Merc C250 TD Blowover with non iso 2k nisocoat

[charlysays]

Got the wheels powdercoated. Also got some 215 40 18s to hopefully avoid scrubbing the wheel arches on the front. The 225s just caught a little like when reversing out of a drive on a hill on full lock. Quite pleased with the finish, 200 quid.

 

[charlysays]

Painted the shell shuts and rear quarters. This has taken a while to happen because of all the rust I found. Both rear arches needed some reconstruction.
Bought myself a couple of 1000w infrared heat lamps and they are pretty decent for a tenner each. They'll get that black paint up to 50c pretty fast from a metre away.
I'm gonna relax a bit now as all the big bits are done. With the heat lamps I can paint stuff like doors etc in poor weather but I still aim to get it all finished in October.

 

[charlysays]

Question... Has anyone used this epoxy primer?

Pardon our interruption...

Or any suggestions for one I can get which works with 2k thinners?

I'm getting tired of bilt hamber high bild. As good as it is for spot repairs, when you have 28486 spot repairs to do I think a coat or two of epoxy high build would be less hassle and prevent the odd halo I can just about see in the finish. So many edges to feather.

I acquired a 1.4mm hvlp gun last week in addition to the 1.3 I've been using to shoot the top coat so thinking for the remaining panels I'll give some Epoxy primer a go.

 

[charlysays]

I just ordered some Hb 989 epoxy high build. 1.25l total. Thinking that should do the 4 doors and possibly the tailgate too? It had good reviews and can spray as low as 15c (will use heat lamps to aid cure though), recoat wet on wet and uses 2k standard thinner. Looking for to quicker more effective spot repairs now! Also ordered another 5ltrs gunwash so I can have a top coat gunwash tub and a primer gunwash tub.

 

[charlysays]

Primered the remaining panels on Monday.

Thoughts on hb989 epoxy primer... Comes in a handy quantity, does go a long way- still got some left after doing two wet coats on these panels, works fine with 2k thinner, sands really really well like a proper primer surfacer but I guess with less porosity... Downside is the cure seems decidedly slow and weak.

Maybe the kit I got was old- I had to stir the primer for ages as there was a semi solid lump in the middle which I imagine was the fillers.

I sprayed it at the minimum temps on the TDS but after the final flash off I got the heat on the panels and kept them at 22-50c for 8 hours. The only bits which went hard were the bits nearest the heat which were at 50c. The car was actually warm inside so the heaters were doing their job. I gave a few more doses of heat for several hours to the softer areas on the next two evenings. Used my laser thermometer to make sure it never went over 60c which is what the TDS said was the max temp.
Temps went down to 10-12 at night, not cold enough to stop a cure really.
I honestly expected 8 hrs at 22+ degrees to see it fully cured but that didn't happen despite the TDS saying it would.

After a few days it mostly passed the fingernail test though and today I sanded the front doors down to 800g dry hand sand/ 600g DA and there was zero clogging of the pads, powders up a treat. Where there is a masked edge you can't pick it off either and the film build is decent.

Would be nice if they sold it with a fast hardener as the pot life and cure times are ridiculously slow. I guess it's made in Greece and it's hot there haha.
Going to flat off the rear doors and tailgate tomorrow so that I can spray the nisocoat fairly early Monday so I can again keep the heat on it for as long as it needs.

All going well Monday, all I have left then Is the front bumper and sill covers, some grot to treat and paint underneath, couple tiny holes in one sill, reassemble the car and replace the squeaking worn out rear arm rose joints (bought the laser tool to do them in situ). I have a week off at the end of October so hopefully it'll happen then.
Oh and I wanna get my old 12" sub back in there

 

[mtt.tr]

Looking good, needs tinted windows now.

 

[charlysays]

Painted everything now bar front bumper and sill covers. On track to be driving it again by November all going well.
So far the finish is drying nicely. No sinkage issues around repairs thanks to the epoxy primer.

 

[charlysays]

Finally finished painting everything. Or atleast spraying everything. Got some brush painting to do underneath is all, probably 1k zinc primer due to temps being borderline now for 2k.
Got all next week off so hopefully have the car back on the road then.
Today was definitely dicey for painting. 12.5 degrees but atleast the humidity was under 70% but the paint went on fine to these plastic bits and seems to have set up. Allegedly polyamide hardened paint are better for curing in lower temps or atleast that's what I've read and want to hear lol.
Getting the hang of this spray painting thing now haha, at the end of the job... Still not using the fan control much but it naturally hoses way more paint on so I'd rather waste some paint than hose way too much on by accident.
I've also managed to do the whole job on one set of respirator filters (bit harder to breathe through now but still can't smell anything through them) and have never dismantled any of the guns, just flushed them out and back flushed.
Next post I'll do will be some shots of the assembled article.

 

[mtt.tr]

How did you find the nisocoat, what was the drying time like?

Was it hard when cured?

 

[charlysays]

How did you find the nisocoat, what was the drying time like?

Was it hard when cured?

It's a really good product, it was absolutely ideal for this job. It does what it says it does- more or less 2k isocyanate performance with regards the cured film without isocyanates. Similar high solids content etc.
This comes at a compromise with regards curing time and workability though which appears to a feature of polyamide cured paints which hmg have done their best to ameliorate- they flash off incredibly fast but then take atleast a week to fully cure.

