We’ve upgraded our clearcoat again…

In our efforts to continually improve quality we’ve upgraded our clearcoat yet again.  The old clearcoat was very good, but it was hard to apply and was a bit soft for the massive amount of polishing the end product received.   After spraying the first round of the new clearcoat, I’m very happy with my selection.

I spent quite a bit of time researching online and came up with a list of some of the best clearcoats I could find.   I took the list to my local automotive body shop supply and after an hour or so of discussing the pros and cons of each, we whittled down the list.  I ended up going with a premium PPG polyurethane.  Everyone I talked to spoke very highly of PPG and this is their top of the line offering.  It’s more expensive than what I’m used to spending on clearcoat, but the end result seems to justify the price.  It is very similar to the old clearcoat in that it is a 3 part clearcoat consisting of 4 parts paint, 1 part hardener, and 1 part reducer (different types of reducer are used based on the ambient temperature of the room being sprayed in).

Few random pieces before being cleared.

And after.

B5 shifter piece

As you can see from these last few pics, the clearcoat goes on like glass and looks fantastic.  It seems to be much easier to spray than the old stuff and I was able to do these pieces fairly quickly.  This clearcoat does require more time to cure than what I’m used to (about 16 hours until it can be handled compared to only a few hours with the old stuff – 2 to 3 days until it can be wetsanded and polished) however I have some infrared lamps on order that will speed up these cure times dramatically.

And with my new clearcoat I made sure to pick up some new clearcoating footwear.   My sandals were getting caked with overspray.