polyurthane reducer?

[seafoam68]

So I painted my truck with a single stage polyurthane. I have only sprayed acrylic enamel prior to this. I had a terrible finish. Smooth spots mixed with rough spots. I resanded to smooth back out, purchased more paint,sprayed,same results. A painter buddy looked at it and said the paint was to thick. The supply house only gave me the paint,activator,and hardener. The mix sheet that came with it only had these items listed as well. My question is, do you use reduce with polyurthane? And does this sound like my problem?
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[skip99]

what brand of paint? and what ratio did you mix?
you can get it ready to spray. so post what you got.
it should be thin to spray like, water, not thick like syrup

[seafoam68]

Sourthern auto essentials,single stage,mixed at 6:1:1. It ran off the stick real quick. Trying to attach pic, but having technical problems. Thanks.
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[skip99]

never heard of it, and never seen an activator and a hardner together.
I couldnt even find it online

[seafoam68]

I'm sorry. I might have been confusing there. Sourthern Auto body is the name of my local paint store, It is a PPG line called essentials. I mixed it just like the sheet called for, being sure to match the product numbers from the cans with whats on the sheet. Six parts paint 1 part activator,1 part hardner. My paint buddy wasnt sure about these ingrediants either, but thats what they gave me and what the product sheet calls for. Finally got tech. problem fixed. Here is a pic. It is a smooth,shinny line followed by a dull,sandpaper-like line, all over the truck. (The droplets are water,from where i atemped a little wet sanding)

[seafoam68]

I just went to PPG website. Here is what I mixed, both times. DelFleet Essentials single stage polyurethane,1 part ESH 200 hardner, 1 part ESX 520 slow activator. It shows a reducer on the website for this line, but it was not sold to me nor was it on the product mixing sheet,Thanks and HELP. This is getting expensive

[skip99]

That just looks like dry spray.. did the paint gloss as you were painting? and die back later?
I'm thinking, maybe the spray gun?

[seafoam68]

It looked.great while painting. It looked like this about five minutes after the last coat.
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[skip99]

could also be moisture, did you use good dry air? motor guard filter at the gun?

[skip99]

sent you a PM

[vintagesteel]

Originally Posted by seafoam68

Sourthern auto essentials,single stage,mixed at 6:1:1. It ran off the stick real quick. Trying to attach pic, but having technical problems. Thanks.
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Hardener and activator are the same thing. Mix ratios are always the first number is paint, second number is activator/ hardener, third number is reducer.

[skip99]

that was my first thought too, but on PPG's site it says 6-1-1 ..paint, hardner, activator, but I think the activator is the reducer.because it has different speeds.

[seafoam68]

Thanks for the pm,Skip. Would take you up on it but I am sick as a dog and can barely speak. I have only sprayed two other trucks,so I don't know a whole lot yet. I know with other paints and primers I have used either a harder and reducer or an actvator, never all three. The PPG site for this paint lists all three. If it is dry-spray, is that merely gun setting wrong, or possibleably the paint too thick? Thanks for all the help so far guys.
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