First of all, has anyone used fish-eye reducer in with their paint system? I am afraid that I will get fish-eyed with my new paint that will be applied this summer. I used to use tire-wet on my vinyl top and it would run down the side of the car.. This means the silicone most likely saturated in with the paint. Now, I hear that the silicones can even penetrate down to the original paint and even to the metal. So if I do use the fisheye eliminator treatment mixed in with my paint, is there any drawbacks to using it? It seems to good to be true. Seems like if it really worked so good it would be included with all paints. Does it give as good of a shine? Does the paint last just as long and is it durable when fisheye eliminator is used?

Secondly, I was wondering about blocking the car out. I see many professionals, (and I mean perfectionists) say that they use paint stir sticks to block the car. I figured that stir sticks would be too flexible and would completely defeat the purpose of blocking to get a straight panel.

Thanks for any help you can give. I'm a newbie.

Give the car a good soaking with household white viniger. It will neautralize the silicone and then I would just wash it with a good type cleaner.

Clean the paint before you sand. Are you removing all of the paint? If not, don't worry about it until you're ready to paint. You can seal the car with a sealer before painting. If you do run into fisheyes when painting, you can add fisheye remover to the paint for minor fisheyes. What this does is adds silicon to the paint your applying. Always use a good quality pre-paint cleaner after a good detergent bath before priming or painting.
The paint sticks referred to in blocking are the thick / wide ones for stiring 5 gallon pails. Available at any paint store or Home Depot. Cut them in half or threes and use the stickey backed 3M gold paper that comes in a roll. 180 for roughing out worked areas and 220 for overall blocking. Follow with another final coat of primer and block out again with 400. Always use a light touch. Just light enough to remove the high spots. Don't press the block too hard. You want to create a smooth surface, not follow a wavey one by pressing to hard.

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Triple Black 69 SS 396

The silicone doesn't have to get on the paint to cause fisheyes either. The shop that did my body & paint has had loads of trouble at times just because the tires had been treated, even if they hadn't been treated for YEARS. My car had spare crap tires on it when it went in, but my dash pad had been treated years before with Armor All. They masked off the dashpad extra good and it caused no problems.



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I used extremely heavy silicone on the vinyl top. When it rained it would run down and cause streaking. I did not know any better then. Am I screwed now??????? Oh by the way I will not be sanding to the metal. I was hoping to go down to the original paint (car has only been repainted once) to paint .. I will be using a urethane paint system. I can imagine the frustration of getting everything perfect except bad bad fisheyes below the sail panel where the silicone would streak down after a shower.

[This message has been edited by UMKcc_SirCrunch (edited 04-06-2001).]

Don't use fish eye eliminater.It will shorten the paint life and could cause it to look bad in a short time.you shouldn't use any additives unless recommended by your paint manufacturer.before you start sanding the car down wash it a few times with a cleaner like spray nine or castrol super clean and water.then you could wash it with dish detergent like dawn or ivory and water.Then use a pre clean like duponts first kleen or prep sol.if you do this you should be ok. A dealership where i worked would prep there cars with tire shine,armour all,vinyl dressing,you name it,and then when they needed paint work i used the method described and never had fisheyes.

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70 chevelle,400cid turbo400.blue with silver stripes.http://members.spree.com/entertainment/ochrisl/

One of the first jobs I ever had was at a restoration shop where the owner told me if I brought any fisheye eleminator in the shop I would be FIRED!

I still live by his words and they are very profound, FIND THE CAUSE AND STOP IT! Putting fiseye killer in is like putting a bandaid on a bullet wound.

A few draw backs... It IS a contaminate and what it does is makes your paint "compatible" with the contaminate on the surface! And the worse part is if you use it, you will continue using it, because your booth will now be contaminated! Every particle of paint stuck on the walls and so on will be contaminated.

It increases "Surface tension" which increases ORANGE PEEL.

If you have a few fisheye you will see it in the first coat, you then can let it dry a bit longer than usual and then apply the paint/clear what ever a little dry on that area and that will fill the fisheyes 9 times out of 10. I have had VERY bad fisheye that I was able to solve with this method. http://www.chevelles.com/forum/smile.gif


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1965 Buick Gran Sport Convertible
1965 Buick Skylark H/T
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