Tint in automotive clear?

[wired to go]

I have some PPG automotive clear coat. Can I add Color Tone Stain from Stew Mac to it? I'd like to add a little amber to the clear finish on my New 1.  ???

 

[Cagey]

I don't know enough to answer, but I do know that it's poor practice to mix components of different manufacturer's product lines. It's often a "system", where everything is chemically designed to work together. Also, for anybody to answer your question definitively they're going to need to know more about what kinds of finish you're talking about. Saying "I've got some PPG Automotive Clear" is like saying "I've got some unidentified toxic liquid..."

 

[wired to go]

PPG auto clearcoat is a catalyzed acrylic enamel.

 

[pabloman]

PPG has different product lines. Most of their auto clear is urethane.

 

[Cagey]

PPG has different product lines. Most of their auto clear is urethane.

Right. I'm not sure about the naming - I used to use Imron to finish cars, which depending on where you got the description was called a polyurethane enamel or a catalyzed enamel. That's a trade name for DuPont; I'm sure PPG has a name for theirs but it's essentially the same thing. Either way, you bought it the color you wanted from their choice list rather than diddle it yourself. Sorta like buying epoxy finishes. So, I still don't have an answer for the guy, but in all the above cases the color selection is severely limited for some reason.

I will say this - the stuff is miraculous. When you shoot it, it goes on all orange-peely like you'd expect from enamel, but then it flows out and looks like wet glass. Then it cures that way in about 10-15 minutes. Nothing left to do... no buffing or polishing required. And once it's fully cured, you can beat the snot out of it and it won't scratch, scuff, chip, etc. Really a trick finish. The only problem, if you can call it that, is that there's no messing with it after the fact. If you put a sag or run in it, yer screwed. There's no sanding it out and polishing it to correct it; you strip it and start over. Also, it's toxic as alien snot. Inhale the stuff and even your ancestors will get sick. It's also expensive as sin - figure in excess of $100/gal. But, as the guy explained to me the first time I bought some, you can throw $100 at the paint and be done, or you can shoot lacquer and work for minimum wage buffing it out for 8 hours and end up with a fragile finish.

 

[pabloman]

The enamel we used to use was single stage. Like you said its durable but you gotta get it right. I recall us using it on the lower end vehicles.  That was about 17 years ago. Damn! Straight outta highschool sweating away at the body shop for peanuts.

 

[Phinox]

catalyzed poly urethane clear coats give off cyanide fumes DO NOT mess with this stuff unless you have the proper equipment please! 

As for the original ? you should mix it up and test spray it some tints work well in clear and others can make it cloudy or affect it in other ways as in not hardening and so forth.