After spending the last two days block sanding the first two coats of primer on the truck, I was all ready today to go out and shoot what I really hoped was the last of the primer coats in prep for color. I’d sweated, sanded the fingerprints off all ten fingers on both hands, turned pruney and nearly had a heat-stroke, but it looked really, really good.
Half a gallon of 2K urethane primer, about a third of a can of catalyst, one unopened (but old) catalyst, a little urethane reducer in one can and a full gallon of (what I thought to be) urethane reducer under the bench. Yesterday I’d been going to make a trip to the paint store, but having enough on hand to keep me busy today, I didn’t go.
See where this is heading?
I mixed up a batch and shot the cab and front fenders with a double wet coat, then mixed up another batch and started on the box and headlight buckets. Almost immediately, the spray pattern of the gun seemed smaller, and the primer looked “dry” going on. Clearly, something was amiss, so I took the cup off the gun and…
“Oh shoot”, I said (well, maybe a little more colorfully than that). The primer was rapidly turning to jelly in the cup, and the other half in the mixing can on the bench was likewise turning from a liquid to a solid. What the…?
Turns out, I think the can of what I thought was urethane reducer was really a gallon of acrylic enamel thinner. Which should teach me to:
a. Label stuff that has only numbers so I know what it’s for, and…
b. Follow advice and only use products from the same manufacturer. Which this stuff wasn’t.
So, after an hour I had the goop all cleaned out of the gun, and dumped the now almost solid block of paint on the brush pile to burn. The paint store was closed, so I’ll have to wait untill Monday to get another gallon of primer, reducer, and catalyst along with the rest of the miscellaneous stuff I’ll need to finish getting it ready for color. The first batch, using what WAS urethane reducer went on fine, and the cab and fenders look ready for the last of the block sanding and guide coat. The second batch I only got started with, shooting the headlight buckets and the tailgate. Happily didn’t get far, it’ll all get sanded off tomorrow.
It’s no big deal, I’ll still have it ready for color by the end of next week, and maybe I’ll use the time tomorrow to clean up the shop a little. Yeah, right…
It is sort of aggravating to start re-visiting past errors. You may recall that the same thing happened while I was prepping the ’36 body for paint, and as I recall, it was again a case of using old, or mis-matched products. Hopefully, this is the last time I make THIS mistake, and I can move on other new and exciting goof-ups!
Cool McCool's Garage 