[PaulatFast]

Test is still on and I apologize for the delay. The problem has been clearing out my booth and getting back to spraying primer on something. At this point I have been buffing and assembling a 70 GTO in the booth since finishing spraying the 69 TA.

I may be doing a little priming on some small parts yet this week, if so, the test panels are ready to be sprayed.

if I had 40 hours each day and 10 days a week, I'd still never catch up!

[ScottD3]

I went to a motorcycle shop looking at flat black helmets the guy told me the helmet was painted with a rubberized paint. Has anybody heard of this and would it work on a front nose?

[PaulatFast]

If you want a flat black nose it would work great!

[ScottD3]

Could you use that as a base for flexability? Does this type of paint not come in colors?

[PaulatFast]

If there was a readily available system that could custom mix a rubberized coating that would spray out of common guns, lay flat, adhere well, hold a shine and remain flexible, I would think someone would have mentioned it by now.

For the record, the top coat usually isn't the problem, it's almost always in the prep.

[paint guy]

Originally Posted by ScottD3

I went to a motorcycle shop looking at flat black helmets the guy told me the helmet was painted with a rubberized paint. Has anybody heard of this and would it work on a front nose?

Chlorinated rubber is commonly used to make traffic marking paints,and sometimes used for color stripes on tires(among other uses).Usually can't get enough gloss out of that type of paint for a topcoat,although I believe( based strictly on how it behaves when sprayed,as it "cobwebs")that the SEM flexible primer contains at least a small amount of either chlorinated rubber and/or vinyl.I may include a panel of it in the test when the panels are completed.As I mentioned in an earlier post,the VAST majority of this work is the panel preparation,it is very time-consuming,so hats off to Paul for volunteering.And,as Paul mentioned,you can have the most flexible primer in the world,and it will do little good if you cannot achieve a similar degree of flex in the base and the clear coats.

[Formula8]

While we wait, I figure I can give some preliminary feed back on fillers. I ended up using 3m's EZ sand Flexible parts repair # 05895. http://www.repaintsupply.com/pd-05895.cfm

So far, it works exactly as advertised. It sands and feathers pretty easy and you can skim coat with it nicely. If you use the adhesion promoter, it does not roll off or anything. When sanding, it has about the same consistency of a old hard pencil eraser. My bumper was in pretty good shape to begin with and this is taking quite a bit of time to get right so be prepared for that.

I went ahead and used the PPG flexible primer surfacer from their specialty line. https://buyat.ppg.com/refinishProduc...9-b7ae615bd6da It is stupid expensive but appears to adhere well and remains flexible. The only downside I see outside of the cost is that it has absolutely no surfacing ability whatsoever. Good thing, as the amount necessary to fill your sand scratches makes me feel better about having to pay for an entire quart to do just the bumper in the first place.

I have probably another two - three coats of primer with wetsanding in between to mnimize the mil thickness before I am done. I don't think I can recommend the PPG flexible primer at this point but I am surprised how easy the 3m stuff is to work with. I have no idea how it will hold up long term but so far, so good.

[GTOWoody]

Any update on this thread?

[Half-Inch Stud]

Caution: Primer/Paint system must be capable of Hot-to-Cold & Cold-to-Hot flexure.

MY Starlight 68GTO Endura got ~16 Vertical paint splits since I took it to work one winter day.
================================================== =================
I read this thread and the only thing that stuck to me was:

::::::Sand blast all the material off to get to the base Endura rubber::::::

That's where MY independent plan-to-fix starts (maybe end there with a thin coat of SEM Gloss Black?) I expect excellent adhesion along with terrible sun (UV) resilience.

[Formula8]

Good luck finding a paint manufacturer that says they have something for endura much less will stand behind their product at various temperatures. I had mine soda blasted and I am kinda concerned about issues with adhesion as well as flex. I cleaned it extensively but I know there are issues with epoxy and soda which is why I went with the PPG. We'll see how it all turns out.

[70KGOLD]

I hand sanded my endura's bumper by hand. I followed the paint manufactures instructions to the T. I left nothing to chance. It still cracked.

[matrix]

Here is what is crazy to me. I have owned my 70 GTO for 7 years or so. When I got it it had what appears to be your typical Maaco scuff and shoot paint job. Looks like your bargain single stage acrylic enamel. I can see the origianl color in the jambs and such and the few chips from normal use look like it just has the one repaint over the original paint. The nose has zero cracks in the the 10 year old acrylic enamel scuff and shoot job. How the heck do you explain that?


Now the last time I actually painted an endura piece was at least 12 years ago. It was also a nose on my then 70 GTO (different car). I hand sanded it to bare rubber. I used a Sherwin Williams "flexible parts" primer and single stage urethane over that. I did nothing special. Two years later when I sold the car the bumper was still perfect with no cracks. Guess I am lucky as Heck.

[Formula8]

That is why I wanted to test a single stage vs. a BC/CC. Maybe I should have done a poll between the two to see if it is as simple as that. We all know these cars did not have a CC from the factory and they did not have this problem from the factory. Paul seems to indicate that he does not have problems with the SPI epoxy, BC and SPI's HS clear. I would just jump on that program if I didn't have reservations about my soda blasted endura as SPI doesn't want their epoxy on anything that has been soda blasted.

[RicksGTO]

I had Dupont Centari single stage on my '69 GTO and the paint was about 16 years old when I sold the car in '06. There wasn't a single crack in the paint and you could still lean all over the endura and it wouldn't crack at all. It always amazed me how well it held up compared to other cars including some from pretty expensive shops that cracked withing a short time.

[loglexkal]

Got to agree with the single stage guys. I painted a 71 endura in the early 80's with Dupont lacquer with a flex agent over Morton's impact coating as a primer. Drove the car every day for 5 years from sub-zero weather to summer heat. No cracks what so ever when I sold it.

[GTOWoody]

So my question with the single stage paint, does that mean the whole car has to be a single stage paint? Will it match if you do a multistage paint on the rest of the car? It seems to make sense that the more paint you put on it, that you increase the chance for cracking.

[Formula8]

Sounds like a question for the pros but my thought is assuming the clear is the culpritm=, even if it didn't match 100%, it would look better than a cracked one with clear coat .

[70KGOLD]

I used BC CC just for everyones information. Im getting ready to repaint it in march. The rest of the car still looks like it just rolled out of the paint Booth.

[Formula8]

So I take it that you are saying you are repainting the bumper due to cracking? If so, do you recall what products were used?

[Half-Inch Stud]

I too had Dupont centauri on me Endura: The paint seems good but the gray primer-sealer underneath allowed major endura chip-peel aways.

So, mind the adhesion systems.