You have about 5-10 seconds to work back over a wet edge before you lose it. I can't envisage it being possible to spray a whole car at once without ending up with it looking dry and dusty and needing a load of wet sanding.
I struggled to avoid orange peel- even when you lay every coat on like glass it tends to dry with some peel for some reason. Could be my technique or lack thereof or the extremely budget guns I'm using. Using 40% slow thinner and 40psi pressure helped a lot and not laying it on too thick.
That said Ive been able to get a gun finish good enough for it to look decent from 10ft away outside and a flat and polish will improve it dramatically.. really pleased with the transformation of the car for a small outlay compared to 2 grand for a pro to do it which just wasn't realistic due to the low value of the car.

It takes a good 2-3 wks to reach full hardness if you do two full wet coats. 6-8 hours for gentle handling. Obviously it's dust free pretty fast with the ridiculous fast flash time. As such if any overspray lands on it after you sprayed it compounds off really easily.
You can't dig a fingernail into it once cured, unless it's gone over 1k primer in which case it takes ages to pass the nail test as the primer is soft underneath it. If you get any runs, these go hard, which tells me it properly crosslinks.
It polishes and wetsands well too.

It's really an industrial machinery paint, not sold as car paint but it's been great for what I've used it for.

 

[a111r]

Excellent work there, mate.

I take it no flex. additives were used on all the plastics?

 

[charlysays]

Excellent work there, mate.

I take it no flex. additives were used on all the plastics?

No, I didn't think of it tbh but the general consensus Thesedays is they're not really necessary. We'll see I guess in time haha! I didn't really rub through the old paint either so no need for adhesion promoter. Thanks dude.
I think painting w202s in direct gloss is the way to keep them looking presentable long term, just so sick of trying to spot repair metallics or any base/ lacquer system. Mercs need so many spot repairs it just looks a mess, may as well respray at that point with a more practical paint.

 

[stevethegrease]

Great job Chalie, as usual , you never do things by halves.......

 

[charlysays]

How did you find the nisocoat, what was the drying time like?

Was it hard when cured?

Forgot to add. The latent Orange peel phenomenon with nisocoat seems to only happen on larger items, especially large vertical ones where you can't hose it on as thick. Wing mirror cover for example, mirror finish. Bonnet, all good too. But a quarter panel or door can be a challenge to not have some orange peel. I reckon it's likely my skills or the conditions or the cheap gun but having never used proper 2k I don't know if that ever has the issue of going on looking like glass but drying with some peel.
What is for sure is the tack coat technique people use with 2k isn't a good idea with nisocoat. By the time you hit it with a full wet coat the bumps never really melt away so it seems wet coats from the go are the way with it, which obviously requires more skill to avoid runs, which I have now attained right at the end of the job haha.

 

[Ianb]

Think you are selling the job abit short calling it a blow over, looks absolutely superb and those wheels make it look better still.

Where did you find the infrared lamps for £10 each!? Are they the proper shortwave (?) designed to cure car paint?

 

[charlysays]

Think you are selling the job abit short calling it a blow over, looks absolutely superb and those wheels make it look better still.

Where did you find the infrared lamps for £10 each!? Are they the proper shortwave (?) designed to cure car paint?

Thanks mate, I'm fairly happy with it for a first attempt. Always room to improve it over time too!
I love some AMG monoblocks too, great looking robust dish type wheel.

I got them off eBay for 10.90 each. Search paint curing lamp. Don't know about what sort of waves they give off but they certainly heat the panel up. 2kw patio heaters are good too.

 

[Ianb]

Were the lamps used for that price, lowest I could see were £20, but still cheaper than I expected.

 

[charlysays]

Were the lamps used for that price, lowest I could see were £20, but still cheaper than I expected.

No, new. It seems it was a temporary price I just checked the invoice and I paid £22.90 for two.
I think if you modified them and did a better job of isolating the switch from the heat, or even just removed the switch entirely so they go on and off with a switchable extension lead or something they could be left on for hours.

This was the listing I bought them off

1000W paint curing lamp handheld drying infrared heating portable body spray | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 1000W paint curing lamp handheld drying infrared heating portable body spray at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products!

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[charlysays]

I then bought two of these and these did the business too, except you can leave them on for as long as you want. Four would do two sides of a large car. I just about managed with one on each side but two would let you paint two sides of a car even in fairly cold weather.

Pardon our interruption...

 

[charlysays]

Finally drivable again. Really pleased with the transformation. Still haven't cleaned the inside in 3 yrs hahaha. It won't get cleaned until I've finished the more important stuff either.
Sills and jacking points are full of dynax, also dynaxed the inner bits of the doors on any seams, repairs or where trim fits on.
Fitted a set of infinity door speakers and an old sub I had lying around too so i can really enjoy music again.
Only thing stopping me using it now is getting some protection on the underneath around the rear subframe. Bought a drill Flexi driver for the harder to reach spots. Already hammered at the bits which I know rot and they're rock solid still, just flakey paint and some crusting.
I'm feeling more motivated for the upcoming rust mining operation now atleast, and there's no doubt I will look like a miner on the prep day(s) lol