KBS Coatings DiamondFinish Clear Coat Spray, High Gloss, 1K Aerosol Clear Coat for Cars, Bare Metal, Aluminum Wheels, Brake Calipers and Fishing Lures, Direct to Metal, Net Wt. 16 oz

Sent as a gift for buddy who does custom fishing lure painting. He liked it.

I have had my disappointments in KBS products. The 2k Max is a good coating BUT it only comes with a moderate reducer and that will not work in hot climates at all. It must have a slow slow reducer. The fact they sell it with a moderate reducer in hot climates is flatly a ripoff. They should know better. I have told them. Those who work with clears know this is the single most important factor. Clears require surface melt. In a hot climate, using a moderate reducer, all you get is orange peel. That said, the Diamond Clearcoat Single Stage Gloss is an underrated Clear. It is a single-stage in a world of "YOUTUBE PAINT EXPERTS" OMG, that do nothing more than echo two-stage clears based on one idea which is cross-linking. The concept of crosslinking is that once cured you can spay something on top of it. That is a fallacy. Spray clear on a prior clear and you could get lift off and peel from hell. And sometimes with 2k clear, it can peel off in sheets for crosslinking on the surface of a prior coating and not adhering. 2k Clears can surprise in a very bad way. I don't care what two-stage you use, you can easily get a solvent reaction while wet. The Diamond single stage is moisture cured and I have never had it react to a cured surface including INDUSTRIAL ENAMEL. Try to remember that Picasso loved industrial enamels. They have a richness lacking in any other kind of paint. I digress. The Diamond Clear in the spray can be used to remedy bad or non-adherent clear. It can be used to spot flaws after spotting in some basecoat or paint coat. It is amazing how well it does in these kinds of applications. On Youtube the idiot will tell you to sand down the entire door panel for example. I say that's nuts. Spotting flaws works great. Breached edges are where you get into difficulty. It is possible with the spray can to get a little overspray. That is where the 1000 sandpaper comes in. It will smooth the miro orange peel easily. If you are going to do large areas then buy the Diamond Clear in a pint or quart and use Thinner or Xylene ONLY and 10%-15% is normally adequate. DiamondFinish Clear can be thinned up to 30%. Thinning helps it flow but it also helps it drip. Remember Xylene is a solvent so it can react with undercoats. So I don't recommend thinning. Just keep your wet edge and it will melt nicely. Any overspray can be easily tamed by 1000 sand and an orbital DA. While KBS claims it is clear that is not actually true. It has a slight amber cast if put on at 2 mils thick. In Hot climates, I encourage 3 mil thicknesses and sanding before buffing with 1000, 1500. and 2000. That will make buffing to a marvellous plastic shine and enough thickness to block UV. Try to remember that Clear obtains its UV protection by thickness, not some pretend additive to block UV. No such additive exists. So it must be thick. Hot climates are full of cars with peeling clear. Hoods get direct sunlight and under the hood the engine gets hot. So go thick in a hot climate. I say that Diamond Clear single stage is vastly underrated due to a large amount of noise made by the "car painting youtube crowd." These are clowns that think a $500 spay gun makes you a pro. There is no truth to this or a thousand other myths. Diamond Clear single stage is just as good as 2k clear and less toxic, less dangerous to use, and if you have a screw up you can STOP. With 2k you have a paint gun full of catalyzing clear that has to be used OR WASTED. I am an artist... I leave you with this sentiment... that you may all be artists in your own way.... and being an artist means you must find your own way... “A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist.” Louis Nizer

This stuff is incredible. It is crystal clear. Had some scratches on my Cajun boat. Prepared surface and sprayed this diamond finish on and wow. Covered the scratches with high gloss, just what I wanted. I'll but more of this. It's very easy to work with!

I used this clear for an automotive repair on my cars quarter panel and it was over a silver base coat. the paint was mixed to match and from an auto store in a spray can, I applied it on a dry 80 degree day in the shade as directed I used three medium coats at 15 minute intervals and allowed it to dry for about 1 hour. I then applied the diamond clear spray can as follows 1- single coat 1- double coat 1- double coat and 1- triple coat to gloss it without runs about 15 minutes between coats, there were no issues over the base coat. You need to watch the spray to be sure of overlapping the coats but otherwise it is like any other spray can paints. I used an automotive respirator with organic vapor filters as I was outdoors, I read somewhere this may contain some Isocyanates but, I am not certain and you need to be careful, It is advised you need a fresh air setup and not many people have that, also long clothing and gloves would not hurt but I'm not an expert. The clear was allowed to dry for a couple weeks and I sanded it with 1500 and it buffed easy over the silver color, the only issue I have so far is the clear has a yellow tint and it shows against the other panels and it stands out. I don't know how it will hold up or if it will yellow even further only time will tell? My take on the product is if you need to spray a stand alone item or something that does not need to have to be a perfect match you should be ok, I personally will not use it for any more for automotive work as you need a crystal clear for that! The best I have used so far in a spray can has been spray-max 2k and again it has the Isocyanates to deal with, maybe as time goes on they can improve this product to make it crystal clear as a 1k product? It is a decent clear with a longer shelf life, it was just not a good fit for my purpose and quite expensive, I hope this was of some help?

This works better than the liquid unless you got a sprayer

I got this for my beater commuter. The roof was rusting, making me worried that it could start leaking. I wanted something durable and easy to apply. It couldn’t peel or flake, and needed to endure hot Atlanta summers all day long. After an entire summer season, this stuff has met all my expectations. I didn’t do much else than sand off the loose rust and wash the car with dish soap. I Sprayed on the roof three coats. I didn’t polish or buff the coat, because I only cared about protection. This clear coat has been flawless. No peeling or flaking. No hazing in the sun. I’m sure if I put in effort to buff it, it would look good too.

Haven’t been able to water test it yet but I bought this for fishing lures. It definitely makes them shine, seems pretty tough, and if it holds up to fish it’d be worth the price. I will edit this post come spring time.

I bought this after trying the paint version, which looked very promising, however seemed to require exceptional painting skills to not leave humongous brush marks. I thought the spray would be similar to other clear coats, even if kbs recommended to apply thin 2nd and 3rd coats, which is slightly different to other brands. the problems were: 1. the spray pattern was very small, from 8 to 10 inches, the effective area was around 4 inches, and if I didn't overlap the next pass perfectly, stripes would result. 2. the paint was too thick to self level, so what you see was what you get at the end. not much smoothing during the curing process. 3. the paint had a translucent white tint after sanding, which meant I could not correct flaws by sanding it later and covering again. I decided to go through with the rest of the project using the same clear coat - just got too tired of sanding and redoing the car with a different brand, but I'd definitely try something else next time around.