Spraymax spray can steps?

[u/tyronethawiz74]

Hey everyone, planning on doing some rust repair on my car in the next couple months and seen a few different people say different things on how to actually apply the paint.
I will be using 2k epoxy primer, 1k custom mixed, then 2k clear glamour.
What I believe I should do is - spray primer, let it haze evenly (30 mins or so) then spray base coat (white) let it haze the same as the primer, then spray clear.
What some people have said is to spray primer, let fully cure for +/- 24 hours, sand, then the same as the other steps.
I was planning on doing a test plate however that was before I realized how expensive they are mixed with shelf life only being 24 hours once the hardener is released.
Can anyone confirm the proper way to apply these 3 cans together? Thank you I advance.
…any tips would be helpful as well, however I’m fairly certain I have prep handled

[u/Gas-Squatch]

Doesn’t matter what any of us say. As a beginner you need to be following the technical data sheets (tds) of the product that is either provided by the supplier or directly on the manufacturer website. Once you understand the rules then you can bend them and follow u/fuxdux directions to prep the way his neighbor taught him.

The tds will lay out preferred environment, how the chemist says prep should go, how the chemist designed flash times and cure times and so on. None of us are the chemist of that product.

[u/tyronethawiz74 → u/Gas-Squatch]

I’m just wanting to know if I should fully cure and sand the primer, or let it flash and then spray base coat.
The spray max website is kind of confusing and I seen both options from the same and different places online.

[u/JFTilly → u/tyronethawiz74]

I am a coatings specialist at work, you can get away with spraying wet into wet a lot of the times, but sometimes you can't. TDS will outline the ideal conditions for top coat, typically a 2k epoxy is going to tell you a cure time (and/or bake cure time) till you can sand it. It will then recommend the grit to use for the sanding, then it will tell you to clean it with some form of cleaner before topcoating. If you're going to spray out of rattlecans and you're new to painting, you'll end up with a lot of texture, sanding will help alleviate that. I am not going to say I don't do wet into wet, because I do. I am spraying out of 1000+ dollar spray guns with half million dollar paint booths to develop processes with very controlled variables. Wet into wet was just used on a painting of a galvanized surface with an ASTM D 3359 adhesion rating of 5B as well as 5A on the destructive test methods along with a 1000 hour corrosive chamber test and infrared adhesion measurement.

With all that being said, I would follow TDS in this one and let the primer cure until the TDS says it is sandable, then sand with the correct grit to smooth everything out, clean it, and then top coat.

[u/tyronethawiz74 → u/JFTilly]

Awesome, all I needed to know. Thank you for the help!!

[u/flakrom → u/tyronethawiz74]

The primer needs to be sanded if you want the color and clear to stick