Concerning R-M Diamont

[CopperNick]

Is Diamont considered as being an Acrylic Enamel or an Acrylic Lacquer? Shot the BaseCoat in Diamont and need to match the clear. I have clear on hand, and this is only a touch up but want to get right BC/CC combination because I don't want any crazing or finish issues due to mismatch.

 

[pagrunt]

Should be acrylic urathane if it's BC/CC. Very hard to find lacquer from the major suppliers & enamel is generally single stage. Since you're using RM you might want to look into their DC100 Jammin’ Clear or even Upol's clear unless your budget needs won't allow it then a good urathane clear should work but really check into the product you go with so you know what you got. FYI, I had customers at the old job that would use urathane clears over lacquer.

 

[joesregalproject]

pagrunt has it right. I'm not very familiar with BASF paints but if it's bc/cc is almost definitely an acrylic urethane.


Transtar 6841 is my favorite acrylic urethane clear if you are looking for suggestions. Right around $100 a gallon and it's a great product. It does have a tendency to run if you aren't familiar with it so I'd practice with it first. It does sand and buff really easy though if you do happen to get a run.

 

[CopperNick]

Thanks to both of you for your prompt replies. By way of further info, this stuff is a custom recipe that my local supplier had his paint chemist cook up for me as an attempt to match a GM S-10 color that was supposed to be pewter? but displays more as champagne. The ingredient list is a long laundry list of various shades in various percentages, all being coded "BC" which I take to mean "Base Coat" This is not a complete reshoot, This is small batch country, so think pints and quarts, not multiple gallons. The labeling on the container is "Diamont" which is part of the R-M line. I don't think it is a urethane, no catalyst involved. So the possibilities become enamel and lacquer. It is a definite base coat as it shoots flat, unlike a single stage. The goal here is to match the clear to the base so they get along. I know that one, enamel? can get shot over the other, lacquer?? but not the reverse; probably not case today but was back when.

What will likely happen is that I will not shoot the clear until I can speak with my supplier and confirm the identity of what I have. Sucks. It is getting cold up here and that throws the time for the shot to harden/set/cure off, even with tropical heat present.

Just as a "way back" long time ago when products like Miracryl and Bonacryl and Imron first came out, 80's?, I got together my paint supplier at the time and we discovered that Miracryl could be mixed and canned into a spray bomb. The trick was to leave out the catalyst as if it was added, the paint would set in the can!! The hardening time did become longer between shots but for small parts and sub assemblies where a full booth and bunny suit were set up time consuming, the whole thing worked quite well. STill have an engine and transmission in service that were shot in Code 29 Blue in Miracryl and the paint is holding up fairly well even through uncounted heat cycles.

Nick

 

[pagrunt]

If you didn't need a catalyst it is a base coat urathane. Since the '80's the trend was to change to urathane paint which can be used as a single stage or base/clear. With your color being a custom tint doesn't affect if it would or not be a specific type. Most base coats do have a flatter finish than a single stage, take a look under a hood of a newer car & you'll see it cause they usally don't clear that area. I'll still recommend a urathane clear.

 

[TURNA]

I used Diamont on my Cutlass.

It is a very nice quality paint

 

[tommr]

My suggestion is to use companion products. I would just put the Diamont clear on Diamont base. Universal off brand clears do not have UV inhibitors in them. They are generally regarded as 5 year clears. If the car stays inside it will hold up way past that. Universal clears sand pit on frontal and lower areas more than the good clears. I'm amazed at how good some PPG and Glasurit jobs look After 20 years w no garage time. Clear will last indefinitely in the can but catalyst shouldn't be used much more than 2 years after purchase. Avoid online purchases. You don't save that much and outfits can be selling out of date product. You can save a few $ by purchasing the smallest container of catalyst for the job.

 

[CopperNick]

Tommr, the forum forwarded your response to me so I figured that I would update the thread so that all who have surfed it would get to learn the final outcome.

First of all, I did get in touch with my supplier and he advised me that, for the companion clear, I could use Acrylic Lacquer Clear. Lacquers are still relatively easy to obtain up here. As for what the chemical composition of my basecoat works out to be, urethane or ??, I can't really say. Neither the basecoat nor the clear had catalyst added to them prior to being shot. Having the catalyst as part of the mix does accelerate the drying time substantially but for small parts or what I was doing, leaving it out only meant adding additional time to the flash time required before the subsequent passes could be made.

The actual sequence of events had me color sanding the basecoat and reshooting it. This, strictly speaking, may not have been necessary but since there had been a prolonged amount of time pass between the initial base coat being laid down and when the correct clear got identified, I elected to play it safe and wet sand the first basercoat shot to obtain a surface that I thought would accept fresh color without issues. The new coat of base did go on without issues. After a decent amount of flash time I went ahead and executed the clear coat shot as well. This all happened last Sunday and the final result was not half bad. I wish I could have taken more time and shot a few more coats of primer/filler and done a little more block sanding using finer grits and a last wet sand using 400-600 before applying the color but that is me being picky. For what I needed and the time frame available to me, I pretty much got what I wanted. The only issue, and that for me is kind of chronic, is that the factory clear coat seems to reject being overcoated, even if it is clear. I did do a color sand of the old clear to remove the gloss and feather it down in order to get a smooth transition but even with a coat of primer sealer, the factory finish seemed to, not exactly wrinkle, but craze at little in response to the first shot of clear. With the Subsequent passes, that reaction seemed to disappear. The clears still aren't a perfect match, that would take more clear and then a color sand exercise ending in buffing. For a show vehicle or a high quality result, that would be the way to go. This wasn't about show, just about the ongoing battle to exorcise rust.

Nick

 

[tommr]

Nick. Did you put lacquer clear over the Urethane Basecoat? Thx

 

[CopperNick]

Okay. By way of clarification, I am still not 100% certain that what got mixed for me by my paint chemist was a urethane basecoat. Gotta make that real clear here. The product she created was, I believe, based on component numbers that came from the Diamont catalogue but whether they were urethane in nature, I just dunno. Diamont, in and of itself, is a line belonging to R-M. To directly answer your question, yes, I did shoot an acrylic lacquer clearcoat over the Diamont base. Actually, I shot multiple coats of clear, allowing flash time between each coat. I can't offer a specific number for the time allowed between each coat. Given the ambient temperature in the shop and the fact that I was not using a booth or catalyst for the shots, I allowed both extra time between each pass and kept my rate of speed for the pass slightly quicker in order to avoid the possibility of runs or sagging. As a side bar, I also had a wet floor to walk on, an old school trick to keep the dust down when moving/shooting. For the pros, yes, a full up booth with divorced air delivery to the shooter and negative air vacuum to suck dust down and away from the vehicle would be beyond beautiful; it would also cost about twice as much as I had to spend just to get my floor, four basic walls, and a roof over my head when I built my shop.

Nick