[T3] It was the Paint!

["Keith Park" <topnotch@nycap.rr.com>]

It WASN'T ME!!  3 little words never to be uttered by the MARRIED man but...
I spent over an hour at my paint supplier today talking automotive paint
with their expert and learned a lot.

First off, the Dupont Centari acrylic enamel is great unless you use it with
a metallic, then it just plain sucks!  The paint doesn't allow the metallic
to mix properly and getting a good consistant looks is critical to how
quickly its put on, the new 1.4mm gun IS HVLP and is better, but still...
keeping a consistant look over a large area isn't going to happen with this
system.  I can probably get away with this in the door jambs and trunk but
no good for the outer areas.  He convinced me to go to the Base, clearcoat
system and that the metallic base is MUCH better and entirely different in
keeping a consistant look.  A little problem (other than it will cost me
ANOTHER $200) is that there is no mixing code for the L96D for the dual
system, so he will take a reading off the enamel which was mixed to code....
hope this works out well with the original color as that is my whole point
in putting the car back to its original look.

Some other frightening things are happening in auto paint.. here in a VOC
state not only do the hardware store glues and paints not work anymore,
there is a very limited amount of products available in the auto paints.
Gone is the nice medium build primer... its eather slurry or a thin sealer
primer.  The future of autopaint is very uncertain... and its getting $$$.
Cars are getting totaled out now just because the paint job is too expensive
for repair..... and in the future all paints may REQUIRE to be baked and
they are looking into a shrink wrap system of applying paint... Yea, some
Dupont engineer was watching his kid eat one of those candy skins and
thought to themselves..... Ya know!?!

So if your thinking of painting your car one day... ahhh, think SOON!

Keith



Top Notch Restorations
topnotch@nycap.rr.com 
http://members.aol.com/radiorest/main.htm
71 Squareback
65 Notchback "El Baja Rojo"
65 Squareback "Eggcrate"
87 golf "Winterat"
93 RX7 "Redstur"
97 Ford Escort "Meathead"
and if your looking for the Opel:
www.opelgt.com


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