I’ll have to get the paint from the local jobber since the rest of the truck isn’t being painted and the color is a custom one from a local wrecker truck service. It was painted about 8 years ago by another painter so only he would know for sure what color of sealer or primer was under the red. I’ll have to paint match best I can to the cab and doors. Shouldn’t be faded too bad he keeps it washed and inside 95% of the time. I’ll hunt up a good white epoxy when I pick up the paint next week and try it out. Tech sheets will be my friend

Update: In the process of sanding down the hood in prep for primer possibly tomorrow. Hood is some sort of black plastic that’s real dusty not sure what it is for sure…take the mask off and smells like sweet spicy plastic when it burns. Anyway going to go ahead and use my 2K urethane primer in gray that I got off the paint shop he seems to think it will be fine to use. Picked up the paint while I was there…$477 for 2 quart of custom red. Ouch almost $1k a gallon so I hope it’s all I need.

Been using series of blocks while I sand it down longest one around 14” long. Did a light scuff with 240 on the DA to take the shine mostly down then ran the block in X pattern to see if there were many ripples. Surprisingly enough it’s pretty straight. Used light pressure since this plastic likes to bend with pressure to make sure I wasn’t flattening out the piece and not the material. Worked fairly well. I have one small chip or crack in the fiberglass reinforcement on the back edge not sure what to do with it yet. I think I’m going to get the crack stopped by sanding it out then if needed reshape with some light filler to get the edge back. Not real fond of using filler for edge fixes since they are the first to get hit with something but don’t have a lot of choice in this case.

Should be ready for red base end of the week if all goes well! I’ll attach some pictures

In my opinion you are taking a risk by not using epoxy primer first.

Imagine having to spend that money all over again if the guy at the local paint store is wrong?

Even if it looks good when freshly painted, how long will it hold up?

Keep us posted.

DeerePainter wrote: Anyway going to go ahead and use my 2K urethane primer in gray that I got off the paint shop he seems to think it will be fine to use.
pictures

are you comfortable with "seems to think?"

how many hoods like this has he painted?

Well you guys got me nervous so I contacted customer tonight. Back story is truck got hit in the front end and not sure if it will ever be true again going down the road so he’s on the fence of sending it down the road once it gets put back together. He’s got an insurance payment already and that’s what I’m getting no more and no less which includes materials and labor so he’s trying to keep it cheap enough for me to make a little bit of money. Well I’m not that way I like things to be right even if it means I make a little less so I told him that tonight and he said let’s just go with the epoxy and do it so we have no regrets.

If it was mine I would have went epoxy no question but I’m just doing what the customer wants. It shouldn’t matter to me as a painter I should want the job done correctly no matter who ends up with the truck and I do but end the end the customer has the final say. He’s going to pick up some epoxy tomorrow for me while I get the booth ready. I feel better about going with the epoxy little nervous since I know it has a recoat window but I should be fine.

As far as paint jobber goes he’s not your typical ding ding behind the counter he’s been around and mixed thousands of gallons of paint so I do take his word for what it’s worth. While most jobbers haven’t spent much time behind a gun I do think he knows his products well enough to know what would and wouldn’t work. He said the urethane is what most people doing these repairs will use but I’m also not “most” painters. My work has my name on it and it should be right before it leaves my shop. Even though he believes it to be ok I’m still going with epoxy. Thanks for steering me in the right direction guys, I appreciate everyone’s honesty and advice!

You are right about your name being on it.

Doesn't matter that the customer told you to go cheap. When the paint job starts to crack, wrinkle, peel or blister and someone says, Who painted this?

I have turned down work like this a few times. I also make people sign a contract so everything is clearly understood.

Luckily the customer is a pretty good friend of mine and my dads. I’ve helped him do various jobs over the years and he’s done various types of stuff for us around the farm. He understands the risk and reward of doing things the right way he’s just like most farmers and myself included….cheap!

