Sorry, I dont care what they say, I wouldnt use Feather Fill on a toilet seat. They also say you can use it over old paint to fill and hold out sand scratches etc. At least they used to say it right on the can. I can tell you from the school of hard knocks that this stuff will cost you dearly if used in that application and I wouldnt trust it with SMC either. I have seen and repaired bunches of jobs on 73-82 cars that had big ole bubbles in the paint. Most had been redone with sprayable polyester primer of some brand. I havent used it in more than 20 years, when it cost me several thousand dollars in redos, and I will never use it again.

 

I would definitely go with the BC/CC, even with Black because:
1) You can wetsand and buff out any inperfections (can't with single stage)
2) You can wetsand and buff out orange peel for a smooth as glass finish (can't with S/S)
3) Easier to make repairs/blends with C/C
4) Much better UV protection
6) Wetsanding and buffing S/S removes the top layer of UV protection which, when gone will allow your paint to oxidize faster. I have a car I did this with (I had a number of imperfections I wanted to remove) and afterwards it would haze up after about 2 weeks. I've probably buffed it out a dozen times and it hazes up in a couple weeks. I have a friend that I cautioned against doing this to his single stage paint job and low and behold, he has the same problem. Think twice about wetsanding single stage paint.

7) BC/CC is about a 10 year finish if you didn't garage your vehicle, much longer for your Vette.
8) I think any of the major brands will work fine. I've sprayed them all. In fact, many of the off-brand companies have excellent products and clears, like Evercoat. Urethane technology is out of the box, no secrets. Each paint system has certain quirks and subtle different characteristics. Each painter thinks whatever he sprays is the best product out there, but at the end of the day, any will give you a long lasting and durable finish. A good paint job boils down to adherance to good paint processes and technique. Probably a good idea to spray whatever brand your painter is most used to. Personally, I would just have your painter wetsand and buff the paint to a mirror finish. If you want to get compliments, that's what I would do. All in all, it's hard for me to come up with any good reasons to apply single stage paint, other than a few bucks cost.

Good luck,

Mark

p.s. don't ask what #5 is....

 

The polyurethane you are talking about is polyurethane enamel, which is what imron is. Yes, imron is more durable than acrylic urethane, but urethane is by no means soft. I work at a dupont store now and I can tell you imron is super expensive. 1 quart of hardener is about $120. That quart of hardener is only enough for 3 quarts of paint. Imron is a very high solids and high pigment paint so it really goes a long way. If you have the money for the imron, great. It is probably the most durable. The drawbacks to imron are a very slow cure time and the paint must be warmed up before spraying. If I were you, I would either use a single stage urethane or a base clear. My favorite is ppg, I have sprayed a lot of it. Concept is ppg acrylic urethane. It is a high solids paint and is very durable and has a good shine. If you want to go the base clear route use ppg dbc basecoat with the 2002 clear. This clear is high solids also and I believe it is the top of the line. A gallon of clear is about $125. A gallon of dt reducer is about $30. A quart of dcx61 hardener is about $65. As far as the cost of the paint goes, it will vary on the color. Both the clear and single stage urethane CAN be buffed. It is easier to buff clear though. This probably isn't good to say because I work in a dupont store, but I would buy ppg over dupont. Chromabase and clear seem to chip easily. We get a lot of complaints on this. Dupont is also a lot more expensive because you are paying for a big name. I recently painted my 4x4 hugger orange using dbc basecoat. 1 gallon cost $200. The same color in chromabase was $325. With dbc you reduce it using regular urethane reducer. With dupont you have to use basemaker which is $50 a gallon. I hope this helps.

 

Feather Fill has been discontinued long long time ago, and replaced by Slick Sand. Covers bare fiber strands and eliminates the use of Gel Coat.

I used Slick sand on mine, and on a 66, great product, no bubbles, no paint lifting, but then we all have our opinions on a product wheather we like or not.

Click on my sig for a look see...finished the 68 Jan 2001, looks the same now as it did then.

 

Someone should inform Evercoat of this, cause if you go to their website you will see advertised all three of their sprayable polyester products including feather fill, feather fill II and slick sand. There is probably nothing wrong with these products when used on polyester based substrates, but I cant stress enough that you are asking for problems using them on SMC. And they never should be used over old paint. These products are activated by MEK liquid hardner. Try pouring a little MEK on some old paint and watch the result. This lifting will also occur under your new paint job.

