamming it on. Those are like collision repair times and that's pushing it when spraying collision repair.
Who sprays base wet? No one I know. How does a metallic do with wet coats? Not.well.
IDK maybe you do but I'm doubting it as to what you described.

 

[Chris_Hamilton]

I'll just say this as well, if you have an attitude you are not going to make any friends here. Being respectful of others is one reason why this is such a good place. None of us knows it all and we all try to help each other learn more and get better. Whether we are pros or guys trying to paint their first car.

 

[Whitesnake]

Yeah those are rush times. Sometimes you gotta slow down to go fast. If I have the time I go as slow as possible. It will only make for a better job. Trapped solvents are not your friend. Not gonna say I’ve never rushed to get one out the door if I have to. Of course I have esp in the collision/dealer world. But I still take as many precautions possible. That’s why I like doing my own salvage cars. Nobody down my back to get it done. And if it’s not up to their “standards” …don’t buy it! Hahaha.

 

[MJM]

I'll just say this as well, if you have an attitude you are not going to make any friends here. Being respectful of others is one reason why this is such a good place. None of us knows it all and we all try to help each other learn more and get better. Whether we are pros or guys trying to paint their first car.

Working on a project in the buff is not an attitude, it's an expression of inner peace........

......or it's just freaking 100 degrees out

 

[Chris_Hamilton]

Working on a project in the buff is not an attitude, it's an expression of inner peace........

......or it's just freaking 100 degrees out

I still shudder when thinking of that pic of your backside.

 

[metalman]

You are supposed to apply clear after base coat??

 

[Troy]

Somehow my account with both my posts got deleted! And now I'm necro-replying.

Would one thin coat of intercoat clear keep me out of this base to clear time crunch, leave in booth situation?

Here's the terrible plan.

Sand the plastic body. Minor hole fills with plastic epoxy. Sand the whole body with 180. Bulldog, Thin coat of primer, sand with 320. Nason Ful-thane non metallic base. Then coat over everything with LimeLine intercoat clear, single thin coat. Lots of candy Flames, graphics, lace roof etc over that. Real Clear over to finish.

I was thinking about not doing the layer of intercoat to be a cheap skate. But after reading this I *think* it would be wise to avoid the recoat time on the base.

 

[crashtech]

Somehow my account with both my posts got deleted! And now I'm necro-replying.

Would one thin coat of intercoat clear keep me out of this base to clear time crunch, leave in booth situation?

Here's the terrible plan.

Sand the plastic body. Minor hole fills with plastic epoxy. Sand the whole body with 180. Bulldog, Thin coat of primer, sand with 320. Nason Ful-thane non metallic base. Then coat over everything with LimeLine intercoat clear, single thin coat. Lots of candy Flames, graphics, lace roof etc over that. Real Clear over to finish.

I was thinking about not doing the layer of intercoat to be a cheap skate. But after reading this I *think* it would be wise to avoid the recoat time on the base.

I'll never touch Bulldog again, for me it was an adhesion remover. Depending on the kind of plastic, an adpro might not even be necessary. But anyway, with that list of 3rd tier products, I'm not quite sure if this can be taken seriously or not.

 

[JimKueneman]

Your not wrong!!

Most companies say for example after 16 or 48 hours sand and re-coat BUT,
Something all the formulators have known for years is IF it does not leave booth its an unlimited re-coat time.
WHY they don't say its is, say your painting in your garage and its in base and people walking in and out, its at big risk.
Or you paint in an insurance shop and you just applied base to a front end in the meantime an adjuster is raising holly H++ about the rental car on another car, so shop manager says pull the front-end base job out and fix this one today. Where will the car be pulled to? In the shop? outside? BIG problems either way.
So about 4-7 years ago one company Said "base-coat has an unlimited re-coat time IF it does not leave the BOOTH"
Within weeks 2 or 3 company's also came out. These were all the high end base companies Spies, Standox were first and don't know who else has came out of the closet as not paid attention.

If you want to have some fun go to a facebook auto body/painting forum and say this... (yes I have done it, it is comical watching the replies).

Jim

 

[JimKueneman]

I still shudder when thinking of that pic of your backside.

I wear coveralls and not much else when working on things.... working in the Az paint booth the breeze is nice

 

[Chris_Hamilton]

I wear coveralls and not much else when working on things.... working in the Az paint booth the breeze is nice

Just don't post pics of it on the forum.....

 

[crashtech]

Looks like Troy bailed on us, he wishes all us "Boomers" good luck:

Deleted by Troy Apr 24, 2025 Reason: I was reminded why forums are longer used. Good luck boomers.

I undeleted it...