Is this clear coat salvageable?

[scheffehcs]

Hello - I clear coated an enclosure a couple months ago and I don’t know what exactly happened but it ain’t right that’s for sure.

It was pretty cold out, and I might have used to much, those are my best guesses. It was sticky for a long time, and now it scratches very easily. See attached pic and vid for details. I’m wondering if I can do another couple coats to fix it, or can I sand down the top coat and redo it? Or what I’m dreading - sand down the whole thing and start from scratch. Thanks for any advice.

Top coat

youtube.com

 

[Paradox916]

Did you shake the can up really well before using it? (Clear coat and paint will separate in the can). You can try another coat (make sure you shake that sucker up good!) let it cure and see if it hardens up. At lest that’s what I would do to try and save it otherwise you are probably going to do what you dread the most

 

[peccary]

Painting over flaky paint without removing it first won't help much, I don't think. Paint is one of those things that can't really be taken shortcuts with if you want a clean finish. If you are going to re-spray I would at least try to get off as much of the paint that is flaky as possible, maybe with a sponge and water and do a few very thin coats. If it's cold out try using a heat gun/hairdryer to help it cure.

 

[Harry Klippton]

I put my spray cans in a bucket of warm water for 10 minutes before spraying

 

[knucklehead]

Warm temperatures, thin coats and perhaps even a low temperature oven (170 degrees max) are your friends in this process.

Most store-bought clear coatings take longer to cure than color coatings - as much as a week or more if it is laid on thick. Most are not as hard and scratch resistant as you might think as well. If your base color coat is friendly to this, a different Rust-oleum product is a bit more stalwart;

https://www.rustoleum.com/product-catalog/consumer-brands/auto/general-purpose-paints/acrylic-enamel-2x?ls=271913&lc=Gloss%20Clear

or

https://www.rustoleum.com/product-catalog/consumer-brands/stops-rust-advanced/stops-rust-advanced-clear-enamel?ls=353028&lc=Gloss%20Clear

If you want something bullet proof there is a two-part automotive clear coat that is expensive but awesome;

EW 2K Aerosol High Gloss Clear

<p>Eastwood 2K High-Gloss Clear Aerosol allows you to paint with the durability and precision of a two-component coating without the paint gun! Formulated with Eastwood proprietary technology to provide a long-lasting and durable finish, while keeping its

www.eastwood.com

or

2K Clear coat - SprayMax

www.spraymax.com

or

2K Rapid clear coat - SprayMax

www.spraymax.com

The product you used is basically Krylon which is pretty susceptible to scratching.

 

[scheffehcs]

Ok thanks for everyone’s replies. Learning a lot. It’s definitely my least favorite part of the process so I’m probably not being patient enough!

I should have said in the original post - this is a pre-powder coated enclosure from tayda (a textured black) that I stenciled. I was thinking it might be the texture that messed things up, but I actually clear coated a bare aluminum enclosure at the same time and it has the same problem.

Anyway thanks for your responses, if anyone else has some more tips I’d love to hear them.

 

[peccary]

Check out the waterslide tutorial: https://forum.pedalpcb.com/threads/no-film-waterslide-tutorial.5543/

It works well with powder coat and is pretty easy all things considered.