| Q: Help! I sanded, primed and painted a used dresser with Painter's Touch, which turned out fine. Then the intended recipient changed her mind about the color and gave me an old can of oil-based quick drying enamel which I then used directly on top of the dried latex. I want to apply a water-based glaze over it now. Can I use it over the oil based enamel? I had previously used the glaze with excellent results over the Painter's Touch and now wish I would have stuck with that. Is my situation hopeless? I will never use oil based paint again.
A: Relax. Take a deep breath. Everything is ok, and you have done nothing wrong. Yes, you can use a waterbased glaze over an oil based paint provided the paint is fully dry. However, prior to glazing I would ‘tooth’ the surface a bit by rubbing it with gray nylon abrasive pads. That won’t cut through the color but it will give you a bit better adhesion. Once the glaze is dry, you can top it off with either waterbased or oil based clear polyurethane if you like. While I agree that it would have been better to stick with just waterbased or just oil based materials through the whole job, it’s really not the end of the world, and in this case, I sincerely doubt you will have any problems whatsoever.
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