Well just thought I’d give a heads up warning to any one thinking of adding “Mar-hyde” 2612 Wet Look Hardener for Acrylic Enamel to a oil based enamel.
I had the running boards blasted with fine coal slag (Black Beauty) last week. This sandblaster is used by many of the car builders in the area and he kind of specializes in that kind of work. They came out very nice not really too rough probably would have been fine with a couple of good coats of primer before painting. But I spent the day sanding them back with #80/120 production paper to what I felt was a smooth enough surface to refinish with paint alone.
Paint of choice was Rustolium Oil based enamel and where the item is not exposed to a severe environment the paint can be applied directly to the bare metal. Been doing that for years even on items that are to be left outside and have never had a problem with rust or paint lifting. I shot the bottom side Monday with Rustolium thinned with a little mineral spirits. Two coats with a little tack time in between and the final coat was tacky in a half hour or so, dried to the touch in a few hours and over night (24hrs) was dry enough to handle and move around, just as Rustolium promiced on the can. They came out beautiful, smooth, glossy and covered well.
Jump ahead to Wednesday morning now, I wiped down the bare metal topside with “Dupont” 3900s First Kleen and wiped it dry. Now here is where I went wrong. I had read a thread last week where someone mentioned adding Mar-hyde 2612 to Rustolium and thought I would try it here on the running boards, since their finish is not generally considered as critical as the body panels. A painter buddy of mine also had mentioned in the past that he always used 2612 whenever he sprayed enamel. So I mixed up a little less than a pint of paint and thinner just as I did for the backside and according to the Mar-hyde container a 2oz/1pt ratio would have been correct. Since this was to be an experiment and I didn’t really have a full pint I thought I would sneak up on the hardener so I only added about 1oz. Results:
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2309453840098611668TfByPm I guess I should have pitched it out when I was mixing it because I noticed thousands of tiny white spots that looked very much like tiny fisheyes on the side of the plastic beaker as it drained down the sides. The main body of fluid looked fine and I saw no signs of the compounds separating. So I went ahead and shot the boards, all 12sq ft of them. About as soon as I got the last pass on I noticed these very fine white spots forming in the paint. It looks as though I had mixed a handful of silica sand in with the paint. The only thing that I can contribute it to is the hardener. After I had rinsed paint cup and was wiping the inside with a paper towel it started to ball up and stick to the sides of the cup. There was a very sticky film on the inside of the cup which washed off with lacquer thinner. I’m only hoping that a few good rinses with the lacquer thinner cleaned the insides also since this was my new DeVilbiss HVLP gun.
Needless to say that a good sanding and repaint is in the future, probably a week or so down the line after I’m sure the pant has set up real good. The morel of the story is to stick with what you know works and experiment on a cardboard box in stead of a finished panel. I guess now I won’t have her back on the road till this fall, dang I was looking forward to driving her down to the Goodguys swap meet in Joliet this week end!!!
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
