Abandoning Plastic Film for Paper

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 19, 2021 9:20 am
Well, this is my first attempt at painting and, all things considered, it's been fun and is going pretty well.
Well, it _was_ going well. I laid down the base coat on the weekend and had massive issues with the paint flaking off the plastic masking film (Plazmask). It said it was rated for auto painting. Did I simply do something wrong?

I managed to more or less recover until the final coat. At that point, a one-inch flake landed square on the hood. Done. :(

I finished putting the base on Sunday evening and started sanding it down again last night in preparation for laying on a couple of coats before the clear.

Two questions:
1) I've picked up a roll of masking paper which I will use to replace the film. Is there something I could have done, or can do this time, that will reduce the risk of kicking the flakes off between coats?
2) When I started sanding last night, I'm using 400 grit, the paint kinda rolls off. Does it need more time to set? I was able to clean up the areas that I sanded but I want to ensure I'm not making more work for myself and, more importantly, not making things worse.

Thanks.

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 19, 2021 9:41 am
Never heard of that brand however most of them are one sided. You have to have the "Paint this Side" label up.

Some guys put masking paper along the paint edge and then plastic over the rest.

Here's what I use and never had a problem.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/131590641206?s ... 1438.l2649
1968 Coronet R/T


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PostPosted: Tue Oct 19, 2021 10:13 am
I'm pretty certain that I had it on the right way in most areas. In retrospect, there were probably a few pieces that could have gone on the wrong way around but those would have been farther away from the majority of the painted surface. Corners and wheels and whatnot. Most of it went on properly.

Putting the paper along the edge makes sense. The worst of it was certainly where the overspray was thickest.

This time, it'll be all paper. I'll lose my mind if it happens again.

As for the paint, does it sound like it has fully set? I'm just not sure what the consistency should be.

Thanks.

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 19, 2021 12:54 pm
Read the Technical Data Sheet for the product(s) you are using. It will tell you the drying time.

A lot depends on the quality of the products, the speed of the activator and reducer used, if proper flash times were observed and the temperature of the metal and booth while spraying and curing.
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 19, 2021 11:04 pm
I've used Plazmask for several years now and have never had a problem like that with it. That includes masking out cars and using it for furniture work. We even mask out whole home areas with it when doing large staircases, cabinets, etc. I will say that we don't leave it on "allowing" a lot of build up preferring to just remask again. We just did a large table top with about 9 coats of high build catalytic lacquer. Plazmask was directly under the top protecting the base, no problems with it being on there a couple of days.
Metal, wood, fiberglass, we work it all... www.furniturephysicians.com We can restore the irreplaceable!



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PostPosted: Wed Oct 20, 2021 7:11 am
I'm pretty sure that the reason I ran into trouble was due to a number of oversights on my part.
1) I didn't use paper around the edges
2) My air pressure was probably on the high side (28-30psi)
3) Too much overspray

The result was that when I hit the edge of the painted surface, the plastic flapped a lot and the abundant overspray was released in a snowstorm of flakes. e.g. I masked off the sunroof but painted straight over it. Did I mention that this is my first time. So much learning through pain.

I've pretty much finished sanding everything down and have pulled all of the masking off. I'll remask entirely with paper (though I get now that I probably could have kept some of the plastic) and will take another swing at it this weekend.

I'm guessing that the Nason Ful-Base 3.5 IR doesn't have much in the way of an activator. It's pretty soft even after 48 hours. Sanding was a challenge as the paint almost seemed to melt under the lightest touch of 400-grit and the resulting "dust" quickly formed into soft balls that would then stick and create a rough surface. So it became a process of sanding a very small area as lightly as possible and wiping it down with a dry cloth to remove the resulting debris.

Definitely painstaking but almost done.

Thanks for all the advice, all.



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PostPosted: Wed Oct 20, 2021 7:49 am
Shoe polish! I've been trying to figure out what to compare the consistency of the base is. It's about the same as shoe polish. I can scratch it with my fingernail and it feels almost rubbery.

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 20, 2021 10:02 am
There is a reason why I speak against the low quality paints. Yes you can "get by" with them as many will argue but notice how many people have problems with them.
When was the last time you read a post of someone having these issues with a quality paint line?
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 20, 2021 10:25 am
Yeah, sounds like it wasn't as much the Plazmask as it was your paint system and application. We find that almost all of our coating oversprays to stick like glue to the Plazmask. What we like to do is use good auto grade painters tape to first "outline" our mask off area, then use the Plazmask over those outlines, slightly backed off. When it comes time to pull the plastic off it easily comes off the mask outline allowing us to carefully concentrate on pulling those remaining tape lines....
Metal, wood, fiberglass, we work it all... www.furniturephysicians.com We can restore the irreplaceable!



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PostPosted: Wed Oct 20, 2021 10:38 am
Thanks again guys.
Living and learning. I found good and bad reviews for pretty much every paint out there and settled on Nason purely because it was conveniently available on my drive home.

In reality, I'm painting this car with the expectation of having to do it again in a couple of years. There are some areas that have some rust pitting that should have been cut out and a couple of panels with small adhesion failures likely from dust when I had someone paint it a few years ago. This is kind of a muck-around. I obviously want it to look good but I also know that I'm going to bugger it up and will adjust for next time.
As it is, it's gone from me just addressing areas where the rust is causing the paint to bubble, to painting 3/4 of the car. Well, that and what I thought would be a 4 day job which is stretching into its third week.

So, many, many masking lessons learned so far as well as gun setup.

Like I mentioned, the base laid down pretty well otherwise. Now to see if I can clean up the mess that I currently have and get a clean base down again.
Then, hopefully, the clear will go on reasonably well. It'll suck if that goes poorly.
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