OK, it’ll be Thursday before I can stop by the paint store to ask what the heck I did … but figured some of you might have some insight. Lots of things I did that I shouldn’t, but none seemed horrible.

Used RubberSeal Black Epoxy primer. It’s a local Dayton, OH product that a lot of shops use.

Paint store had some Dupont Activator that he threw in, and said would work. I bought both of these in June, and then couldn’t get to use them. Went to use them last night, and bad things happened!

First, when I started … the Activator can was about half hardened. That’s alright, I knew storing wasn’t good, and suspected I might lose some. So, I ran it through a paint screen.

Mixed 1:1 ratio, let it set a minute … then poured into my spray cup. Hooked up my air hose, and never really got it to flow right … within another minute, it wouldn’t do anything but sputter out of the tip. Very shortly after it was done coming out at all. Opened my cup, and probably 1/3 had set up hard into kind of spider webs inside my cup.

Took the cup off … I was worried about the mess that would make, it had set itself hard completely closing the bottom of the cup. At this point, I was worrying about my needle/seat, as it was really trying to set up in there. The pint of liquid that I poured out of the cup, and into a Tupperware, was a solid brick within a 1/2hr.

Next thing … I couldn’t find my lacquer thinner, so was trying paint thinner and acetone. Both of those are USELESS on epoxy! Filled my cup with paint thinner trying to keep anymore from curing … two minutes sitting in the cup of black primer, and the thinner poured out clear as water! Same thing on the gun … was using acetone trying to get something to spray out my tip, wouldn’t even come close. Fortunately, I looked again and found my lacquer thinner. It was cutting through it pretty good … so poured a gallon into a can, and my whole paint setup is soaking in that right now.

Anyhow … long story, but any body have an experience like that? Did I do something deathly wrong? What would cause it to setup so quickly?
Thanks, Neal

Hmmm
Dupont hardner in a non dupont product..mistake number one

Half hard hardner...mistake number two.

Your first mistake was mixing brands of primer and activator. Your second (and fatal) mistake was using old activator. Treat it as a hard lesson learned and give it another shot with fresh brand a name materials.

Tom

well at least you know the epoxy will be resistant to lacquer thinner.

try it again with fresh activator. Better yet call a shop that uses that brand of expoxy and find out what activator they use.

try it again with fresh activator. Better yet call a shop that uses that brand of expoxy and find out what activator they use.

Just dont go with "Soul Glo".....

"Feeeelin ohhhhh so sillllllky smooth.....just let it shiiiiiiine through ooh ooh....let your soooouuulllll gloooow oh oh, Hoooo!"

Activator may well have a shelf life, but unopened and purchased in June should never have been a problem.

You either got bad product, the product packaging failed, or you damaged the packaging unintentionallly.

Now that the bench chemistry experiment is over you should buy the correct components and mix a batch per the manufacturer's directions-I bet it'll work just fine that way.

Just dont go with "Soul Glo".....

"Feeeelin ohhhhh so sillllllky smooth.....just let it shiiiiiiine through ooh ooh....let your soooouuulllll gloooow oh oh, Hoooo!"


That's beautiful, what is that? velvet???

It happens. I grabbed an older can of hardener to use up first before opening the new one once when spraying K38. Needless to say, I didn't get halfway around the car before it was setting up in the gun. :angry: :clonk: I did see a trick, I think in Car Craft. For those of you with mig welders, purge the air out of the hardener can by turning your wire speed to zero, stick the nozzle in the can, and give it a quick pull of the trigger. The shielding gas will push out the air, and then you cap it quickly. Supposed to give you a longer shelf life.

Hmmm
Dupont hardner in a non dupont product..mistake number one

Half hard hardner...mistake number two.

ditto. Thats one thing you cant let sit around. Whenn buying hardeners, try to buy the least amount for the current project, because you can be pretty sure when you need to use it again, it'll be junk.

ditto. Thats one thing you cant let sit around. Whenn buying hardeners, try to buy the least amount for the current project, because you can be pretty sure when you need to use it again, it'll be junk.
Yeah, that was the original plan:-) I bought a small amount from the paint shop in June (actually, he gave it to me) … on my way over to the machine shop to pick up my block and heads. Not really a big project, just wanted to put epoxy base on all my engine bellhousing stuff, before chevy orange. Anyhow, just got my block/heads back last week (reason I couldn’t make the drags).

Oh well, stopping by the paint shop after work … might just have him mix primer/activator there, and go spray it when I get home.

Take care, Neal

Oh well, stopping by the paint shop after work … might just have him mix primer/activator there, and go spray it when I get home.

Take care, Neal

Why?
Whats the potlife on that product? Spraying paint near its potlife will cause problems too.

Buy the CORRECT hardner for the product and the worries are done.

Why?
Whats the potlife on that product? Spraying paint near its potlife will cause problems too.

Buy the CORRECT hardner for the product and the worries are done.

Oh no, what I'm saying is that the paint shop is on my way home. The guy there's pretty cool, and will mix up a qt (total volume) for me, and sell it at weight cost. And, everything at home is already prepped and waiting. Stuff will be mixed and shot in less than an hour.

All his stuff is Martin Senior now. He had to get rid of all the RubberSeal stuff when he became the MS distributor.

Saves me from having to store opened epoxy activator at home, which I know won't last until my next paint project (coming up in about December). And that work might go to the body shop anyway.

We'll see ... weather man said 90s and no rain until Saturday. If that changes, my plans will have to change too.

Thanks, Neal