Resin on top coat but clear coat spray on sides?

[itsGiusto]

I've always just used Krylon or whatever for a top coat, 2 or 3 coats, and it comes out nice, slightly glossy, slightly orange peel, maybe not super hard and durable, but good enough. However, I recently learned that you can use resin top coat to get some really hard and pretty results. The problem seems to be that resin coating the sides makes for really bad results.

Could I use a spray on the sides, but resin on top? Would that look bad? Would it even be possible to achieve the separation? I guess maybe I'd spray clear first and use painter's top on the top to keep it without the spray. Then after letting that cure for a week, I'd do the top coat with resin. Don't know if that'd work.

 

[schmee]

What do you mean by "resin"?

 

[itsGiusto]

What do you mean by "resin"?

I think it's probably synonymous with Epoxy. People seem to tend to refer to it as resin in the poured acrylic community. See some videos here:



This one at time t=1022:

 

[JuneauMike]

I am in the process of trying this for the first time. I was told that it would self level but it clearly does not so I will have to do some sanding. As he explains, the resin is pretty thick so you pretty much push it around the surface right up to the edge rather than paint it on.

Also got some strange anomalies even though I cleaned the pedal thoroughly with Naptha before applying the two-part resin to it. I very much don't want to go back to the days of piling on clear lacquer and sanding smooth, but not very optimistic that this shortcut will work out. Guess we will see.

 

[itsGiusto]

I am in the process of trying this for the first time. I was told that it would self level but it clearly does not so I will have to do some sanding. As he explains, the resin is pretty thick so you pretty much push it around the surface right up to the edge rather than paint it on.

Also got some strange anomalies even though I cleaned the pedal thoroughly with Naptha before applying the two-part resin to it. I very much don't want to go back to the days of piling on clear lacquer and sanding smooth, but not very optimistic that this shortcut will work out. Guess we will see.

Cool, let me know.

For what it's worth, I gave up on trying to figure out resin, and I just went back to my orange peel clearcoat. I'm happy enough with the results. But if you have a breakthrough, please share!

 

[JuneauMike]

Well, these are pedals so it seems like excessive overkill to apply clear coats and then level sand and polish. Would be great to be able to glom something on it and be done with it

 

[owlexifry]

Cool, let me know.

For what it's worth, I gave up on trying to figure out resin, and I just went back to my orange peel clearcoat. I'm happy enough with the results. But if you have a breakthrough, please share!

if you warm up the can in warm/hot water, the paint spray mist ends up being finer, resulting in noticeably less orange-peel

 

[JuneauMike]

Here's the resin that I used.

https://www.joann.com/color-pour-resin-resin-hardener-4oz/17294018.html

And the results are just unworkable. I level sanded this to highlight the pits and trouble areas. It's almost like they are reacting to some contaminants even though I cleaned the pedal before applying.

It did seem like my results slightly improved when I put a cover over the pedal while it was drying. Hmm. I'd hate to give up on this approach because it should be easier than spraying multiple clear coats.