Aerosol Paint Job - Rescue Advice Needed..!

[Wal]

Hello all.

I've been restoring some old alu door handles. As ever, it's one step sideways then another couple backwards, but here's my method so far:

1. Back to bare metal, steel-wooled everything smooth.
2. Primed, two light coats.
3. (Can you guess what I didn't do?)*
4. Gloss coat.

*I didn't rub down the primer before applying the gloss and now I'm left with a subtle stippled effect.

Okay, a dumb school-boy error (ha, who knew that a once over with a scrap bit of denim would have sufficed to knock the roughness off the primer?)

My question - do I need to go back to bare metal, or can I let the current finish dry for a day or two and then steel wool it back to some sort of flatness, clean it with a rag/meths and then go again with the gloss?

Wal.

[lucan07]

Primer should be ok I would rub them down after gloss completely hardened and recoat, but depending how thick top coat give up to 7 days to dry completely.

[cropwell]

Wal,

It is a really difficult one, as some paints react badly with a second coat after drying enough to sand them back. If you can out them in a low oven (80C) for a few hours, you might drive off the solvents to prevent the wrinkling. Hammerite aerosols are the worst I have found for this and I think they tell you on the tin, not to recoat within a few weeks.

Plasticote, I find to be very tolerant for recoating.

A lot of the rattle can paints are designed for DIY and are recoat when first coat is dry after 20 mins, but I think you are going to have to chance it. If it wrinkles, at least you are halfway back to bare metal.

Best of luck,

Rob

[Wal]

Cheers guys.

I'm using the Plastikote stuff - re-coat between 30 mins-4 hours, but if you miss the 4 hour window then wait 36 hours. I'll leave this lot to dry into next week and get started on doing the next batch (properly..)

Wal.

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[mekanik]

Hi Wal
Sorry to hear about your problems.
You don't say if you used an etch primer ?
I have on ongoing window maintenance job that requires the window hardware painting, it's mild steel stamped components that are given a zinc coating so have to be etch primed or the paint wont adhere.
i believe you can get etch primer in cans, i use the two components chromate and acid. i then topcoat with polyurethane no primer needed.
I would think it might be as well to start again(sorry)
Mike

[Boyan Silyavski]

Guys, believe me, painting for me is pain in the a%%, so much that after messing too many time for this or that reason, at the end i decided to do it always absolutely properly for the best result in home conditions:

-industrial quality epoxy paint base, anti rust, salt water resistant /when on metal/
-industrial quality epoxy , whatever color i choose, they mix it for me
-industrial quality epoxy thinner

Bottom line is that all of the above combo gives 100% perfect result without any doubt, is made by the same company to work together. Costs same like normal antioxidant paint from hardware store, and much cheaper than quality spray cans, which are not even in the same league.

Plus the resistance of the epoxy paint is the top you could get in home conditions.

I had too many times made mistakes with incompatible thinners, poor drying thinners , etc...

thats my 2c on painting diy stuff

[Wal]

Boyan - sounds like you've found what works for you - I'm likely to be stuck with off-the-shelf paint. I wouldn't even know where to start looking for what you're describing and if experience has taught me anything then I can pretty much guarantee you that if you're not 'in the trade' and you want something just a little out of the ordinary, then your wallet's going to get a hammering..!

The good news (after deciding not to wait until next week for my mistakes to cure) is that the fresh paint has come off easily to get me back to metal. I came across this solvent free stripper a while back and it works a treat - just ten minutes after coating the handles the paint was pretty much falling off 'em:



So back to square one with not too much additional ball-ache. I'll be sure to rub back the primer this time around. Thanks for all the suggestions..!

Wal.

[mekanik]

Hi Wal
glad to see they are cleaning up OK.
Try this
http://www.arcritepaints.com/proxl-p...vings-23-p.asp
can't emphasize enough that you need etch primer on zink/ally/galvo/ect.
Hope that is of some help.
Mike

[Wal]

Cheers Mike,

I've got a couple of the handles re-primed with the conventional primer, they smoothed out nice this time around, so I'm hoping for a better gloss finish. Never come across etch primer before - I may end up using it before this job's done, thanks for the link!

Wal.

[magicniner]

Aerosol paints are a pain in that they tend to be very low in viscosity, that makes the difference between a "wet coat" which will achieve a flat surface and "running off onto the floor" a very fine line to tread ;-)

+1 on etch for non-ferrous metals