LocostUSA.com

Quick question, have any of you used either of these guys?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/True-Blue-Firem ... ls&vxp=mtr

This is the Restoration Shop line of paints from TCP Global


Or these guys
http://www.paintforcars.com/

I'm looking at a catalyzed enamel for the R1 project. I shot the plastics with a quart of paint from Autozone, the Duplicolor ready to shoot stuff. I'll put a coat of primer on everything and paint plastics and the whole aluminum body.

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Too much week, not enough weekend.

OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216

paint for cars is where i got the paint for my locost, i found it acceptable in a base/clearcoat process.

a note when painting plastics, what do you mean by plastics, fiberglass is not considered as a plastic in the automotive paint world and is treated the same as metal, true plastics would be like abs which may need an adheasion promoter prior to painting and micro scuffing to key the surface, once coated to the primer stage it may also require a flex additive to prevent cracking of the finish coats.

the pre mixed from autozone is laquer based and contains a solvent that may react with non laquer substrates but over a 2K primer that has cured it is a cheap alternative to base coat color and can be over coated with most brands of clear coat.

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this story shall the good man teach his son,
and chrispin chrispian shall ne'er go by,
from this day to the end of the world.
but we in it shall be remembered.

By plastics, I mean the fiberglass bits. For prep on them I shot 2k primer, let cure, wet sanded and shot the DupliColor lacquer. It was easy to shoot, but works out to be about $140/gallon at undiluted / corrected price.

Paint for cars has a decent color selection on everything
TCP has a much bigger color wheel.

Working from memory, I can shoot enamel or urethane over lacquer, but not lacquer over anything else, right?

_________________
Too much week, not enough weekend.

OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216

for many years I was a BASF tech rep to the auto makers .
this is a run down of automotive coatings .
starting for the lowers grade
lacquer
alkyd enamels
acrylic enamels
urethane enamels
urethane
you will want to stay away from lacquer based products .
personally I would not do a mail order for coatings I would go to your area jobber (auto paint store )
and buy from them .
this way you can get TDS (tech data sheets) on the products you buy .

if your fiberglass is of a polyester base you would want to use a polyester based primer over the top of it .
if it's of epoxy base then you want to use a epoxy based primer .
the reason is years down the road you will start to get a delamination and or shrinking in problem if you mix the two different products .

you can go over lacquer with enamel but not with any thing else but .
the solvents for urethanes will attack the lacquer .
if your going to use a hardened / catalyzed product over a non catalyzed product it's really best to strip the non catalyzed product off .
the reason is that the lacquer is reversible meaning it will turn back to a liquid state .
being so it expands and contracts more then the hardened / catalyzed coating your going to go over it with . so what happens is over time the top coat will crack and peal .

the best bang for the buck is a urethane enamel .
it offers the best hold out of the enamel family and is ez to care for .

the BASF limco line is very good also the DuPont's / nason ful-thane line is also a good product
offering good coverage hold out and being user friendly at a good cost to the end user.

if your spraying with HVLP it's best to have the hole system HVLP from the air supply to the gun or the gun will not work as it should . HVLP uses a larger ID hose size along with the fittings and couplers . if any part of the air supply is not HVLP it will not supply the gun with the needed volume of air the gun needs . this will affect the way the gun sprays by the paint not atomizing the paint coming out of the gun as small at the product will need to be .
this will give a orange peal finish or makes the product ez to get runs in .

enamel based products tend to get fisheyes more then other coatings do .
it's always a very good idea to get a pre paint cleaner and wipe the panel / panels down real good before you apply your top coats .
if you have primed your work and can not get top coat on it with in 24 hours after you have done your final sanding then you should seal the primer before you apply your top coats .
some primers you can also mix as a sealer and go wet on wet to top coat .
wet on wet is just that you would spray your sealer let it flash off for 15 to 20 minutes and then spray your top coats right over the sealer with no sanding of the sealer .

if your prepping the primer and you have sand throughs to the substrate bigger then a dime size or along a edge of the panel then a sealer is kind of a must then also .
it will stop the top coat from shrinking in and looking like **** later on .

after you have done your sanding for top coating you should not touch the panel with your bare hands always wear rubber gloves the oils from your hands will also give you problems .
tack the panel with a tack rag after you have wiped them down with the pre paint cleaner this will help with any dust that is on the substrate making the job come out cleaner .

the two cabinets here are just metallic color chips I also have two more cabinets with solid colors chips and one with candies and pearls .
if you go to your BASF jobber you will have many 1000's of colors to pick from . not the lame hand full of colors you get in line .
BASF has what is called color max color chips they are real spray out using real paint .
if there is a car color out there then there is a real good chance there is a color chip to go with it .

