Duplicolor clear and polish times

I tried a search, but coldn't find a direct answer regarding drying times for duplicolor clear and polishing.

I've finished the body with the color and the clear and it's been drying for about 2 days. My question is how long do you have to wait to wetsand/polish? There's enough orange peel that I know I'll have to WS. Do I have to wait a week for this? The can of clear says to wait a week before waxing. I use 2000grit automotive wet dry sand paper and Turtle fine rubbing compound (got it on sale for 1$ a jar). I finish up with a scrach removing Turtle wax that says it's safe for clear coats. I use it on my Acura, so I figure it's OK to use on my $15 model!!! :icon16:

On a side note, someone recommended spraying the clear immediately after the last body coat and the results were great. Another great tip from AF!

I tried a search, but coldn't find a direct answer regarding drying times for duplicolor clear and polishing.

I've finished the body with the color and the clear and it's been drying for about 2 days. My question is how long do you have to wait to wetsand/polish? There's enough orange peel that I know I'll have to WS. Do I have to wait a week for this? The can of clear says to wait a week before waxing.


I use duplicolor often, and always wait atleast a week. It depends on how many coats you apply. If I have about 5 coats of clear, I usually wait a week atleast. If it more like 10-12 coats, which I usually do on the large scale cars, I usually wait atleast 2 weeks, sometimes a month!
If you polish too soon, the clear will continue to "gas out" after polishing and will start to look dull again.

If it more like 10-12 coats, which I usually do on the large scale cars, I usually wait atleast 2 weeks, sometimes a month!

AAARGH!!! I want to finish it now! I started model building to learn to be more patient and these wait times are killing me!!! I only did 4 coats, so I think ill wait a week. It's been a chilly WI spring, so I'll put the parts by the heat register to speed up drying time.

Thanks for the quick response!

On a side note, someone recommended spraying the clear immediately after the last body coat and the results were great. Another great tip from AF!

Just in case someone reads this and not the original post, this ONLY works when you are using paints from the same manufactuer or of a similiar formula. Spraying an quick drying clear over a slow drying lacquer coat will result in a lovely crazed surface. Custom for sure, but probably not the chemical reaction you had in mind...;-)>

hth,
Bill

I'm not a big believer of clearing right after the last color coat, just too many solvents going on at one time. The clear might even trap gases from the color coat and slow the whole drying process down.

In your case, give it a few days and try to sand it somewhere that won't show. If it pills up, stop and wait a couple of more days.

Everything I do goes right into the dehydrator which cuts the drying time dramatically. I like to do a coat of lacquer, dry it for a few hours, wet sand out any zits or fly turds, do another coat and so on.

Bob

On a side note, someone recommended spraying the clear immediately after the last body coat and the results were great. Another great tip from AF!

i think i've mentioned this a couple of times and as someone pointed out, it was when using the same brand paints.
I've only ever used taimya ts sprays and for my metalics, I've always sprayed the first coat of clear immediately over the last colour coat.
the only time this has done something "bad" was over gloss aluminium.

I used to use strictly duplicolor paints. I never waited a week. That stuff seemed to dry REALLY quick. I had a paint job from primer to clear done within 24 hours and was usually polishing within the next 24 without any issues, but mine usually only got about 3 coats of clear