by Mark Gunter » Fri Jul 07, 2023 8:19 am
As a former automotive finisher, I’ve plenty of experience with fiberglass, Bondo, lacquer-based primers and acrylic lacquer, acrylic enamel, and alkyd enamel finishes, with and without hardeners for the acrylic enamel. I don’t have much experience with the current automotive finishes because acrylic lacquer and acrylic enamel was in vogue during my automotive career, but I have some thoughts for you.
First off, I *would not* dream of finishing the wooden skin directly with automotive or other finishes. Not that it can’t work (for a while), but for lasting durability I think you should resign yourself to doing a fiberglass or a “PMF” skin over the wood before finishing. Although I have fiberglass experience, I chose “PMF” for my build because (1) the large size of my build, (2) the ease of application, (3) it was a totally new challenge for me.
I believe I can say with complete confidence that if you do your fiberglass or your “PMF” correctly, you will get a beautiful finish with automotive finishes, nicer than many others get, because you will be spraying rather than rolling.
In my own build, I did a pretty neat looking job with the “PMF” and I sprayed my finishes using an airless sprayer with latex. You can check out my build journal via the link in my signature.