I shot TETANUS with LIMCO urethane. I went to the jobber because I specifically wanted the new Jeep Gecko Green. For the R1, I'll be perfectly happy with one of the three shades of stock metallic blue off their limited color cards.

The LIMCO wasn't a bad product. Mixed well, wanted to go on in SUPER LIGHT coats with about 15 minutes flash time in between. It was pricey at the local jobber at over $200 for a gallon kit.


When I lived in the upstate my local jobber sold NASON, so the FrankenSprite and MGA were both sprayed in that. The Nason seemed to lay out better than the LIMCO. My MGA turned out slick as glass even before I buffed it.

I like single stage paint systems and I really like paints that I can wet sand and buff. Everything I spray gets done out in the yard, so bugs and dust are a reality. Being able to wet sand and buff is a big plus.

This won't be a show car, it will be a good looking driver.

_________________
Too much week, not enough weekend.

OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216

you can buff pretty much every thing but a non hardened enamel .
though with enamels you have to wait until it gets to full cure before you buff or the finish will not take on a good gloss and even if it does most of the time it will die back looking like you did not buff it enough .

there should not have been any trouble with the limco coming out as you would like it .
a 1.3 needle ,tip and cap works best for limco .
one thing I do like about limco is just about any metallic color they offer it in limco single stage too .
the only ones they don't are the tri colors .

a good way to know you have proper flash time is to touch the mask were there is as much material as there is on the panel your spraying .
you would want to touch the masking tape and not the paper as solvents soak into the paper .
when you touch the masking tape and you leave a finger print and nothing comes off on your finger you are ready for the next coat .
they say the proper flash in time of say 15 to 20 minutes but the environment your spraying in has more to do with flash time then the clock .

I have never had any problems with either of the two products they both lay down great and spray the same as they are of the same make up of the two products .

200 dollars for the set up with color and hardener and the reducer is about right for both products .
the color your buying also effects cost as colors like reds , yellows and so on will bring the cost up as the pigments used in the colors cost more .
in my shop I have the BASF glasurit 55 line base coat system along with there 22 line single stage system . then I also have the glasurit 90 line that is base coat water borne and the limco supreme plus system that by changing the binders can be mixed in base or Single Stage .
this spring I also had the SEM rust-shield system in stalled in the shop as we were buying a lot of it so to cut costs we just had them install the hole system .
we use a lot of SEM products so they hooked us up real well for the rust-shield mixing system .

when it comes to automotive coating if it is cheap then that's what you will get ! it will not hold up as well and over time it ends up costing as much or more then just stepping up and getting a little better quality product right from the start .

Tetanus didn't turn out bad. It was a little hot that day and I had more bugs in the finish than I wanted. It took 5 light coats before I had the depth of color and smoothness I wanted.



The MGA was Nason in GM titanium white


FrankenSprite was Nason in GM Dayton Yellow


For comparison, this is the fender on blood sweat and beers in DupliColor Lacquer. Hasn't been buffed

_________________
Too much week, not enough weekend.

OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216

I decided to take a chance with Paint for Cars. I talked to the tech rep yesterday. He emailed me the tech data sheets on the paints I was interested in using and answered all of my questions.

The paint is from Hawthorne Paint Co. They are a big batch processer, not as big as BASF, DuPont, or PPG, but big.

I'll post pics of a painted blood sweat and beers in a couple of weeks. If I like it, they'll get the business for the Mini

_________________
Too much week, not enough weekend.

OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216

Lots of good information in this thread, thanks guys. It should be a sticky!

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-Keith