Paint gets soft when warm
- Thread starter shaggyzr2
- Start date
Only one of two things.
1) under-activated or wrong activator.
2) solvent trapped down deep, either sealer primer or first cost of the base and soaking in instead of out, unless you used epoxy as a sealer.
Is this bad? Depends on how many FULL days of sunlight.
The sun is pulling solvents, so clear gets soft to let solvents out.
Here is what we need to know, has it been inside this whole time, and how many full days of the sun has the car seen?
1) under-activated or wrong activator.
2) solvent trapped down deep, either sealer primer or first cost of the base and soaking in instead of out, unless you used epoxy as a sealer.
Is this bad? Depends on how many FULL days of sunlight.
The sun is pulling solvents, so clear gets soft to let solvents out.
Here is what we need to know, has it been inside this whole time, and how many full days of the sun has the car seen?
dhutton01
Backyard Hack
SPI clear or something else. Specify what you used….
Ok, so I used SPI epoxy on the bare metal, then 2k and blocked it, then epoxy as sealer. I used dynacoat base with dynacoat clear pro, akzonobel products. I would have used SPI paint but I had bought the dynacoat stuff before I discoverd SPI products. I used the correct activator for the clear, mixed it 4:1 as the tech sheets recomend, however In the past I never used a mixing cup or stick, I use a small mixing cup to get my parts, so 4 cups of clear and one cup of activator, it probably isn't the most accurate way to mix paint but it's worked fine for almost 30 years of painting vehicles, I will be using mixing cups from now on. I used slow activator and reducer. So I painted it the last week of august, left it dry a few days then sanded and buffed, that went great, paint looks very nice. after I was done with the buffing I would set it out in the sun when we had sunny days but now it's september in WI so the temps weren't all that warm. It probably had a few weeks in the sun, temps ranged between 55 and 65 degrees with an occasional warmer day of around 70. The car sat in my unheated garage all winter, I've been bringing it out in the sun as much as I can but we've had a lack of sun and the temps haven't been all that warm yet. I'm guessing it probably had around 30-45 days of full sun but temps werent all that warm. As far as number of coats, I did 3 but 3 very heavy coats, something I've never done before, I have always done first coat light, little heavier on the second and heavier on the last coat. I knew I was going to be sanding and buffing so I wanted to make sure I had enough paint so I didn't burn through. I probably should have done a longer flash time between coats with such heavy coats but I didn't. I did but a lot of basecoat but each coat was flashed off before the next and I waited about 3 hours before spraying the clear.
This helps a lot, and the thumb nail does not bother me as my clear works out to about one month per coat; you have six coats.
My concern is the car needs full days in the sun
Until the clear stops softening, this should be done as soon as possible to prevent delamination down the road.
Also, nothing wrong with how you mixed it, so the bottom line is if the sun does not work, the activator in the clear could have been weak, but what little I know of that clear, it's not made for six coats, so it could just take more sun.
My concern is the car needs full days in the sun
Until the clear stops softening, this should be done as soon as possible to prevent delamination down the road.
Also, nothing wrong with how you mixed it, so the bottom line is if the sun does not work, the activator in the clear could have been weak, but what little I know of that clear, it's not made for six coats, so it could just take more sun.
So one more issue. This is a 73 Camaro, I replaced the quarter panels, did a full weld on the sail panel seam, filled with evercoat body shop short strand filler then went over that with some regular body filler, first day out in the sun, it developed a small crack, wasn't sure if the filler cracked or the paint cracked. I sanded off the paint in that area and saw that it was the short strand filler that had cracked. Not sure why it cracked, is it possible that it absorbed some solvents from the primer, expanded then shrunk back up causing the crack? Or possibly wrong filler. I've never used evercoats body shop line of fillers, they are sold exclusivly at advance auto parts. guy at advance auto parts told me it was the same thing as everglass, however when I called evercoat they said the body shop line of fiberglass reinforced filler is similar to their everglass light, it's very easy sanding so it's a softer filler and not recomended for structural repairs like the regular everglass filler. I should have talked to evercoat before using that filler I guess. anyhow...I'm going to redo the seams on both sides of the car, grind all filler out, replace with everglass and top it off with evercoat rage ultra so I plan on repainting the whole car. Do I need to strip all of the paint off before I repaint? just remove the clear? Or give it more time in the sun to see if this clear hardens up and paint over it? I have never in my life had so many issues restoring a car! Thank you for the help!
One more thing, where I sanded the body filler out, I did a little wet sanding around that area and it smells like fresh paint for a little while after sanded. And I also forgot to mention, when the car goes back in the cool garage you can't leave a nail mark, a month ago you could.
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Lizer
Mad Scientist
Are you saying 6 coats because he did 3 heavy coats or did you read it as 6 coats?
Not sure what Barry meant by that but I'd say those 3 coats were probably equal to 6 regular coats.
I screwed up I looked at it as 3 and 3 duh!
Lizer
Mad Scientist
I think you’d have curtains if you had as much material as two coats in a single pass.
I cannot stress this enough if you gave this car to me, the first thing I would do is give it seven full days in the raw sun as soon as possible.
If, after 7 FULL days, the clear still turns soft in the sun, we have an activator or a clear issue.
All the above assumes there is no wax on the car if it is wash-off with wax and grease remover ASAP.
If, after 7 FULL days, the clear still turns soft in the sun, we have an activator or a clear issue.
All the above assumes there is no wax on the car if it is wash-off with wax and grease remover ASAP.
It sat in the sun yesterday, some areas on the car were so soft that you could almost dig your fingernail into the paint and scratch it off. It's been almost 9 months now, I'm thinking it might be best to get out the laquer thinner and rags and remove it and try again but I would use spi clear this time. What clear do you recommend?
Do not create extra work for yourself.
9 months means nothing if sat inside.
I have no clue how much outside exposure the car has had so why not give it seven full days of sun just to see what happens?