Unfortunately cheap and long lasting quality doesn’t go very far in this hobby and we both understand that. Now any other customer id be getting in writing that products chosen by the customer are solely the customer’s responsibility and under no circumstances are failures due to inadequate use of products the responsibility of myself the painter. I guarantee my work to be free from defects in workmanship but do not guarantee product qualities that are out of my control. Probably should put it on the bottom of my invoices

Update: picked up some gray epoxy today. Excel Body Products #32001 is the product I got. Not sure if it’s just the nature of the beast or what but man this stuff was thick. Said for primer use spray 2:1 no reducer required. Sprayed it out of my Sharpe Finex 3000 with 1.8 tip at around 35psi. That was a no go so bumped it up to 40psi same thing horrible atomozation and quickly realized it needed to be thinner for my set up. Added up to 25% thinner per TDS and sprayed a little smoother but still really thick and orange peel. Added a little more thinner and bumped it up to 45psi and it sprayed a little better still but am not proud of the finish.

TDS says to apply two wet coats anywhere from 40-50psi. No recommendation for nozzle size on guns. I started getting some pretty bad dry spray at 45psi so not sure 50psi would have cured any of my issues. Not sure if it’s the nature of epoxy or what but am not a fan of it right now. Sprayed two wet coats and going to let it cure good then Thursday either wet or dry sand whichever works best to block it out and then cover with my normal urethane primer so I can at least get it smooth as a sealer.

This stuff was like glue and wasn’t cold by any means. Never temp checked it but couldn’t have been colder than 60-65 degrees. I tried screwing in the fluid control a couple turns to provide less paint but didn’t get much response from that either. Oh well hopefully with this being the initial coat of substrate the next layers of primer, paint, and clear will have good adhesion and all will go well. Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

I shoot my epoxy primer, which mixes 1:1 with activator, through a 1.4 tip at 22-24 psi.

My gun is an Iwata LPH 400 and is the same one I use for base coat and clear coat.

Here's two coats, freshly sprayed, over sandblasted metal:





Here's the same brand in white mixed 1:1:1 to use as a sealer coat:



I set my spray gun up using masking paper taped to a wall.
With no fluid in the gun, I pull the trigger open and back the fluid knob out until there's no contact with the trigger. Then holding the trigger full open, I turn the fluid knob in until I feel it make contact with the trigger. At this point let go of the trigger and turn the fluid knob in another 1/2 turn.

Start by setting the air pressure at the recommended amount specified by the gun manufacturer. (This assumes your air compressor has enough CFM output to handle your gun's specifications for that as well.)

With properly mixed paint in the gun, hold it the recommended distance from the paper and then squeeze the trigger full open for 1 second and let go. You want to see a well formed pattern, with consistent sized droplets throughout, giving you full coverage. If you have runs, turn the fluid knob in another 1/2 turn. If the droplets are too big, increase your air pressure.

Yeah that’s how I set my gun up as well. I’ve never had trouble getting the peel out of anything like this before though and I know it’s because it was really thick. I mixed the epoxy really well making sure there were no clumps and all of the binders and xylene were gone from the top where they can be a paint to get mixed in. Let it induce for about 5 minutes then restirred and strained into my gun. Took the gun filter out of the cup too so that wasn’t an issue. Is there a certain brand of epoxy you are using that you can spray in that 1:1 mix? Never used it before like I said so maybe this is just a brand that isn’t so good i

My urethane never goes on like this but of course it’s not near as thick from the start. I beginning to wonder if I needed a 1.4 or 1.5 tip if it was trying to shoot too much out to atomize correctly which is why I turned the fluid in a little more than usual but I understand it still puts out the same size droplet just less quickly without changing the needle. I do have the same gun with a 1.4 needle I could try next time and see if it works better. My guns sweet spot is 26-29 psi with everything else I’ve sprayed so far. Upper range for clear and lower for bases.

Air compressor is plenty big for the job. Have to have high volume for blowing off equipment for the farm so it’s an 80 gallon 7.5HP vertical. Specs put out 24CFM at 150psi so probably somewhere in that 20-22 range actual. These guns recommend 9.5cfm so probably more like 10-11. It was frustrating to say the least why I couldn’t get it dialed in. Haven’t had that issue in a long time. I was afraid to put anymore reducer in for fear making a weak paint layer with blushing or solvent trapping so I stayed with the tech sheet. I’ll try the smaller tip next time but I’m guessing it’ll be real slow going. I like spraying my coats right at the consistency of melted butter. It almost splashes when you pull a stir stick out of the container but not quite