Quote: 69, I gotta disagree. I do a fair amount of painting on my own..many times single stage, sometimes clear over single stage of various types of paints...That's a curing problem if it takes that long. It should be hard within a few days, unless it's below 45-50*, depending on the material used. Maybe ambient temp was part of the issue? I've found various enamels to be hard as a rock within a few days in 50* weather, and next day in 60* or higher. That paint, on his panel, didnt stick for some reason. If it wasnt cured, it would flex and tear if it was being "scratched" and had poor adhesion, not come off in small oval sections along the impact..That's dry enamel with poor adhesion. You get the same effect when a sandblasted pulley or bracket gets painted with ending enamel and there's still some contaminant on the surface. At the exact point of contact, the paint fractures, but it isnt bonded to the surface, so a larger piece breaks off. A correct finish will be dmamged only where the impact is..not out on either side of the impact too. I have found these enamels to be almost bullet proof on things like tractors, and bike frames, hand rails, etc..so I think it's a prep issue.
i completely respect your opinion, as it is by far the most educated explanation i've read yet. however, (insert "but" here!!!) i have also sprayed 6 cars in my painting days with single stage, and have done several paintjob expirementations with mixing in clear into single stage and spraying clear, from many types of paint, with excellent results. and in contrast i've painted 5 cars with this roller/tremclad method, and actually sprayed one with tremclad. i completely respect your opinion about the scratch test, and the release of the paint and commented in my previous post that prep and surface residue most likely caused the bubbling and adhesion issue, however, i completely disagree on you comments about drying times. enamels or synthetic enamels (such as acrylic enamals) take huge amount of times to dry. take duplicolor's line of paint which includes primer, primer sealer, topcoat, and reducers (hardners) which is the line of paint i used on the 71 midnight blue beetle in the pics reciently, and that was sprayed on. i talked with duplicolor indepth and they basically said that it takes about 3 months for the paint to completely dry, depending on the amount of reducers and temperature reducers, they did mention that if you add too much the paint will dry much faster but be very brittle. that's when you see a stone chip remove a "layer or sheet" of paint and not just the impact site. many modern BC/CC paint jobs do this when you get a stone chip you notice the paint came off in a large peice. this is because they try to get the paint to dry as fast as possible. also if you look at the paint "windows" they suggest on re-coating and topcoat application after primer sealer, they suggest that if you don't shoot color within 30 minutes, you MUST wait 20 days to topcoat. and 10 days or 30 mins for additional color coats. every single car i've painted and every car i've had painted professionally (about 10 cars painted professionally) have been "soft" for at least 2 months. i really don't think EXIT1965 prepped the pannel, treated every coat with the care he would have as if he were actually painting the car, and an oversight in one step could have caused the issues he is having now. anyways, i'm getting a little tired trying to defend the paint and adhesion, since i know and would bet that if i painted the car it would be awesome, instead of blaming the paint, we should concentrate on what causes the paint to bubble, and scratch off eaisly. i don't know how else to describe the durability of the paint other then expirences i've had, like just reciently i was getting in the charger, and i had it backed out a little in the garage, i was taking it out for a drive and just checked the oil. then i got into the car and hit the garage door opener by mistake, and freaked out trying to find the opener to stop it before it hit the car. long story short i lost and the one peice double width all wood door won, and came crushing down on my rear magnet mount cb antenna, and hit a curved part of the base and slid it down the trunk lid about 4" with all that force of the door, and cracked the housing on the cb mount, and dented the trunk lid. the paint did have a little scratches, which i buffed out and their almost gone. that happened about 2 weeks ago. had that been my 2002 Mustang GT, i'm sure i'd be painting the trunklid.
