Ben Hart
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They aren’t hard to remove scratches from.
I think the problem is you jumped too far between grits. 220 may be a little coarse to start with, but workable if necessary. You probably should have gone: 220-320-400-500-600-800-1000-1200-1500.
Otherwise you could have stopped in the 600-800 range and clear coated them.
I was working at a GM dealer. The quality of the majority of their parts has declined significantly. The biggest issue we had was the chrome front bumpers on the trucks. About 2 in 3 were defective, often starting to rust right out of the box…which sucked since we were often replacing the bumpers under warranty for rust.
When I was using Sikkens, I remember one of the tech Reps vaguely mentioning something about this. That was just under 2 years ago. He did say we would eventually see it replace what is currently being used.
The vagueness made it sound like an entire update to Autowave… Like “Autowave Plus.” With revised binders or what not. I’m very curious to hear more about it whenever anyone has more details.
From the pics, the floor doesn’t look bad at all.
If there is any pitting/rust, soda blasting wont help. It only removes the paint, and can be more problematic than its worth (with regards to properly neutralizing it). I second using silica or other means. Sanding/grinding will remove some of the zinc(galvanized) coating, but so will any blasted media that can remove corrosion. That is why you would use a top quality epoxy primer after. Or you could use an etch primer than a good quality sealer. But with the right epoxy it could be a 1 step process.
Are you painting the undercarriage when you done, or leaving it in the epoxy?
As fat as the DuPont epoxy you mentioned goes, only use the 2580CR. All of them are DTM, but the 2580CR has more corrosion resistant properties. Only down side is that it is green, the others are black, grey and white. I used all of those epoxies in the past and they are nice, but pricy. I have a lot of confidence in the 2580CR, so I personally would be happy paying a little extra for it. There may be some cheaper epoxies with compatible performance, but I have no experience there. PPG has the DP line, but I think the pricing is similar.
Welcome to the site. It looks like you’ve got a nice clean car to start with.
Are you intending on keeping it as close to all original as possible? Same colour?
I guess a good question to ask would be how are you guys charging for your paint materials? Also, how are you tracking material usage? Knowing the accounting end is a crucial starting point. Is your jobber giving you any discount, kickbacks/rebates etc and if so, are they being applied to the paint materials in your accounting software? Are your shop materials calculated seperately? Are you the only person handling the materials, if not, is there excess waste/ineffeciency being created?
Your shop may simply not be charging enough for them. Waterbourne does tend to cost more than solvent, and when your shop converted from solvent to water (regardless of brand) the profit on paint materials should have been monitored and adjusted accordingly.
I do agree, that as far as waterbourne is concerned, Cromax Pro does wind up being much more expensive than DuPont was marketing it as. Their whole pitch was based on the idea that the decreased labour time (with the 1.5 cost process) would offset any increase in material cost, even if that wasn’t the way they were saying it.
I used to spray chroma base with a Devilbiss starting line that I found buried in a shop I use to work at. It served its purpose for about 6 months until I made the plunge into the Teknas. Half my truck was sprayed with it, and after 4 years it still looks great. At the end of the day, it was a pretty cheap gun, not any better than something from Princess Auto (or Harbour Freight for you Americans)… I am sure it wouldn’t have lasted all this time, and I can only guess how it would have handled Sikkens and Sherwin Williams waterbourne. But for the low volume use (less than 15 jobs/week) with the Chromabase it really did leave finish as good as any other gun.
Now my 4000RP and my Teknas are far Superior, but the customers with these vehicles (nor anyone else for that matter) would ever be able to guess what gun was used to paint a job.
That almost looks too nice for you!
I agree with Jayson, that Retro Ditzler sign is nice…my grandpa still calls PPG Ditzler
I think ( generally speaking about all brands of waterbourne) that they can all be successful. But, they all seem to be very sensitive to the individual spraying environment in addition to other factors.
I continually hear stories like this where a good product that works well in 1 shop, just simply doesn’t work elsewhere. You may have had better luck with another waterbourne, maybe not.
I do wonder if one day we’ll look back at the “dark days” of waterbourne…kinda like comparing lacquer and alkyd enamel to base/clear and catalyzed single stage. As much as I do like waterbourne, I often seem to remember solvent base as being a lot less finicky.
Nonetheless, good luck/congrats on the switch.
Thanks for sharing the pictures. Looks like you guys do good quality work. How many guys are there in your shop? What do you use for paint products.
I spray AWX as well. Bondo is right, you need the variant with the best side tone (flop). The face is less important. Try using the slow (030) basecoat reducer as well. Are you using the 0500 blender/wet bed at all? What gun/setup are you using and how are you spraying your orientation coat?
The metallics (especially the medium and finer ones, 411,412, 413, 414) usually spray easily and blend very well.
Welcome to the site from Alberta Canada. I just checked your Profile, I’m not sure that there is anyone else here from your area, but there are a number of Europeans from other countries.
Hopefully you can share some pictures and let us know how the trade is in your region.
You sell out, now am I the only one left here using Sherwin products?
DBC is a nice system, hope it works well for you. Which clears are you starting with, 3000/4000?
I usually use 400 and a red pad too, but on some of them the primer is so thin I’ll use 600 (like mazda, VW, BMW etc).
Honda probably has the hardest primer. You could probably prep it with a grinder…
Interface pad on your sander…no need to use a block.