 

Wombvette, What type of body filler do you use on 73-82 Vettes to block out waves and straigten bodywork?

 

I don't doubt what you're saying at all, but I must be living a charmed life. I stripped the paint but left the factory primer. Used 150 paper to sand the body, shot Slick Sand, wet sanded till I saw traces of the red oxide primer, shot the lacquer, color sanded. Same with the 66, but the owner decided to use BC/CC. Again no paint problems with either car.

I don't understand why Evercoat would list Feather Fill....Slick Sand is a direct replacement for that product.

 

Thank you everyone for your posts. Sorry I have not thanked you sooner, I see a lot has been posted over the weekend. I just got back into town and saw all the great and valuable info.

This forum is great!

 

I just got my 79 repainted black, the final paint was done 2 weeks ago. It is a stock black, non metallic, and it is a single stage urethane. It looks fantastic. I am in no way an expert on paint so I relied on 2 guys to give me advice on what to do. BTW, one of them has a bubbletop 409 Bel Air in single stage that he wetsanded and buffed probably 2 years ago, and it is one slick looking paint, and he hasn't had any problems with it. My car is garage kept and will not see any foul weather, so I expect the paint to last for many years to come.

 

I just got throught painting my 85 with Marson 2K Primer topped with Nason Ful-Seal Select Sealer and Topcoated with Nason Ful-Thane. I stripped the car to the SMC before starting this job FYI. Welll 6 mos. later, my car looks like the worst case of Acne you ever saw. Blisters everywhere..IE paint lifting off the sealer causing blisters the size of a half dollar and worse. Now bear in mind all this product was recommended by the DuPont jobber. After this all happened, I called the DuPont tech line and and was told OH-NO you can't use Acrylic Sealer under a Urethane Topcoat... BADDDD BOY. Even though their Tech sheets specifically say that sealer can be used with ANY Nason topcoat as does the web site, Tech Rep says NOO. Basically I was told to ignore any directions I read. Apparently if I were a PROFESSIONAL Painter, I would have known that according to the rep. Wellll I'm not too happy at this point, and have called my Jobber and the DuPont rep to see this car. Dunno what they're gonna do for me ...probably nothing. I guess my point to all this is that I think there is something to this theory about compatability with Acrylics and other products. All I know is that I have to strip this car AGAIN and start over. Id like to stick with Nason but frankly I don't know what to do at this point. DuPont say I should have used Ful-Poxy instead. Evercoat says use our stuff with no problems(Acrylic based). So does anyone have a tried and true system that works?. At this point I need to block out the panels again etc, but don't know whether to primer them first then use some sort of Evercoat product like Featherfill G2 to fill and block it, or use filler directly on the SMC, Block it out then Urethane prime??? I Dunno but Im pretty depressed about this entire ordeal. Can any of you guys help me out?? Thx Frank

 

I work in a dupont store and we have a lot of people that use urethane over the ful-seal. I wouldn't use this sealer. It is basically a lacquer. For a little more nason makes a really nice catalyzed urethane sealer. How long did you wait between the sealer coat and paint? Sometimes, if sealer dries for too long the paint won't stick. You also said that you stripped the car. Did you use a chemical stripper? It is very important to neutralize the stripper with water. If you don't get it all off, it will cause the blistering you described. By the way, I hope dupont helps you out with the materials to repaint your car. In the year I have worked in a dupont store, I learned that dupont pretty much sucks. They are only in it for the money. The prices of dupont materials have gone up about every two months during the year I've worked there.

 

good info

 

I waited about 2 hours for the sealer to dry. But I'm tellin ya the paint just pops off with a razor blade in pieces. Anyway yesterday I went down and got some Nason Select Prime 421-17, and shot that. So far so good. Now I'm gonna put a little slick sand on it to fill a few spots. Should I prime it once more with the Select Prime, or just go ahead and shoot the catalyzed Sealer over the primer thats there now. Thx for the input Frank

 

dupont nason is probably the best bet.. Its really cheap and pretty durable

 

i used that duraglass shyt and now all my "shaved" area on the body are showing...... yes i "v" grooved them/etc...... i heard it was because of the talc that was in the product...... my friend told me to use bondo next time...wtf.... i have no clue..... i mgiht just use staight resin and matte again and build up the primer a few times.......

b