Varnish aerosols

If you want to do a touch-up on your car, your scooter, or if you want to give a good facelift to the paint of your bike, you have to finish the job by applying a bodywork varnish. Applying a body spray varnish is very practical if you do not have professional painting equipment. A can of varnish can varnish a complete part, but you cannot varnish a complete vehicle with aerosols.

There are many products on the market, which offer very questionable levels of resistance. In general, you must use a two-component (2C) professional type varnish, if you want to obtain a durable finish, real hardness, and resistance to gasoline. All the other products that can be found in the consumer market are 1 components that melt on the first drop of gasoline.

Applying a car and motorcycle bodywork varnish in a 2C spray

We take care to trigger the release of the hardener using the button located below the metal cylinder, by pressing firmly. Then we shake vigorously. The hardener is then mixed with the resin, and will begin a hardening reaction called polymerization, which will create after application, a dry, shiny, hard and waterproof film. If you accidentally forget to press the hardener button, the varnish has no chance of drying !

These cans of bodywork varnish are therefore single-use : once triggered, they must be used completely and quickly. The spray varnish hardens inside the aerosol after 30 to 60 min. Therefore, it is advisable to paint the entire clearcoat on the bodywork after 5 minutes and before 30 minutes.

Some instructions for applying an "aerosol" varnish

Reminder : the aerosol is the liquid sprayed in the form of a cloud of micro droplets (not the can). The pneumatic gun is replaced by a pressurized gas and a nozzle. This allows you to paint in a perfect way, without creating traces, without contact with the surface.

With a 2-component varnish, you must varnish in two stages, painting a half coat* then a wet coat* with 10 minutes of drying between each.
A half coat means that we will not load, to avoid the risk of over-thickness and therefore drips. On the contrary, while drying, a light first coat will create a mottled surface and will prevent the second coat from running.

What does a nail polish contain ?

A 300 or 400ml 2C aerosol is filled with
clearance : usually 100ml of bodywork clearcoat is filled before pressurizing.
hardener : usually 25 to 50ml is injected into a separate compartment.
propellant gas : approximately 200 ml of a liquid gas are injected under pressure, to allow the contents to be propelled.

This gas is usually highly flammable. Dimethyl ether, the last authorized non-flammable gas, offers excellent quality in dissolving paints and is harmless against the ozone layer. Its big weak point is that it strongly contributes to increasing the greenhouse effect.

MS varnish
UHS varnish
Quick-dry varnish
HS varnish
Ceramic varnish
How to store the shine of a bodywork varnish ?