NEW Flattening agent

Barry

Barry

Paint Fanatic
Staff member
There is no bigger problem for a painter then trying to flatten a "high solids clear" and do an allover paint job.
I don't care how good of a painter you are, to do a perfect flattened look, you would have more of a chance buying a lottery ticket.

I have been playing with the flattening agent #950 and to be honest, it is such a PIA I really wanted to just stop making it, as I spend a lot of time trying to help people on the phone get the flatness they want.

Today we are going to fill the new flattener and basically the flattening ratios will stay the same or within 1% if you already have it dialed in for bumpers or other special frame parts, so this will not change the way you use it.

All I have done is tried to make it more "child proof" so a little extra air pressure, you won't get snowflakes and a little too soon on the second coat, less likely to override itself.

Cost part number and size will be the same and only thing you will notice is a slight Amber color.

Starting points:
2100 clear 35-40% dead flat.
20% low sheen or a semi gloss.
Shelf life = 3 years.
 
Good to hear it's not changing for me.
I use it in urethane for household items,
like interior doors. Works great.:cool:
 
Barry, that is most Excellent.

I have LOVED all your products....except the flattening agent. Total headache for me and I am excited that you are making that easier to use as well. Always continually improving your product, what a great company.
 
Rodman,
I also would like some more feedback as I have only had two so far and both said they loved it.
I usually get stuck measuring how good a product is, if I don't get the calls complaining and so far no complaints, so guess all is well????!!!!!

The one guy that did call uses 4-12 quarts a week and only reason he knew it changed was the color when he opened the can and thought it went bad.
He does the Hydrografics, i think its called, he uses it with the universal and said was the easiest job he ever had done with any flattener.
 
Good news. I still need to try this stuff some day, nothing getting painted flat as of yet, but I have a project in line that will be getting shades of flat.
 
Just shot universal clear yesterday mixed with the new flattening agent. Mixed 25% flattening agent to RTS universal and got a nice semi-gloss finish and no snowflakes. This stuff is great.

Jim
 
Thanks for the feed back Jim, So far the reviews have been just perfect.
 
I can't believe I haven't ordered this yet, I like my flattening agent!!
Not sure if I have anything coming up to spray though.
 
I used some the other day, first time with the spi flattener, Did excellent. I used it up to 50% and it got pretty flat and even..no snowflakes/specks.

Sprayed another at 25% and was pretty close to the sikkens matt clear. Thinking 30% would have it nailed.

Still waiting on the flat/mat clear though!
 
jeremyb;20244 said:
I used some the other day, first time with the spi flattener, Did excellent. I used it up to 50% and it got pretty flat and even..no snowflakes/specks.

Sprayed another at 25% and was pretty close to the sikkens matt clear. Thinking 30% would have it nailed.

Still waiting on the flat/mat clear though!
Click to expand...

If I had to do it over again I would mix it 30%. It just came out so nice at 25% I decided to leave it alone. I mixed some SPI ss black at 50% and it came out dead flat. I think 40% will give a nice satin finish.

Jim+
 
I'm in the process of having real labels made for this product and here are some general guidelines, that may help from the label.


General mixing guide lines.

1 quart of UN-activated clear to 1 quart of flattener
Will give you a very flat gloss if any gloss at all.
1 quart of clear to ½ part of flattener will give you a very low sheen and tends to be best ratio for rat rods, if they want the very flat look without going to gray shade as the 1:1 mix will lean to.

Amount of flattener depends on solids of clear and the clear will spray glossy and true sheen will start showing up in an hour but true gloss will be after 12-24 hours.

Always do a small test panel to decide what ratio you need as every clear or single stage paint is different. And will take a different amount.

Spray one medium wet or wet coat, let flash exactly 30 minutes and spray a second wet coat.

Amorphous Silica 7631-86-9
Stoddard Solvent 8052-41-3
1,2,4 Trimethyl Benzene 95-63-6

VOC 4.4 Lbs /Gal
 
That was a ratio a guide line, you activate the clear, the flattener does not count, so however work best for you.
 
The reason I asked is I thought some people might read that to mean that you were supposed to activate the mixture of clear+flattener as if it was pure clear, which is NOT the case, the proper activation ratio must be maintained with whatever original amount of clear that you started with.

I think you are down to only two activation ratios for your clears, 4:1 and 1:1, so it might not be too hard to come up with a chart of mix ratios that would put guys in the ballpark.
 
I am on the fence on trying this on the hood scoop for my current project. i was just going to use black epoxy on it.
 
crashtech;20305 said:
The reason I asked is I thought some people might read that to mean that you were supposed to activate the mixture of clear+flattener as if it was pure clear, which is NOT the case, the proper activation ratio must be maintained with whatever original amount of clear that you started with.

I think you are down to only two activation ratios for your clears, 4:1 and 1:1, so it might not be too hard to come up with a chart of mix ratios that would put guys in the ballpark.
Click to expand...

It sis 4:1 or 1:1 what else they need? I'm confused?
 
I don't want to presume to tell you how to do things, but I saw the possibility for mistakes to be made with mix ratios. If I had someone working in my shop who was going to be mixing flattened products, I'd want to come up with an easy to understand mix ratio. In my shop, it would probably be Euro, so I'd write something up for them like this:

Satin finish Euro:

4 parts clear, 1 part activator, 2 parts flattener, 2 parts reducer


What I wouldn't want to ever hear about is someone mixing 2 parts clear and 1 part flattener, then taking the resulting mixture and activating like it was pure clear. I've seen this happen. Maybe it would be fine, but it would definitely be over-activated.
 
I see your point and a good one, although in this case since it will never be buffed, if someone called me and said they had done that, I would not be real concerned.
Would not recommend it but no real harm done unless they started activating the reducer also.
 
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