The following question was posted onto the Google Group by Jim Turner, which was answered by George.
What is the best paint type for fiberglass, two pack or base coat & lacquer? It will go onto gel coat.
Its not the top coat its the primer that is important and yes the prep work. I have worked in the refinish trade (supplying to the body shops and tech support) for over 25 years. You tend to find that cheaper paints/lacquers delaminate easier than good quality ones. Thses day's basecoat colours are polyester based or waterbourne, its time left between basecoat application and topcost 2K lacquer which causes delamintion in metalic finishes. I had several kits painted base and clear and had no problems.
Russell Wilcox followed up with the following
What is the optimal time between the base coat and lacquer? I guess once you have on coat of 2k lacquer on then the standard 2k rules apply between coats.
George againn answers with;
You can still get some solvent base coats but it is mainly water bourne which is dried in an oven but heat is not the thing that dries it. Its air movement after the base has flashed off you have a window of about 30 mins to paint the acylic lacquer on. You can not use cheap one pack lacquers I use glasurit or spies heck on my past cars and on my espace also fibre glass. Standard rules do not aply for modern lacquers they are high solids so you put a sticky coat on and then hit it with a full coat it looks like prridge but don't be tempted to put another coat on this can deley the drying times by days.
It will flow but you have only 24-48 hours if you need to flat and polish as it goes off like concrete. The new lacquers are scrab resistent with makes them very durable and the are the same as 2k both are acrylic. Some peple leave the basecoact overnight to cure this is wrong and dose cause delamination and micro blistering.
Hope this helps.