How To Mix 4 To 1 Clear Coat

Newsome Fornoth · Thursday, November 18, 2021

clear coat mixing ratio...

hey whats going on? i was pointed to you guys from someone on the maxima.org forums!
ive explained what i want to do here:
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....67#post5563567

but ill give you guys a quick briefing so you dont have to jumble through that thread if you dont want to.

basically, my spoiler got snapped off last winter and i had just plugged the holes and used a touchup spray can of white paint that didnt match. now through my school i have taken a painting class so i feel confident with my paint skills. ive picked up a decent gun (cheap, nothing special, but gets the job done) and my plan is to weld some metal in the spoiler holes and bondo over it, sand down the trunk, take it off and paint it.

so getting to my question, i just wanted to make sure i mix everything correctly. on the side of the paint cans it says 1 part color, 1 part basemaker...so i know that...but with the clear its 4 parts clear, 2 parts reducer, and 1 part hardener...right?

thanks in advance guys! really appreciate it!
Do what it says on the clear coat can label.
Normally with the clear the hardner comes before the reducer so it would be 4 parts clear 1 part hardener..and maybe 5-10% reducer. However 4:1 clears tend to be on the thinner side so i'd say away from reducing it too much.
Make sure you remove that trunk before you weld the holes up or you might have to replace that rear window.
KO
you dont have to remove the trunk to save the glass...you can put the 3m protective paper on it or cover it with a welding blanket.
Also while your welding if you do have the truck attached disconnect the battery.
Pane is on it. your obviously using chromabase. If you are using chroma clear, (7500S) it's 4:1 no reducer. But yes, reducer is last on the 4-1-1 if that is what it calls for.
it didnt say anything about mixing on the can of clear. thats why i asked.
i think i am actualy going to remove the trunk prior to welding, just cause it will save some time later on. i found a site that had a list of common ratios for clear but it didnt say which to use, and 4:1 was on there. so 4:1 sounds good to me.

im planning on doing the welding/bodo/sanding tomorow night and then sometime friday ill lay down the paint. its a tri-coat so how does 2 layers of base with 2-3 layers of pearl white effect and 1-2 layers of clear sound to you guys? thats not too many layers right?

and ya, its dupont chromabase paint and dupont 4700S chromaclear.

EDIT: oh and also, when i took the painting class we had a spray gun cleaning machine....but at my house i dont have that...so how should i go about cleaning the gun?

thanks!

Last edited by willard00; 03-07-2007 at 06:38 PM.
Originally Posted by willard00

it didnt say anything about mixing on the can of clear. thats why i asked.

i think i am actualy going to remove the trunk prior to welding, just cause it will save some time later on. i found a site that had a list of common ratios for clear but it didnt say which to use, and 4:1 was on there. so 4:1 sounds good to me.

im planning on doing the welding/bodo/sanding tomorow night and then sometime friday ill lay down the paint. its a tri-coat so how does 2 layers of base with 2-3 layers of pearl white effect and 1-2 layers of clear sound to you guys? thats not too many layers right?

and ya, its dupont chromabase paint and dupont 4700S chromaclear.

It will never match being a tri-coat doing it that way. You can get "close" by doing a step down test panel to see how many coats of base and mid coat you need. You will have to blend to get anything close to a match. Being a novice, you will not likely be happy with the match even with blending.
yea i figured it wouldnt match very well. i mean, im just trying to get it to look decent. doesnt have to be amazing. i just found a .PDF file on the clear and it said to spray 2 coats of clear. so im going to look for a .PDF for the base and mid coats as well and see if that says how many coats.
EDIT: ok i found the PDF for the chromabase and it says i need to use an activator too...which is a problem because i baught all this paint in a kit and it only came with chromaclear activator and no chromabase activator. it says to use chromapremier 12305S activator with the chromabase...is this absolutely nessacery? (if i remember correctly, activator is the stuff that will make it harden right?)

Last edited by willard00; 03-07-2007 at 07:12 PM.
You really should read the labels more carefully. 4700S uses ChromaPremier activators and reducers. 3:1:1. Check out Dupont Performance Coatings in the event you still can't find it on the labels.
according to the dupont PDF files i found, chromaclear 4700S uses 4507S activator which on the can says "chromaclear ultra productive high temp activator" (nothing about chromapremier) and the chromabase should use chromapremier 12305S activator....
so youre telling me that those two are the same thing? and i can use the chromaclear activator for the chromabase?

EDIT: and yes, i read in the PDF i found it was 3-1-1...forgot to mention it though.

left is the reducer, right is the activator....reducer is chromapremier and activator doesnt say anything about chromapremier...

and yes it says 'multi use' but it doesnt say what else you can use it for...

sorry for being such a paint noob haha.

Last edited by willard00; 03-07-2007 at 07:41 PM.
If you are using dupont products i would highly suggest going to their website and read the product sheets to the products your using. Dupont has a few different clears with a few different mixing ratios.
With the chromabase the reducer they reccomend you to use basemaker. The chromapremier is a different paint system.
However many people use regular urethane reducer and have not reported any problems.
And i would put more than 2 coats of the first base color on. Id probably put 3-4. Obviously make sure the primer is 100% covered before starting to apply the pearl because the pearl does not have any coverage.
Good Luck.
Originally Posted by pane2k

If you are using dupont products i would highly suggest going to their website and read the product sheets to the products your using. Dupont has a few different clears with a few different mixing ratios.
With the chromabase the reducer they reccomend you to use basemaker. The chromapremier is a different paint system.
However many people use regular urethane reducer and have not reported any problems.
And i would put more than 2 coats of the first base color on. Id probably put 3-4. Obviously make sure the primer is 100% covered before starting to apply the pearl because the pearl does not have any coverage.

Good Luck.

thats exactly what i did. but man their website is a headache. i just figured everything out. the basemaker IS the activator/reducer for the chromabase basecoat. man i was having such a hard time figuring out why they would give me the base coat with no activator. haha.
as for the basecoat...i was only going to do two coats because i wasnt planning on sanding down to the primer. i was just planning to sand down to the basecoat, wash it, re-apply a couple coats of the basecoat, then put the pearl effect on top that, and clear coat it. thanks for looking out though.

thanks to everyone who has tryed helping me out. i appreciate it! and im sorry for the dumb questions...im a noob at this, im sorry haha

EDIT: actually 1 more question i just realized that was left unanswered....how do i clean the gun without a gun cleaning machine? just spray laquor thinner through it? or is there a different method?

Last edited by willard00; 03-07-2007 at 08:36 PM.
No, you don't have to use the activater with the Chroma base, but it is highly recommended. The biggest problem with not using it is that if you have a problem (novices sometimes do:rolleyes: ) it will make your repair more difficult. Should you have to sand out a run or trash in your clear and inadvertently go through to the base it's a bitch to touch it up and reclear. The fresh base will lift the existing base if there is no hardner.
If you're not going to make any mistakes or have to redo anything, by all means it's okay to not use the activator. BTW, 12305S is the activater for chromabase.
Steve g
and as someone mentioned before..
The mixing ratio is 3:1:1 on that 4700s your using.
Three parts clear. 1 part of the 4507s. and 1 part 12357s
Make sure you have a mixing cup or stick with the proper ratios on it to mix it properly.