Noticed a huge difference after switching to waterborne paint on a silver Accord

I did a silver 2015 Honda Accord about two months ago. Before I always used solvent based paint and I fought with metallic flake orientation every time. This time I tried waterborne basecoat from the same brand. The flake laid down flat in two coats no striping at all. The color match was way closer to the factory finish than my old method. Cut my buffing time by almost half. Has anyone else seen a similar jump in quality with waterborne on tricky colors like silver or pearl?

2 comments

2 Comments

wadem8915d ago

Did you have to change your gun setup or air pressure at all? I tried waterborne on a metallic blue once and it came out blotchy, took me longer to fix than solvent ever did.

sean78215d ago

Waterborne metallics are definitely trickier than solvent, but the blotchiness you ran into is usually from spraying too wet or not getting the right dry time between coats. Your gun setup and air pressure matter, but the real culprit is often the reducer or the activator - if you use a slow reducer in cool weather, it stays wet too long and the metallic flakes float around uneven. Try a medium or fast reducer depending on the temp, and keep your fluid tip around 1.3 to 1.4mm. You also gotta make sure your first coat is a light tack coat, just enough to get the metallic to lay down flat, then wait for it to flash completely before the second coat. What brand of waterborne were you using?