Ben Hart
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Welcome to the site. Look forward to some of your pictures, new shop sounds exciting! 🙂
Looks decent. May be an idea to fit the trim pieces as well and make sure they fit in there properly too
Every clear I have used will do the same thing (really minor of course, and not noticeable unless the car is immaculately clean).
You could try out some of the scratch resistant ceramic clear, it will still scratch but should be a lot more resistant to the minor issues you are dealing with.
As for the original topic… 🙂
I would go with a paint that is a little softer (easier to polish). The harder scratch resistant paints are a real bitch to polish. And being black, you will see all sorts of scratches in no time and will want to polish it. I think having the ability to easily polish it out (on a black) is far better (to me) than a hard ass paint that will still scratch. In fact, if it were my car, I would avoid black
Or there is the alternate…
I just checked to see about a re manufactured one for your BMW. Retail is $590. If you aren’t familiar with Reman bumpers, they are OEM bumpers that have been damaged, then repaired and primed (ready for paint). They tend to be better than aftermarket (but of course cheaper than OEM). And since they are technically and OEM bumper, fitting them is a non-issue.
The only down side is you don’t know how badly damaged it was before/how well it was repaired. Being a shop, we are able to check everything out and return parts that aren’t up to our standard, at least.
These guys pretty well summed it up. I find the A/M parts to be hit or miss. Some work well, others are pure garbage. I haven’t noticed a major difference between the different brands.
I’ve never put aftermarket parts on a BMW, only ever OEM, so definitely test fit it…
What experience do you have painting, and what have you used before? Also, do you plan on any wet sanding/polishing later?
I don’t know that this is any help…but in 2008 the Students at the local trade school painted an HHR for a competition with this stuff. They did a Candy Green colour for the main body colour. I saw the car when it was complete and the quality looked fantastic. The students painted it themselves without the instructors. So I would think if they were able to do that as students, then it must be relatively user friendly. The feedback I heard was positive about the product, other than the price being extremely high.
I used the HPC 15 on a few jobs with the AWX. Definitely fast and relatively easy to use, but it dies back. Not something I would want my name attached to 6 months later…
I’ve been using it for about 1.5 years. AS Jayson and the others have mentioned, it is super forgiving. I spray it with a 4000RP, 1.4 tip @ 32 PSI. Typically I spray1 medium coat followed by a full wet coat with a 3-5 minute flash between (normally spray @ 75 degrees). I like to let it flash about 5 minutes before baking for 25 min. at 160 (in our booth that gives us 140 metal temp).
Really easy to use, you can make it do what you want, if you are doing a really small job it will dry very fast with the spot/panel reducer and a little 250 accelerator. Baked, we are able to install parts as soon as they are cooled down.
Only negative thing I can say, is that being a polyurethane it is very hard, so polishing takes a little more effort. Our old booth is very hard to keep clean so I put a lot of extra effort to ensure clean jobs. Polishing out dust nibs is futile 🙂
I’ve used a little bit of it. Found colour matching to be poor and didn’t like using it in general… I think the Ultra 7000 was far superior to the AWX. I never used enough of it to figure it out. I think your best bet is to switch products if you can.
The reason he said no one else is complaining about it is because no one else is using it 🙂
Looks like an ambitious project. Look forward to the progress! 🙂
[quote=”Red Baron” post=26100][quote=”Ben” post=26099]
I have used some Centari, did a complete with it once as well. I thought it was pretty decent for Single stage and had awesome depth/gloss.[/quote]
Did you add the 2000 pak?
I wonder if they even still make the 200 pak?[/quote]
No, I just used it normal. Mixed it 8-1-2 I believe.
[quote=”Red Baron” post=26094][quote=”Ben” post=26078]These are what Bondo is still using to mix colours on with his lucite bench. I hear next year he’s upgrading to Centari :p
[/quote]I would love to have access to some Centari. I’d like to see if is as good as I remember, or have my standards changed?[/quote]
I have used some Centari, did a complete with it once as well. I thought it was pretty decent for Single stage and had awesome depth/gloss.
1.3 vs 1.4 isn’t going to make a big difference speed wise. Best to use whichever size suits the product you are using best.
I clear with a SATA 4000RP which is a bit slower than the older 3000. On a typical job I might be in the booth for maybe 30 seconds longer x 2 coats. Not enough to make any real difference in that respect.