Trouble Painting Eyelids

[itsme]

Hi all,

Got some fibreglass eyelids for my 34 and have had insane amounts of difficulty painting them;

1.Sanded them down, wiped clean with wax & grease remover, applied grey acrylic primer which sticks perfect.

2.Apply black acrylic gloss spraypaint and as soon as the paint hits the surface it appears to 'bubble' and seperate

3.When looking at the surface dried the whole surface has an orange peel look and some parts have small bubbles

I have now tried doing this probably 10x or more and have had no luck, have tried wiping with metho rather than wax and grease remover, have tried in different temperatures, have tried placing the can in hot water to warm paint, have heated up the back of the eyelids with a hairdryer to warm the surface before hand etc.. I have also taken the surface right back to fibreglass with thinners and tried all over but no luck..

I cannot workout what the variable is that allows the primer to stick fine and not the paint (all the products are acrylic).. Everything I've researched indicates a contaminate but I've had no luck. Also tried 3 different brands of paint, even tried sanding the black bubbly paint back in hopes of hitting it with clear to bring back a smooth gloss but then the clear does the same thing!!

Please please any advise is appreciated I'm going mad for something I thought would be straight forward.

cheers,

Steve

[mad082]

how long are you waiting between primer and top coats? are you wiping them with wax and grease remover between primer coats and top coats? are you sanding the primer before applying the top coat?

[Hanaldo]

how long are you waiting between primer and top coats? are you wiping them with wax and grease remover between primer coats and top coats? are you sanding the primer before applying the top coat?

Yeh you should be spraying the base coat paint before the primer actually dries. The thing with primer is it soaks into the material, so you have to put quite a lot of primer on until you can clearly see that it isn't being absorbed anymore. And then you want to spray the base coat before the primer dries so that they chemically bond. You shouldn't need to sand unless you are fixing something like a run, or the layer has gone completely hard and the layers need to be physically bonded rather than chemically.

Your problem sounds like either silicon or the paints are attacking each other which is pretty common when you use wax & grease remover. I advise you start again. Completely remove everything with paint thinner, get rid of everything on it until you can see the base layer. Now do a REALLY good job of cleaning it, and even lightly scuff it with 600 grit sand paper. You need to make sure there is absolutely no thinners left on it. Now spray the primer again, doing what I said so you can see that it is no longer being absorbed into the eyelids. Primer is pretty forgiving, you can use a lot of it. Once you are happy with your primer coats, apply the base coat paint just before the primer is touch dry. This will allow the primer and the paint to chemically bond to each other. Do the same thing with your clear coat if you are using any.

Feel free to check out my album of things I have painted http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/al...d16373c642972e1

Edited June 29, 2010 by Hanaldo

[itsme]

how long are you waiting between primer and top coats? are you wiping them with wax and grease remover between primer coats and top coats? are you sanding the primer before applying the top coat?

Due to the number of times I've done this and tried to eliminate the variable causing the problem. I have done the top coat within maybe half an hour (touch dry) of the primer coat. I also initially tried sanding the primer coat, using wax & grease remover then doing a top coat but both have returned the same result.

thanks for your reply =)

[itsme]

Yeh you should be spraying the base coat paint before the primer actually dries. The thing with primer is it soaks into the material, so you have to put quite a lot of primer on until you can clearly see that it isn't being absorbed anymore. And then you want to spray the base coat before the primer dries so that they chemically bond. You shouldn't need to sand unless you are fixing something like a run, or the layer has gone completely hard and the layers need to be physically bonded rather than chemically.

Your problem sounds like either silicon or the paints are attacking each other which is pretty common when you use wax & grease remover. I advise you start again. Completely remove everything with paint thinner, get rid of everything on it until you can see the base layer. Now do a REALLY good job of cleaning it, and even lightly scuff it with 600 grit sand paper. You need to make sure there is absolutely no thinners left on it. Now spray the primer again, doing what I said so you can see that it is no longer being absorbed into the eyelids. Primer is pretty forgiving, you can use a lot of it. Once you are happy with your primer coats, apply the base coat paint just before the primer is touch dry. This will allow the primer and the paint to chemically bond to each other. Do the same thing with your clear coat if you are using any.

Feel free to check out my album of things I have painted http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/al...d16373c642972e1

Hey Mate,

Really appreciate you taking the time to give all this advice. I will go grab some thinners from Bunnings (and more paint i've nearly run out =< ) strip it back to the fibreglass and start over.. You mentioned not using wax & grease remover are you saying to just clean it with thinners and wait for it to dry then do primer>top>clear without sanding in between?

Also you mentioned the top coat and clear coat before they are dry so should it all pretty much be one process?? (ie: primer coats every few minutes apart followed by black followed by clear)

thanks again.

[Hanaldo]

Hey Mate,

Really appreciate you taking the time to give all this advice. I will go grab some thinners from Bunnings (and more paint i've nearly run out =< ) strip it back to the fibreglass and start over.. You mentioned not using wax & grease remover are you saying to just clean it with thinners and wait for it to dry then do primer>top>clear without sanding in between?

Also you mentioned the top coat and clear coat before they are dry so should it all pretty much be one process?? (ie: primer coats every few minutes apart followed by black followed by clear)

thanks again.

Don't let thinners dry on the fibreglass, will cause the problem all over again. You gotta make sure you really clean all the thinners off. Plenty of water, and a fairly good rub down with 600 grit will get rid of it all.

Yes, should all be pretty much one process if possible, don't sand between coats unless you get a run and you need to let the paint dry to sand it off. If you get the layer perfect, move onto the next layer before it dries. So you spray the primer, will probably take about 5 coats before it stops soaking in, and then spray the black, then the clear. You want to let the layer underneath set a little bit but not go dry before you spray the next layer, if you get that lol? Probably won't even take 5 minutes.

A good way of doing it is if you are spraying the eyelids on some newspaper, use the oversprayed paint on the newspaper as an indicator of when to do the next coat. When it is a little bit sticky still, but not wet, that is when you want to spray the next coat. Just before touch dry.