Today I talked to my old friend that paints for a big shop and told him about my quest for a new gun that atomizes clear the way my little mini jet knock off did when I shot a small area with a 1.0mm tip in it. He asked me if I was sure I didn't over reduce and that is why it turned out so nice.
He said he always over reduces like if it is 4:1:1 he adds another extra half part of reducer and it makes the clear lay down much nicer. He said that the only reason they don't recomend it on the tech sheet is due to VOC crap and that if you look at mix sheets from the 80's they had alot more reducer.

In the book I just finished by John Kosmoski of HOK he talks of adding extra reducer. Anybody have any thoughts on this?

I did notice back when I painted more often in the early 90's that the clear used more reducer. I could lay down some nice finishes back then.

I wish I had added extra reducer to the PPG 2055 Concept clear I sprayed this weekend, if any clear could use it that line does.....bad flow out, bad. I will never use it again, but it does color sand out and shine quite nicely, I will give it that.

The last shop I was working in we shot PPG Global products and The 8101, 893, and 894 clears I used were always mixed with the extra 1/2 or 1 part of reducer. Heck, the paint reps recomended it after we caught them doing it when mixing during the demonstration week they were there. Just give the product more flash time between coats and let it set awhile longer before baking as it will be more suseptible to solvent popping and dieback. You will have a better as sprayed shine and a faster cure when the least amount of solvent is used.

2055 is mixed 1/2 to 3/4 part reducer.
I normally mixed it at 1/2 part reducer, only did 3/4 when I did a complete and needed more time.

Did you add in DX84 extender also? If you fail to add the extender 2055 kicks over fairly quickly and can cause a rough finish.
The tech sheet calls for 1-2oz per RTS(Ready To Spray) qt

With the proper gun setup and spray technique 2055 can flow out like glass.

You will notice that the older clears did have reducer in the mix were now days you dont add reducer many times. Well in all reallity you are still adding the reducer, it comes premixed in with the clear. They do it for VOC rules and easy of use.

I don't know what I did wrong, but the finish came out rough and a couple of sags as well. I felt like a novice afterwards ;)

I did not use the extender, I was sold an accelerator (don't have the # here at work) that's what the salesman gave me because I was in a cold booth (50-55*) and he said it would help with setup. If that was part of my problem, well maybe I need to wait until warmer weather comes around.

I am using a DA with 1000 paper to get the surface is smooth, then a 1500 to set up for a buffer. I have done up a couple of areas, the surface looks great, and gloss is above average so far.

Maybe I can take pic's when it's done and show you when it's done.

Sorry to highjack your thread zachscc :(

You can add either dx87 extender OR dx84 enhancer at the 1/2-1oz per RTS qt. Which a cap full is darn near 3/4 of oz.

I always used the DX87, without either 2055 cures pretty quickly, the potlife(the time you have from once mixed to the time it must be sprayed)goes from 1hr to around 15 mins without if I remember right.

Also what Dt reducer did you use? Since the booth was cold did you use the DT860 reducer? If you did am willing to bet that was your problem.
The problem with DT860 is it flashes off darn near in mid air before it hits the panel.

Take your gun and full it with water. Turn the fluid tip all the way out. Now open the trigger. The spray pattern with water is constant from top to bottom, you have an even amount of product leaving from the bottom, middle and top portion of the gun.
Now dump out the water and pour in the DT860 and repeat. If you look at the center of the spray pattern you will notice its very dry, hardly any product coming out. The dt860 is flashing off in the center, leaving the center of spray pattern dry.
If you take your gun to a test piece of paper, pull the trigger for a few seconds keeping it in the same spot, you will see that the center is darn near dry and the top and bottom are damp.

This causes a rough surface because you are not spraying equal amounts of paint through out the spray pattern. If you sprayed metallic basecoat with DT860 will you see streaks.

If you are using 860, Id stop using it, buy some Dt870.

When I painted in the winter months at my old shop, also a colder shop around 65-72, Id switch to DT860 and had all sort of problems with the base streaking, clear laying down like sh!t. Went to PPG painting classes and found out this little tad of information about DT860.

You need to up the temp to around atleast 65. Below 65 urethane paints especially epoxy primer have problems cross linking or curing.

Thanks for the reply,

I did use DT870, the jobber I went to did not want me to use the 860 for the reasons you described. I still am baffled, but the surface on the car looks OK after sanding, I still need to work a couple of the areas with a buffer to make it good.

One thing I noticed with this clear compared to the Chromaclear I sprayed on my pickup was the consistancy of the sprayable material mixed. The Chroma was watery and easy to get to lay down where the 2055 was almost corn syrup in thickness and sprayed out of the gun that way as well.

I am going to write this off to my inexperience with this product, and maybe the temp that I was spraying in. But I would doubt the product was at fault, just I was not use to it's spray qualities and needed a little more time with it to get it figured out.