Official Luthiers Forum!

Anyone (Brian, Joe) familiar with U-Pol clear coat? It's described as an acrylic urethane.

I'm asking because my buddy fabricates all kinds of cool stuff http://www.torkworks.com/ and told me he uses it.

He says it's ready to buff in a couple days or less if you heat it - he has ovens too.

I'm not looking to cook a guitar but 3 days seems nice compared to 3 weeks for nitro. I'm only asking about U-Pol because he keeps gallons of it & sprays on every Friday - super convenient!

Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Kevin, The U-Pol products are automotive clear coats and we kept them around our collision shop to use as a cheaper alternative to our main line of urethanes from Diamont. High end automotive clears like Diamont and Glasurit are quite expensive so the only option we had for discounted finish work (think, dealer used cars) was to use the cheaper clears. There are many automotive clears out there from high solids to low VOC and anywhere in between but they generally perform about the same. If you are comfortable with an automotive clear on your project, the U-Pol clears will likely work well for you.

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jw ( o)===:::

Thanks Joe.

Can you explain the difference between an automotive clear vs. what I assume you prefer?

Do they look & feel different?

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Kevin, The most layman's explanation I can give is this. The polyester finish and support/undercoat products from ICA that I use are formulated and optimized to finish wood. The U-Pol automotive clear is formulated to top coat automotive base coat paint.

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jw ( o)===:::

As Joe mentions..... it is about substrates they are designed to work with. Expansion is not a concern as both applications need to expand and contract quite a bit the only difference is how fast.

The thing to understand about clears is how they bond. Is it a chemical bond as in wetstacked systems or a mechanical one? Almost any poly sold for auto refinish work will be able to bond mechanically so then it is just a matter of getting the proper filler and sealers under it. Vinyl sealers work quite well under these type finishes.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Thanks guys.

I hadn't thought about the fact that the "finish" is a lot more than just the top coat.

I am going to do some test panels since I have lots of scrap and like I said, he sprays on Fridays.

_________________
I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Perfect Kevin! Keep good notes too. It's very easy to forget what you did on various test panels. You are going about this in the right way. Don't be afraid to try unconventional ground coats too. Have panels of the same wood prepared with maybe epoxy alone, epoxy topped with vinyl sealer, straight to wood, straight to wood with vinyl sealer only. If you can get your hands on any "Isolante" style isolator (two part ,clear urethane isolator/sealer ) it would be worth the extra effort to give it a try as well under your friends urethane. Sometimes you get lucky and have successful trials.

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jw ( o)===:::

I write each step on the back of the panel in paint pen as soon as I finish that step and then keep panels as both samples and instructions or destroy at my discretion in the case of true one-off's. In my case this often includes colorant types and amounts.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

+1 What Brian said. Nothing worse than creating that perfect neck stain color without keeping track of how you did it and not being able to recreate it. DAMHIKT

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jw ( o)===:::