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i have found the topcoat boat paint (top side)as a clear coat that i can spray on. so will it work if i paint the car with rustolium then clear it with the top side?



My initial thought is that you should not do it.

I don't think there would be a problem with a polyurathane on top of an enamel... BUT I don't think it would get the maximum adhesion. The way polyurathane on top of polyurathane bonds or adheres is that the polymers actually form chains between the old polymer and the new polymer. Think of something like a DNA molecule or chain, that helical thing. The polymer chains are designed to interlock and that is how the polymer forms a strong bond or a unified bond between the layers.

The polymer on top of the enamel cannot form a direct chemical bond between the two layers. So on that count along the adhesion or bonding is not as good.

IF you are laying a polymer clear top coat on to a fully wetsanded enamel surface, you should be able to get a 'pretty good' bonding between the two chemicals. This is mainly because the wetsanding of of the enamel surface will provide a sufficiently rough surface for the polymer carrier to penetrate and grab a good grip.

IF you are trying to lay a polymer clear top coat on to an non-wetsanded enamel surface, the enamel layer will not be so porous and accordingly the polymer coating on the surface will not get a solid grip.

As you know... it takes the layers of paint a fair bit of time to fully dry out and reach maximum hardness. The carrier needs to fully evaporate from each layer or the trap layer will slow down its drying time and remain somewhat less than hard. I am not sure if a polymer coating on top of an enamel coating might trap some of the carrier that is still evaporating from the sublayers of enamel paint.

The ugliest mess I have ever seen on the road was a car where the guy put acrylic floor polish on top of his faded enamel 'factory' paint job. It looked AMAZING when it was first done. BUT after 30 days the acrylic layer started peeling off the body like skin on a burn victim....

As you know or may know... my car was initially painted in Tremclad/Rustoleum 'Fire Red'. After six coats I switched over to Brightside 'Fire Red' and finished the car using the Brightside. In my case, there was about a 30 day delay between the switch from Tremclad/Rustoleum over to Brightside. I believe this allowed my six layers to fully cure and reach maximum hardness. SO... when I started putting the polymer paint on to the enamel paint, the question of carrier evaporation wasn't really a concern.

SO... it is possible that a clear coat polymer might work on an enamel based paint job..... BUT I would follow this sequence :

a ) finish the enamel paint job to a level that is acceptable to you.
b ) do not do a final wet sand or waxing to that final enamel paint job.
c ) wait 30 to 60 days
d ) wetsand the enamel paintjob
e ) apply the polymer clear coat.

The idea here being to let the enamel fully harden, but not to contaminate it with a polishing and waxing. Wait the 30 to 60 days to let it fully harden and then do the wetsanding to prepare the surface for maximum adhesion between the original enamel paint and the new polymer coating.

Dunno if this helps...

BUT you should fall back to the original reason for NOT wanting to put a clear coat of paint over your enamel or polymer paint job. That being that you will not be able to REPAIR nicks and scratches as easily. With JUST a paint on the body, you will be able to repair scratches and nics, by just rubbing some alchohol on the area to be repaired ( to remove the waxing compounds that you use to get a shine ) and then just touch it up with your chosen paint color. Then you just re-compound the worked surface and polish it up again. Thereby getting an almost 100% color match where the repair was done.

BUT if you have a clear coat sitting on top of your enamel or polymer paint... then I suspect you can figure out the increased difficulty of making an invisible repair that won't be so obvious to casual observers...

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Last edited by Marq; 04/04/07 12:14 AM.