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Brake fluid experiment

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John Loftus

John Loftus

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I just finished assembling my brakes last week and since I had some extra Castrol LMA laying around decided to do an experiment. I took one of my spray panels used to evaluate the paint color. It was painted about 15 months ago with PPG Acrylic Urethane, a single stage paint (no clear coat) with all the appropriate hardeners and reducers. I placed 5 drops of brake fluid to make a small puddle on the paint and watched what happen. hmmm .. nothing. I decided to work on some other things and came back 30 minutes later, expecting to see some wrinkling or softening of the paint. Nothing! So I left it overnight .. nothing. It's been three days now. I just wiped off and buffed the paint with a soft rag. Can't see a speck of difference. Interesting, eh? Seems that the newer formulations of paint, at least the PPG paint I used, are not affected like the old paints. Anyone else tried this experiment?

Cheers,
John
 
Interesting....

Now If you can come up with a coating to repel Miatas.

I need some for my Pinto.
 
That's interesting. I did the same experiment with Dupont Centauri acrylic urethane. Same result. OTOH, I tried the same with Krylon acrylic enamel & it wrinkled immediately. I think the two part paints such as Centauri & PPG are impervious to brake fluid. The hardeners actually work. Has anyone else tried the "test"?
D
 
Greg,

Hmm .. so Acrylic Enamel is affected but Acrylic Urethane is not? Just curious why did you use Marhyde hardener instead of PPG hardener? Big cost difference? (BTW, I use the Marhyde self etch primer which I think is a great product).

Cheers,
John
 
Hi Dave,

I'm glad it worked for you (the Mar-Hyde hardener) When we were buying supplies for the paint job the paint store insisted o a particular PPG hardener that the painter had not used before. He relented but on the first sprayout found out the the paint was not getting hard. He used heat lamps for hours until he finally gave up, stripped it off, bought the PPG hardener he was used to and resprayed (luckily it was not a large area). The second stuff kicked off like it should.

Anyway, hoping some more people find this thread and add their past or present "experiments".

Cheers,
John
 
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