1932 ford

[E St. Kruiser50]

.

. I came to the conclusion that what I was doing was hit and miss - LUCK - Sometimes good, other times not so much .

Edited August 8, 2010 by Treehugger Dave

[Smart-Resins]

So do you have a how to that I may have missed that describes you sure fire methods of painting including the fail safe way of painting laquar over enamel? You knew this would come, so here it is! LOL. Thanks. Jody

[crispy]

Thanks Dave. That's exactly the conclusion I came too as well. Basically have a system that works for you. Know what you are going to use and with what.

I used to dread painting as well, but now I have to control myself so as not to rush into it and get the dry fitting etc. done before I lay that first coat.

Chris

Edited January 28, 2010 by crispy

[Guest snapper]

A most excellent point Dave! Working to get a consistent painting system down that works while controlling all the other variables like temp, moisture, etc. is a pretty tough thing to do. I'm still trying to figure it out, but I'll get there. Thanks for sharing this. Colby

[Bruno]

I completely agree with you Dave.

And I also prefer not to use hobby paints, when painting bodys. The only hobby paints I use is for brush painting small parts. I prefer to use automotive paints when painting bodys, I think it's a lot easier to work with, faster, and a hardened finish that I can wash easily with solvents if I screw up (glue spot or paint spot while detailing...) without the fear of damaging the body paint. I use the basecoat/clearcoat system, and recently started using waterborne basecoat, which I like a lot because it's not harmful to the styrene like the solvent basecoat. I use a mini hvlp gravity feed spray gun for painting bodys, and spray only one coat of urethane clear to keep details and not fill everything with clear. Of course, all this needs practice, as Dave said. And of course, automotive paint is more expensive. And you need a place to use these products. I paint in my garage, only installed a bathroom fan to send the fumes outside. So here's the system that works for me, the system I am currently using;

Primers;

If I did some modifications to the body and used body filler, I will use Duplicolor filler primer in light coats, then sand with 600 grit sandpaper and spray two light coats of Duplicolor sealer primer. If no body filler is being used, I just "clean" the body (sand down mold lines and small imperfections with 600 grit sandpaper), use gray scotchbrite and lightly scuff the entire body and then spray two light coats of Duplicolor sealer primer. Now I'm ready to paint.

Paint;

- 2 or 3 light coats of basecoat

- 1 coat of clear

- That's it. If I'm lucky and there's no dust in the clear, polishing isn't even required. If there's a few dust spots, I lightly sand the dust spot with 2000 grit and polish with 3M automotive compound. When using urethane clear, it is best to sand and polish the next day, or it will harden and be really hard to polish. When using solvent basecoat, I insist on spraying light coats or it can attack the styrene. But with waterborne basecoat, that is not a problem. However, waterborne basecoat is slower to dry, I use a hair dryer to speed things a bit

All in all, it's just like Dave said, It takes time and practice.

Oh and I also found a technique to spray lacquers over enamels

[Smart-Resins]

Wet in wet. Got it. Time to expiriment! I have shot 20lbs for the last 6 months, but was inconsistant in the painting. Last week I had it on thirty after doing some resin casting and it worked absolutly beautiful! So I tried it a few more times and it has been consistant!! So I finially found my pressure! Also, with the future, I do a wet into tacky! When the first coat starts to tack up, I spray the next coat and it will melt in without running. May look slightly pebbly, but when it dries, it smooths out! I still need to perfect my polishing process, but thats a different story. I think I need to try a clear coat before panting to help things out. This last body, it showed the marks of different plastic blends in the body. Not happy with that. Had to clear then repaint. That was after using filler primer. Though, I should be using my etching primer! LOL. Now your pearls of wisdom is food for thought. Now to buy more laquar thinner and try more expiramenting! I will be getting a ton of paint in, so we will see! Here is my latest job. You can see Im getting there.Thanks. Jody

Edited January 28, 2010 by Smart-Resins