One hell of a time with paint

Iv painted a lot of things in my time but iv never had the amount of cock ups and fails like i have had over the last 2 mouths of painting my engine.

Now I'm using Craftmaster paint witch we all know is very good and I'm sure the problem I'm having is nothing to do with the paint. But i still cant sort out the problem I'm having so I'm hoping that some one here has had the nightmare happen to them that has happened to me over the last few weeks.

I can get primer and base cote done in short order with not a single hick up but as soon as i put my top cote on i get zillions of bubbles you can even see them with just one pass with my gun you can even see them grow and pop. Now iv looked in to this and iv found something called solvent pop but that is more to do with what ever you wiped the panel down with before painting well i still get this if i paint just a scrap of steel right out of the blaster so its nothing to do with that side of things.

So im starting to think its some thing to do with my gun,air line and compresser. All my stuff is top line gear Metabo compressor (3 mouths old only used for the tool change on my cnc mill) new air lines new devilbiss SRI PRO gun iv even tryed new PCL fitting in case there was a bit of rust in there along with a new water trap. Then i got in to thinking it could be the abrasives I'm using but i use only 3M products so i doute it would be that and it goes on and on to the point of trying 3 diff rent types of pre wipe and leaving it 24hrs before paint

Any way before i stick all the bits in a box and send them away for powder coating is there any one out there with any ideas of how to stop paint popping and leaving lots from i can work out bobbles in my paint work and don't worry i will be on the phone soon to Craftmaster but i need to make sure iv covered all grounds before i go in for a class one moan as they have been very help full. If not what do you think to the idea of powder coating all the fittings on the tender ?????

I would of pulled my hair out weeks ago but i lots that years back with other projects. Oh ya and ill be taking some of my bits next weekend to the open day so if you want to see the problem for your self you are welcome to point and say i made a mess of that job and snigger

I had what sounds like the exact same problem as you with craftmasters paints!

What thinners are you using? as i live in shetland i just bought thinners up here rather than try and get it posted as it was expensive but after going through the same as what you have just described i ended up buying craftmasters thinners to and hey presto problem sorted!! plus make sure you give the paint a very very good stir with the top coat and let it relax for a min before pouring it in to the spray gun pot.

Of course you are maybe using there thinners and all the above is of no use to you!


Mark

Hi mark

Yes I'm all ready using the Craftmaster thinners in fact iv tyred both of them fast and the slow drying one. To be honest im getting the same problem when i use Epifines (boat paint the same as the Craftmaster rang) as I'm using there blue for the main colour on my engine.. But after reading some more just now I'm starting to think that i might be picking something up in my air line so first thing after the holidays I'm going to order a new air line and water/air trap i don't think its water more oil from the compressor. But I'm still willing to try any think at this moment in time and thank you for your input.

Stu

I also have had a problem on one of my rear wheels with tiny little bubbles. Again I'm using Craftmaster paints & thinners, except I'm brushing on the paint.
The only thing I can think that has effected the final top coats is after I wet & dry'd the undercoat I possibly didn't allow the paint long enough to ensure absolutely "NO MOISTURE" on the surface (although I was pretty careful!!) & it reacted as yours did, as soon as the gloss was brushed on!!
Rubbed it down again, but still reacted the same way on aplication of gloss!!............... Guess I'll have to live with it, unless someone has any further ideas!!
Tony

Hi

Take it you are blowing down the compressor before using. It sound more like dampness that is being held in the primer, as primer is porus, once the solvent of the top coat reacts it liberates the held moisture causing the craters and solvent bubbles.

Have you got a moisture trap close to the spray gun - I fitted one within 5ft of the gun and it made a big difference to moisture problems The book: 'How nit to paint a locomotive' may give you a clue.

Tim

It sounds like you are getting condensation in your air line, I had a similar problem until I fitted an in-line filter. I got one off ebay and they are still there. (item No. 140394428782 price £6.99) It screws onto the bottom of the gun and you can clearly see any condensation building up. It has worked great and I don't get a problem any more. Hope it helps

Steve

Sorry about the delay in my reply and thanks for all the ideas I'm taking them on board but iv not had much time to do any more work on this problem over the last few days.

Any way what i have been able to do is take one of my total fails down to 2 of my local automotive paint suppliers and not one of them have been able to say what is doing this. So what i have now done is get my self 2 new PCL air filters and water traps to replace the ones i all ready had because i did find a tiny amount of oil in the bolw in one and the filter was a tiny bit lose I'm sure that was not helping the problem but some thing that i have noticed is that my new filters have a totally different type of element in side them from my old set up. The old ones are made of brass the news are more like some form of ceramic and 3 times the size it looks like i was may be using totally the wrong sort of filter to start with and I'm sure it does not really help that i cant remember how i came across these old filters in the first place. Made a rod for my own back may be I'm sure just glad iv got a blaster so get some of this paint of but first I'm going to do a hand full of test peacs and see how we go from now on.

On the flip side of the coin because of this i have taken a few items to be powder coated things like the rear axle tube silly little things you will never see out of the way. What i did see when i was there is that they do a satin and matt black coating and this got me thinking the ash pan is Stainless steel and its going to be a pain keeping paint on there because of the life the pan will have to go though the down side is is the pan going to go out of shape when it goes in to the oven ???


Stu

The ashpan really needs a high temperature paint as from time to time burning coal will fall into it. A powder coating I don't think will last very long as heat is what activates it and it might end up just running off! I use the plasticote barbeque paint which gives a nice satin finish. Three coats sprayed about 40 minutes apart & then left for 48 hours gives a good hard wearing finish.