i have a buddy that wants his chevy p/u done in flat black, its his d/d and wants it to be durable and to be able to wash it. ive been painting for about 12 yrs and have never done a complete flat black paint job. what do you guys use for these jobs ive had inconsistent results using flattner in clear in the past on small jobs, and i dont want to paint this truck 2 or 3 times. i spray ppg system now but ill use anything on this job. someone told me about hot hues flat black, anyone ever use this? thanks for any help.

I've never done a complete in flat black myself, just various small jobs with a Glasurit clear and there matting agent. It goes on well without any inconsistancy with gloss which was a problem with the RM version SM09 for me. I had just seen a nice job dturcotte here just did in his gallery, maybe he will chime in. Here it is here: www.refinishnetwork.com/jomsocial/dturcotte/photos/photo?albumid=3#photoid=21

i used to shoot r-m for many years and it seemed like i always had trouble with its flattning agent, i guess thats why i dont trust flatteners.

I will look at the shop on monday and get you the clear number we used on the last truck we did... PPG has a eggshell clear that works great... make sure the job turns out super clean as you can not cut and buff flatt clear.. there is also a hot rod black that works pretty well from ppg

in my system we have tc748 witch is a nice preflatted clear we also can pik different levels of gloss in our prism system witch can be done in ss an covers in 1 or 2 coats nice stuff but sorta spendy

ya he's not going to be too picky about the dirt nibs in it, so i'll just treat it like a normal paint job,if it gets a few in it whatever. i'd rather just shoot a s/s on it and be done with it. im also hoping i can match the finish again later in case he smashes a fender or something, because im kind of married to the truck, he's a close friend and im the only one he lests paint his junk. thanks for any help.

gmartin73 wrote:
i used to shoot r-m for many years and it seemed like i always had trouble with its flattning agent, i guess thats why i dont trust flatteners.

Even my rep told me to toss it away (the sm09 flattener) he gets nothing but complaints about it. BASF paid me to redo a job with glasurit because of it.

for flat black there are 2 that i use and work awesome. one is the sem hot rod black which is the link in the post above. i keep a quart of that on my rack all the time. stuff works great. its not expensive, has an even look with no blotchiness, its not too flat where it looks chalky or grey but not too shiny either and once cured its really durable. the other one is rm's uno sc804. its not flattener but a preflattened matte black single stage just like sem's. it looks and sprays exactly like the sem, just cures a little faster. only reason i dont use it is the price. its double the cost of sem' stuff. with either one you should have no problem getting a nice even finish. when i do bikes and i need a flat clear i end up using my spi universal clear with the bc101 flop controller right off my rack. this works well also and i am able to keep formulas for it with basf's software so i can just mix it on the scale.

that sem stuff looks like exactly what i am looking for. i'll check with my jobber on mon to see about getting some. thanks guys