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Hi there JDPete, The short answer is yes, but there is a downside. See this link for a brief DuPont primer on paint chemistry: Paint Chemistry (pdf) The downside is the presence of a significant health hazard because the hardener contains toxic chemicals called isocyanates. Special fresh air respiratory protection should always be used...even for a one-time use. Regular paint is bad enough but the hardeners present a more serious hazard. See this link for some background info on isocyanates. Isocyanate Safety The casual "tractor painter" has a personal decision to make relative to using isocyanate-containing materials. If you don't have the necessary fresh air respiratory equipment, you may be seriously affecting your health by using hardeners in your paint. I found this out the hard way years ago. The better qualities of the paint gained from using these materials are NOT worth it. My personal recommendation is to either get the necessary safety equipment (several hundred dollars, minimum) or stay away from the hardeners. Just scroll down aways to the post by Ed (NB) on 12/27/02 for an example of what I am talking about. The downsides in NOT using a hardener in acrylic enamel are: 1. Not as resistant to chemical attack. If you don't use a hardener, you need to keep the paint film away from solvents until fully cured. This could be several MONTHS. Gasoline spills on the paint before it is fully cured can result in wrinkling and lifting of the paint. In contrast, adding the hardener causes the film to cure by chemical reaction instead of oxidation. This chemical curing occurs within hours, not days or months. 2. Inability to repair a newly painted surface within a reasonable time. If you don't use a hardener and you get runs or other imperfections in the paint, putting on another coat of the same material (after initial dry and sanding of defects) may cause wrinkling and lifting of the first coats due to the solvents in the fresh coat. You need to wait until the film is fully cured...which could be months. PPG used to market a special sealer just for this purpose but it is no longer available, probably because of limited sales with todays urethane products. 3. Inability to color sand the finish. Color sanding the finish to remove orange peel or other imperfections will permanently destroy the gloss. Buffing the surface will not restore the gloss because the film is not as hard as when a hardener is used. Recoating would then be necessary, subject to the limitations above. As you can see, these are serious negative aspects and are the reason hardeners were developed for the enamels (acrylic and synthetic or alkyd) and that urethanes are now the staple in the automotive fields. Rod
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