Hello all,
I am just starting out rod building and would like to build myself some extra heavy catfish rods. I would like to experiment with doing some custom painting with automotive urethane paint. My question is, after a clear coat has been applied to the automotive paint, should I apply another type of protective coating over the clear coat? If so what should I use and how should it be applied?

If you are using an automotive basecoat/clearcoat system the clearcoat is the protective coating. Exactly what paint system were you planning on using?

I was looking at some of the KemFX systems on thecoatingstore.com, unfortunately I am not only new to rod building but I'm also new to automotive paint systems so I have a lot of research going on right now.

I stopped painting vehicles 21 years ago and we would have to add an additive to the paint so it would flex. Not sure about today's paint if it has the ability to flex.

Yes I have read some discussions on this site on whether or not a flex additive was needed. It pretty much seemed equally divided. Half said it was necessary and half said the newer paints don't need the flex additive so that's still a mystery at this point too.

Zach,
Paint a test blank with and another test blank without flex additive and bend it well and often and let us all know your results on whether the additive is needed or not.

If you can, let the painted blanked cure in the sun for as long as you can. My dad says at least a month. Every time I've wrapped a rod painted with car paint, the thread digs into the paint. It's fine, but can cause problems when packing the thread in my experience. I have a GoPro pole that I painted thats been sitting for a couple months. The paint is rock hard.