Hi all, any paint wizards wanna help a brother out? Been prepping my tank for paint. Stripped two layers of old paint and bog down to bare metal. Sprayed 2 very light coats of etch and then smashed on some primer filler. I have touched up some areas of bog and had sanded back down to metal and noticed my paper had gummed up and that I could scratch off the etch primer with a finger nail with barely any pressure. I have had similar issues with etch before. I hate to undo all my work but if the etch is compromised then I'm going to strip it all back down to metal and start again. Btw I have been careful with prep and followed correct instructions on the can. What a crock lol
Gumming up on the paper suggests to me it was still slightly wet i.e. not fully dry - time between coats? The solvent in the filler primer penetrating the etch primer and needing more drytime if you've got a heat gun you could go across it at a gentle heat too much and it will bubble - @my67xr is a painting guru
Cheers for the input! It had been left for a week so it should have been dry. I'll hit it with some sandpaper tomorrow and see what happens.
Painting was something which almost always flummoxed me - sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't Just thinking out aloud was the dry time of the original etch primer and primer filler sufficient? I've seen the paint booths with the infrared light to dry layers on parts being painted, but always suspected that was for workflow speed Annoying to have to potentially start again, but if the etch primer is compromised, I suppose the upside is you know now not after you've done the whole thing up to final clear to find out - been there done that with pearl metallics a very long time ago, then there were the pinholes from rust in the tank - start all over again
The ONLY rattle can Etch Primer I would use is UPol... or if I was using all DNA Paints is the DNA Etch primer in a Rattle can https://www.u-pol.com/aus/en-aus/home#.YEP7pl2A7Jw https://www.dna-paints.com/shop/primers/hs-primer/aerosolprimer/
I think I'm gonna do this. There's a proper paint store nearby I'll just get the proper stuff from them.
Depending upon bare metal, there's also surface treatments needed to optimise paint adhesion: - sand surface with 300-grit sandpaper - degrease with acetone - aluminium needs nitric & hydroflouric acid treatment at this stage - use zinc-chromate etching primer - then filler primer
I hit it with 240, wax and greaser remover then 2x light coats of etch. Not sure what etch I had. I had a check before and it seems to be holding well now, weird. Maybe solvent leaching into the etch from the primer as mentioned? Just gonna go with the black magic Dark arts idea. Maybe I'm too ignorant to learn haha
If your local Automotive Paint store is any good.. they should be able to tell you the best way to paint what you want... Personally for first coats over bare metal... I would use Thinners or Acetone rather than wax and grease remover, then go with your Etch Primer. Follow the instructions and try to use the same make / type of paint all the way through. If it is UPol then have them mix up whatever colour you want and ask them for the right clearcoat... ALWAYS use 2 Pac on your fuel tank as Single pac clear isnt resistant to fuel.. Good that you are giving it a go... at worst all you will do is spend some $$ and have a crap paint job... alternatively you can end up with a killer paint job... even with Rattle cans.
