MoreMix..Reduce...Catalyze...
Sorry if I bounced those terms around without explaining them earlier...
Modern automotive paint is an epoxy. It doesn't just "air" dry, it actually lights off and cures like epoxy glue. It is also nearly impervious to solvents once it cures fully, making it perfect for automobile use (spill some gas on it while filling up the tank, no worries 'cause it aint comming off
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When you buy your paint, it will be part of a system of chemicals. To insure they bond properly, I try to use all of the paint layers from the same system..primer, base, mid, and clear.
When you buy the paint, you will pick the colors you want for the finish product and the fellow behind the counter will start mixing cans of base per the formula that goes with the color...then he/she will start handing you other cans of all the other components that must be mixed just before the paint is shot in your spray gun...along with the "cookbook" recipie of what to do. Probably also tell you what you will need to clean the stuff out of your paint sprayer when it comes time to clean up (typically Acetone, but could also be Styrene or a whole host of truley obnoxious chemicals...read the warning labels
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For a typical paint there is a Catalyst chemical that is mixed in a set ratio to the base (the actual "paint") This is the stuff that makes the paint turn into a thin hard waffer of paint when applied.
There is also a Reducer chemical...this takes the paint and makes it thin enough to shoot properly though the spray gun. The ratio of reducer to paint varies with temp and humidity (there are also ranges of reducers to pick from...you can make the paint cure slower, faster, in hot humid weather, etc, etc. just by changing the reducer used. The guy behind the counter will coach you on what will likely work the best for you.
How to you mix paint? You stir the stuff !!!! Do not attempt to simply shake up the can...it will work for the mechanical paint mixers in the store, but doesn't work for the fellow trying to shake up the pint can with bare hands alone. No, follow the recipe and stir up the paint per the instructions. You will also need some plastic measuring cups and some straining filters (get them whle you are there buying paint....most of the time the person behind the counter will just hand you a stack of them gratis...hey, you did just spend several hundred dollars on the paint !!
Ok...now, when it comes time to paint, mix up a little batch during practice time. Don't waste paint by mixing more than you can use at a time...paint has a "pot" life...the time it will stay liquid before it starts to cure in the mixing bowl. As soon as it is mixed, the clock starts running.
When you are done shooting paint... don't just hang up the spray gun and admire your handy work. You need to clean the paint out of the gun. Pour out the excess paint, load the gun full of solvent, and start spraying the solvent into a rag. Once the rag is damp, bring it in contact with the tip of the paint gun...a neat thing will happen...bubbles will start forming in the color cup as the air from the tip gets turned around by the rag and blows the paint & solvent back into the cup. Dump the solvent and repeat this several time. This is back-flushing the spray gun and it will get nearly all of the paint out of the gun's internal guts. If I am just going to resume painting within 24 hours, I'll back flush the gun with solvent, fill it with clean solvent and hang the gun up...it's clean enough to leave sit for a day or two. If I'm done for a while, I'll back flush the gun, then take the entire gun apart and wipe all the pieces clean, lube them with petroleum jelly, and reassemble the gun for long term storage.
Well, there comes a point where you can't teach by reading, you have to pick up the tools and give it a try.
I have an advantage...I've been doing this stuff for 30 years. One Christmas, many years ago, I got a Remington 511 rifle and enough gift cash to go down to the hardware store...spent 50cents on a box of 22LR's..spent the rest on a Badger 100 single action airbrush. I used an old tire as my "air tank"...I got pretty good using both of them
I wish I could drive an airbrush like Varga, but oh well...
So, the next step really involves getting your spray gun and starting to practice using it. Getting familliar with it's controls and trying to spray some patterns with it.
There are some neat tricks you can do with the pattern..like fading colors together by angling the basic stroke (you're playing games with the density of the fan pattern comming off the tip of the sprayer,..making it dense on one edge, diffuse on the other.)
Next you can start playing with stencils and masking colors in reverse...Following the rules of always working from light to dark colors, you lay out the graphics so the light colors get painted, masked off, then move on to the next color, etc....when you get to the darkest color, start peeling off the masking to reveal the finished design.
Another trick is using a incompatible paint as a masking agent (instead of tape)...for example..cheap water based paints don't stick to rubber or glass very well...and epoxy paint will not stick to water based paint...so you can use a water based paint to mask off areas that would be hard to mask with paper and tape.
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wjcollier07 wrote:
Darn it John...now you got me thinking mine's not big enough.
2001 F150 a basic six cyl with 5 speed manual trans.
'66 Piper Cherokee 360 CID , 180 hp, 155 mph @ 2500 rpm, drop in K&N filter.