Topic: Spray-on clearbra

[Gentleman Jack]

That is was $5000!!!!!

[The Carrier]

Yeah, $5k is a lot of dough.  I wonder if there was a gouge factor based on "If he can afford THAT car..."

What's a good paint job cost these days?

[Critterman]

A lot more than 5k

[TomatoSoup]

What's a good paint job cost these days?

'Bout tree-fiddy.

[Gentleman Jack]

A lot more than 5k

For the Aventador, yes.

How about for an arrow straight 1969 Chevy 3/4 ton pick up?
One that is currently a combination of green and primer spots? One whose interior is yet to be seen and the truck yet to be test driven?

[Sol Asylum]

Depends on how much prep work is needed, what kind of paint is used, how many colors or how elaborate the paint job is, base coat/clear coat or single stage paint, who does the painting.....

http://www.earlscheibautopainting.com/services.html

Earl has raised his prices a little.

[The Carrier]

Earl does not seem unreasonable

[POS VETT]

An Aventador costs 1.5x my house, $5k is not even a penny in that scheme.

There was not much of gouging in that pricing.  Supply and material are about half of that since the installer has a rule of thumb "one piece per panel", so he had to buy a very wide roll (52" or somewhere around there) just for the car.

[ChopTop]

A lot more than 5k

Small Painting Touch-Up Jobs: $100 to $500
Higher Quality Paint Jobs: $800 to $2000
High-End Paint Jobs: $3500 to $8000+

Full Article: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/car-paint-job-prices.html (Last Updated:3/14/2013) (high quality chrome paint, which costs something like $800 per quart) 
 
I don't think it's about the price as much as it's about finding a qualified painter, as it seems most body shops primary objective is: fast turn over.  Hence the reason for choosing bolting on new panels and parts over repairing damage (which = more time which = more money) to repair damage.

Probably why most old school body shops have either closed or been forced to change w/the times, and possible why quality painters along with quality paint jobs are becoming harder and harder to find.  Because it must be discouraging (and just plain demoralizing) to work for a business that's more concerned w/turn over good quality.  Seems like that would make it easier to seek another profession or why it's so expensive when you do find a painter who won't compromise their work ethic.

[rlhammon]

So I'll go off the deep end and post on topic here...

The resulting film you get from this stuff is very thin.  There appears to be no real benefit to trying to apply it thicker or apply more coats (follow the instructions, three coats with the second coat sprayed 90* to the other two).  Going on wet the stuff looks like it's a bad orange peel surface, but it wets out really nice and drys to a very clear film.

I'm actually going to be doing some real world testing of this product here at work (UV, scratch, impact, bending, etc.) and would be happy to post back the results.

I'd pass on their "kit" and use your own tape and drop cloth.  I'd avoid newspapers though... some sort of plastic drop cloth is what you'll want.  Also, you want to double mask your line.  That is, tape down your drop cloth to protect, and place a second line of tape where you want the "edge" to be.  What you'll want to do is peel off this second line of tape, leaving behind your dropcloth, as soon as you are done spraying.  Peel that tape with a wet edge and let the spray dry.  If you wait to pull the tape edge off, you'll peel up the coating you sprayed down... trust me, I've already learned on my test samples.

[TomatoSoup]

Well, this weekend, I tried this stuff out on She Who Must Be Obeyed's new car (a 2-week-old Mazda CX-5 SUV that gets FAR better mpg mileage than my Solstice - sigh)

I did not buy the application kit, but would tend to say now, that it may well be worth getting, if only for the trigger holder (and maybe the reel of tape). My trigger fingers were really hurting by the time I finished!  (I kept swapping left to right hands, which just made both fingers ache.)

By far the most difficulty was in taping off.  I did use newspaper - and it works just fine - though more painful to position and tape down.  The spray is very 'wet' (large droplets, heavy flow, small spread) and nothing like regular paint sprays, so the spray doesn't move very far unless you're in the wind - but then not a good idea to do this in the wind anyway!

I applied a ~20" wide strip across the hood an a couple of pieces on the front of the fenders and pretty much emptied the can.  So the 10 square foot coverage is pretty accurate.  Looked horrible when freshly sprayed - milky and irregular - but dried (several hours) to a clear smooth film. So all's good.  Obviously I've no idea about longevity yet, but it's a decently thick film, though I doubt it's anywhere near as good or as strong as clear-bra.

One tip if you do this... mask first (with a double line as rlhammon says) BEFORE applying the wax that comes with the can!  Otherwise (don't ask) the waxed surface is so slick that neither masking tape nor blue tape will stick down.

So, here's a couple of application photos.  I have no post-dry photos yet as I did this saturday and it's been raining ever since, so the car's been in the garage since...  They warn you not to let it get wet for a couple of days after application (the stuff is water-based and needs to cure well, or the finish can suffer, apparently).

These are taken freshly after spray and after the first edge layers of blue tape have been removed...

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[Helios]

First pic looks ok. It has that milky finish you were talking about in the second pic. Are the photos after the drying time you specified?

[TomatoSoup]

Are the photos after the drying time you specified?

No!  These are directly after spraying.  It has dried perfectly clear & smooth.  May try to get "after" photos today if the rain holds off.

[Sol Asylum]

Why didn't you say so in the first place TS? 

[Helios]

No!  These are directly after spraying.  It has dried perfectly clear & smooth.  May try to get "after" photos today if the rain holds off.

Sorry. It was late and I was falling asleep at my keyboard when I typed out my original question. I see the last tidbit you typed explained it was right after you sprayed it.

[TomatoSoup]

Here you go... finally got the car out of the garage today:

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[Critterman]

That looks good, let's follow it's life.  A new picture the 11th of the month until next June.

[Helios]

Agreed. Looks good. Let's see how it weathers.

[Wartie]

TS, Looks great. How do you think it will work on a vertical surface like the rocker panels?

[Sly Bob]

How about for an arrow straight 1969 Chevy 3/4 ton pick up?
One that is currently a combination of green and primer spots? One whose interior is yet to be seen and the truck yet to be test driven?

Steve, all you need to paint the truck is a little time, a can of Rustoleum and a roller. Check this out.

How to paint your car with Rustoleum. The right way.

[The Carrier]

The spray-on stuff does indeed look good.  Might have to give it a try myself.

[rlhammon]

I'm continuing my testing here at work.  Please don't expose this stuff to water until it is fully cured... give it a few days, and as 3M says... park it in the sun.  I've been accelerating the curing in an oven, and playing around with spraying water on the surface at various cure times... you will certainly destroy the surface of the film if you get it wet before it's cured.

The dried film is very clear, so much so that we don't see an optical cue to it being there if one can not see the edge line.  Full panels which have been sprayed and compared to uncoated samples are not distinguishable, but touch or sight of the edge of the film line gives it away.

I'm very curious about UV exposure.  I'll be doing some accelerated testing in the lab, as well as the dreaded "Florida" test most likely.  Depends on how well this stuff stands up to various other items first.

[TomatoSoup]

I'm very curious about UV exposure.  I'll be doing some accelerated testing in the lab, as well as the dreaded "Florida" test most likely.  Depends on how well this stuff stands up to various other items first.

 

[cbr6]

question, where have you found the 3m defender to buy? can't find in my area. Would like to use it on my motorcycle, and GXP

[elff]

Amazon has it