Mystery paint problem! Help needed!

[prxbadger]

ive painted a few bikes with rattle cans and have always favoured the acrylic 2 part paints, i also buy paint that recommends applying the first coat of lacquer around half an hour after the colour.

not sure why maybe aids adhesion to the lower coats

[rustybronco]

I thought I needed 2 part also until i tested it. The two part probably is fuel resistant a lot quicker than rattle cans but eventually even the rattle can paint resists gas. Dipping the parts convinced me it would resist gas.

Duaneage you are correct! it will cure if you bake it or if you give it enough time to cure.

[rustybronco]

ive painted a few bikes with rattle cans and have always favoured the acrylic 2 part paints, i also buy paint that recommends applying the first coat of lacquer around half an hour after the colour.

not sure why maybe aids adhesion to the lower coats

There is usually a window that you top coat a base color (not to soon or late) after that you have to sand the base coat or sand and re-apply the base coat before top coating. yes it's for adhesion

[t3rmin]

Ok so here's my totally similar sob story which happened just yesterday.

I'm painting my tank and sidecovers with a dark red Rustoleum. I prepped the sidecovers, primed 'em, wetsanded the primer nice and smooth, then put on two quick coats of the red. I had a bit of orange peel and a fuzz or two stuck in there, but apparently I didn't wait long enough to sand it out because it gooed up and was tacky underneath instead of sanding smoothly.

So I figured I had to sand it all off and start over, but since it was still tacky in places, I put it under a heat lamp to cure for a while. Unfortunately, I put the heat lamp much too close and it started to *MELT* the freakin' sidecovers. Now they're all wavy in the middle instead of having a nice smooth contour. So in addition to having to sand off all my hard work in paint and start over, I have to put some bondo on there and try to re-shape them.

The worst thing is these sidecovers were absolutely pristine NOS that I got off eBay for a paltry $20. I was really proud of that find and that price. I had reinforced the posts with wire and epoxy and they were going to last forever in their pristine condition...

What a nightmare!

My new simplified plan is: bondo, sand, primer, wetsand, one good coat of base -- orange peel be darned! I'm not sure if I'll even do a clearcoat. Obviously I'm not meant to have perfection anyway...

[rustybronco]

Can you try heating them and reshaping rather than fill and sand? BE CAREFUL.

[t3rmin]

Can you try heating them and reshaping rather than fill and sand? BE CAREFUL.

Yeah I tried that while they were still soft. I could manipilate the plastic all I wanted but it wouldn't stay that way. Unless I had some kind of a mold to keep it in place while it hardened I don't think that would work.

I'm in the process right now of bondoing them and so far it's turning out well. Once I get some paint on them hopefully I can forget it ever happened.

[duaneage]

I'm painting my tank and sidecovers with a dark red Rustoleum.

I would never use rustoleum for primer. There are better sandable primers out ther and rustoleum is not one of them. I used duplicolor grey sandable primer, it had a good finish, Bondo makes a pretty good one two. The rustoleum is OK for painting rusty metal but not fine work like this.

The primer is the most important step IMHO since this is where you get a smooth base for the top coats. Primer can help smooth some imperfections out but not all of them. Remember, paint will not hide problems, it will make them more obvious.

[Jethro]

The catalyzed paints are a color base, a thinnner (assuming you are going to spray it) and a hardener, the hardener is what gives it either a matte or glossy finish. Rattle-can paints do harden eventually, but even then they never get as hard or adhere as well as the two part systems. They will resist gas and other volitile stuff, but won't be as durable against chips, dings and scratching.

I bought enough Dupont Imron color base, thinner and hardener to paint an entire bike for about $175. A paint gun is cheap, about $45 at the Depot. If you go through all the prep work, why not spend $250 to at least have a good paint on there?

My buddy streetfightered his ZRX and rattle can painted it in a flat black. If I were going to use rattle cans, this is how I would go too. The flat black actually looks pretty good, and touch up after the fact is a 30 second job.

[Mike_H]

Your problem with the side covers may have just been the paint. I noticed while using Chemical Stirper on my side covers that it softened the plastic quite a bit. The Rustoleum Primer may have done the same thing, and since it sat, changed the shape of your covers....

[t3rmin]

Your problem with the side covers may have just been the paint. I noticed while using Chemical Stirper on my side covers that it softened the plastic quite a bit. The Rustoleum Primer may have done the same thing, and since it sat, changed the shape of your covers....

Naw, I definitely melted it with the heat lamp! ;-) The smell of burning plastic and sidecovers so hot you could hardly touch them is forever burnt into my mind.