I've seen this subject pop up here a few times over the years, and I recently found an article from 1952 with examples, descriptions and even comments from several paint manufacturers. The attached pdf file is a copy of an article published in the June 1952 edition of The American Automobile magazine. This was an industry magazine that went out of print in the late 1950s or early 1960s. My Grandfather was the editor for many years and I found some old editions to keep and read. I found this article in one of them and thought some of you might like to see it. Hope you find it interesting as I did. Bruce
Not being much of a painter I just leave the rattle cans in the SoCal sun for a bit before using them.
We have an old electric double hot plate that they used in the 50's & 60's to heat paint on for car painting. It has plenty of mutliple color paint spills all over it, some pretty thick. Story was that they sprayed in an open shop building and when it was cold and wet (Pennsylvania) they could still get work done by spraying it hot.
I'm just a backyard amateur painter and have an older HVPL Eastwood system that produces it's own heated air to the gun. It works, I wouldn't say it was the end all to beat all.
During the 70’s while working my way through college I would work all night many times painting fleet trucks. During the winter an old painter showed us to heat the acrylic enamel before spraying as the shop was poorly heated. Worked great. Mike we would have preferred to heat the metal but we were just getting by doing them as quickly as possible under less than desirable conditions.
Gotcha...Thanks, Just a twist on humor: My older bodyman friend taught me to heat the paint also. In those days, it was nitrocellulose lacquer. This was California, so weather was warm...
I remember hot painting was a thing for a short time in the sixties but did not know it dated back to 1952 and did not know the details. Thanks for this info. I expect the same trick would work today for getting a better job using cheap enamel.
We used to boil the kettle, tip the hot water in a bucket and hang the spraygun on the side of the bucket with the pot in the hot water.
About 20 years ago I started painting with a Graco turbine machine as opposed to the plain 'ol cup gun and air compressor. I have never been able to shoot without bad orange peel since, and have always blamed it on the hot air the turbine puts out. Its impossible to make a run as it dries too quick, which is also why it wont lay down flat I believe. I really dont paint too often, so I just put up with it. So, hot paint or hot air seems like a bad idea to me
I painted a set of 35 wires with rattlecan epoxy. Each wheel spent 10-15 minutes on top of my wood stove until you needed gloves to pick them up. Also warmed the can. That paint went down so smooth and tough it was amazing.
That article refers to a "Low bake converter" additive. Anybody know what that is, or what a modern-day equivalent might be? I'm interested to give this a try.
That was quite a recipe, and fun reading. What throws this technique right out the window today is that automotive paint is only paint and useless until the proper reducers are blended according to the ambient spraying temperature. Fast, Med, Slow reducers. Its really a great part of the car culture anytime there is a new development or time saver story for a car build or restoration. Some were snake oils. I store all my paint at room temperature and my rattle can paints upside down. Never did that before, but automotive paints are so damn expensive even spray bombs, like everything else.
Good Read. If they tested at a bus painting facility they had a lot of opportunity to experiment. I think anyone spraying lacquer today, would spray it to instructions. I may use the idea, my wife has plans on remodeling the kitchen and painting the cabinets, I'll use enamel with a purple gun, thus may be a fun test. Don't think I'll go to 160°.
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