I'm painting some of my transom assembly outdrive parts using some 2k epoxy primer, followed by some mercury phantom black rattle can paint. I had a run, so after 28 hrs of drying time I sanded the run out and tried to repaint with the phantom black. Well this caused all the paint to wrinkle!! Ugh! I had to sand the whole piece down to metal or primer, re-prime and then re-paint with the phantom black. I have a couple of questions: Why did the paint wrinkle and lift? I want to put a two part epoxy clear coat over the phantom black coat, but I'm nervous. I don't know if I have it in me to do this job over again if it wrinkles. What can I do to avoid this? Should I put the parts in the oven after painting? Any suggestions would be appreciated. I have used this paint combo on my skegs before and it seemed to work fine. The 2k clear really helps to keep the paint glossy even after prolonged periods in the water.

Happened to me before too. In my experience, you have to do the second coat in 10 minutes or after dry to the touch or a week later after its had time to season. It seems dry, but its not really dry.

Need to just use a decent catalyzed urethane , even a low performing catalyzed paint is better than a aerosol.

What do you mean by a catalyzed paint? I use a 2k urethane clear that comes in a spray can. You press a red button to allow the catalyst to mix with the rest of the paint.

Anyway. I tried another test piece over the weekend. I just had a 12inch by 2 inch piece of painted steel laying around, so I thought I would try my system on that. Sanded with 220. This time I did the 2k epoxy primer. Let that dry for about 6 hours, then I sprayed the phantom black on . I did 2 coats about 10 minutes apart. But this time I sprayed the 2k clear after only 35 minutes. And it worked great. I guess waiting 24 hrs is too long and waiting for even 5 days is not enough. So now I know to do all the steps after primer before the 24 hr time.