james caruso
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dupont has imron of course and chroma one. dont know of others since its been years since i have used any dupont stuff. be sure you understand, you dont just want sealer, there are many different kinds, you want to put down a thin coat of epoxy primer. i dont know what dupont’s epoxy is but epoxies can usually be reduced down and be shot as a sealer. you just want that down there like a coating of spray glue for the ss to stick to. just helps it all bond to the porcelan which can be really tough to scuff up and get a tooth on.
i used to buy houses/remodel and sell so i have done it quite a few times. never base/clear though. always used imron or another single stage urethane. scuff best you can, epoxy prime as a sealer to help bond to the porcelan if thats what it is and imron it.
every single thing that goes out here is cut perfectly smooth and buffed although unlike most of the others here, that’s what my customers are paying for since all my stuff is custom bikes or restorations.
ya dont have to go water. there are low voc solvent systems out there which are all legal in cali. probably be much better for a home guy without the equiptment.
[b]RatStang wrote:[/b]
[quote]You sure didn’t have no problem posting that Avatar pic. :ohmy: :X[/quote]looks like the cover of an reo speedwagon album or something!! :rofl :rofl
:rofl time!! weeks at a minimum…months maybe. i do restorations here all the time and its metal, body and paint only. no mechanical, electrical, etc. when i get a body here its all blasted and put in epoxy. i dont disassemble anything. from that point the average body restoration here at my shop is 250-350 hours…or more depending on what level we are taking the car to and how bad it is to start with. there will be alot of bending and rolling the edges of the doors and other stuff to get it close. to tighten up gaps i usually start welding 1/8 rod on edges. you can also correct some misalignmet as well this way…just not on doors or anywhere where you see the edge.
plastic only. i dont believe there is much of a problem with glass yellowing plus i dont think there are too many vehicles on the road or being produced with glass anymore. my 97 cherokee and thats about it!
slowly but surely gettin there. lookin good!!
man that wb is some funky lookin stuff when its wet. clear looks really nice in the pics.
1000-1200 is too fine and probably why your clear is peeling. there is nothing there for the clear to bond to. 600-800 with an orbital and you should not really see any scratches and the clear will bond waay better. sometimes when you see scratches its dirt caught in them. if its cleaned really good before clear then it shouldn’t be much different than when be block out clear on the car and reclear. the scratches disappear. my process is exactly like ryan’s.
every set of lights i have ever sanded the coating off and buffed, in 4-6 months they are yellow and completely shot again. the plastic has no uv protection without a coating on it. this could also be region related as well. heat, cold, uv, salt, etc. probably all plays in there.
brad, thats great but really, if the customer can strip the paint off his car with a 3000psi washer then he should also stay off the headlights. coating or no coating damage can be done. once a clearcoat is fully cured its as hard as the plastic that the headlight itself is made out of. i personally dont see the point of a coating, process or product where you have to do it every year. you could clear them and be done with it once and for all. brad, i am curious when you clear a set of lights what the process was. did you strip off the old coating, what grit was it sanded with before clear, etc.
i do a ton of it. some weeks i could do a couple and other times i have had the booth full from one end to the other with maybe 30 pieces from many different cars. not only headlights but taillights, marker lights and about every other light on a car. polishing is a waste of time. it just leaves the plastic exposed and in 4 mos they look exactly the same. you should not have a delam problem when you clear your headlights. in the hundreds of lights i have never had a single one comeback, chip or delam. clearcoating them is really the best and only way it should be done. it is a permanant solution and will never have to be redone, ok well maybe in 10-15 years or more. all those systems out there are just gimmicks imo and not a true fix for the problem. what is your clearcoating process? curious what is causing your problem.
all that is true. secrew up happen and to be expected but i think there is a point there where attitude and not giving a crap come into play. an employee in this trade needs to be a professional and responsible. if he is a good professional employee and we are talking about the occasional screwup then the shop should take care of that but if its the attitude then he should be paying for the rework at that point or be shown the front door.
[b]Stone wrote:[/b]
[quotematching bike paint sucks :angry:[/quote]
man your tellin me.
i usually blow my stuff off as well. if i do that and just have the booth on for 5 or so minutes i usually dont have any kind of problem unless its a really nasty humid day here and the stuff just doesn’t flash. if you wipe dry and have poor flow like in a homeade booth then that is where the 1/2 hour comes to play.