I've never had to use this newer type of paint before so I was wondering if anyone here has and can give some advice on using it. One thing that I worry about is that drying is the big concern and that you "need" big fans and heaters for it to completely dry before the clear coat goes on. This is obviously no problem in a production shop but for those of us that do our own paint in our garage it might be so what have some of you done to make sure the base is dry enough before the clear is sprayed?
There was an article in Hotrod and without saying the words.... it looked like it would be almost impossible to use it 'at home'. Special booth, special guns, special clothing, heaters, fans, high speed air blowers to prevent sags. Looked like a BIG hassle.
Your best bet would be go talk to some local jobbers in Calgary as they have pretty much all of their shops on it now. Not sure about the home use but it is not the horror show everyone is making it out to be. Don't need special booths, special cloths, big heaters etc. You do need guns that have no regular steel parts in them or they will rust and the blowers being used are generally small difuser types. The one nice thing about being in Alberta is generally we have very little humidity in the air which helps with drying. The idea is you need to get the moist air away from the surface as it evaporates so it will continue to evaporate. The less moisture in the air the easier it is for this to happen. Our winters are almost perfect spraying environments (given a heated space) as the air is just begging for humidity. If you were in Florida will 99% humidity you might need added equipment but I can tell you that most shops in Western Canada are not laying out huge money on new equipment when they do their change over.
its no harder to spray than solvent based paint just different. you should use a gun designed for water base, spray it at 20lb's at the tip, spray light coats,usually three coats will give complete coverage,after you have complete coverage the last coat will be what is called a control coat, turn the pressure down to 13lb's and spray with about an 80% overlap while moving the gun at a faster pace, the idea is to even the metallics, the control coat should have a rough look almost like sandpaper, no worry tho it will dry flat. Higher metallics can use a couple control coats to help even things out. The drying of each coat is accomplished with a high speed blower, just use it like a hair dryer until you see the paint loose its wet look and turn flat, then follow up with another coat and repeat the drying. Using heat will not make the drying go any faster you need to have air movement. The color matches are usually very good and the blending is far superior than a solvent base blend IMO. give it a try its not difficult or confusing just different. Humid weather is a probem as the water takes longer to evaporate, just keep blowin with the dryer
I work in a facility here in Ohio that machines/builds landing gear for military aircraft. When i was in the paint shop we used (still do) a water bourne paint for one of the programs we build (F-22). It sprays very nice actually. it still has hardener (activator) and base but the reducer is water instead of what would be normally used for reducing. Now i may have sprayed some of this at home or maybe not but it doesnt use ant different equipment than a normal paint would use. At least this stuff didnt i should say. Used the same spray guns i use for everything else i spray. AutoAir uses water bourne paint for automotive air brushing and have been doing it for years.
unless you are completly set up to spray it stay away from it,you will need special air dryers, filters, cleaners, expensive primers/and clearcoats....
the only special equipment the home user would need would be the air dryer, use your normal solvent based primers, sealers and clearcoats
It's mandatory here in Canada and i think it's crap. Before they took the solvent paint out i poured off enough to paint my Torino. Clear is the same solvent base thou.
I was curious as well. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=371910&highlight=water+based
Auto Air Colors. not waterbourne like the commercial stuff, but probably the easiest, most forgiving stuff on the planet.
Don't mean to hijack this thread, but I used Auto Air Colors a couple of years ago to paint a motorcycle tank. I could not make that paint lay down flat to save my life! No matter how much of their bottled water reducer I used, no matter what gun settings, no matter what air pressures I tried, it sucked. It literally looked like stucco. I still would like to know what was wrong. Any body else have this type of thing happen?
I work for a local paint/body supply jobber. We have several customers who have made the switch to water-borne. We sell Dupont & Spies Hecker. The painters love it, excellant coverage, usually 2 coats, color match is better that solvent base coats. It's not manditory yet in Ky probably 5yrs away!
Yup: Like everything else we get it's a learning curve. 8th type of paint I've worked with. The waterbourne sprays like lacquer. So light coats it likes. You need clean air, so filters on your air lines are a must. One drop of oil and you will get a fish eye about 1/2" in dia. It likes the warmth 70 Deg. F. and above. Febuary's going to be fun at minus 30 Deg.s You'll need a hand held blower to help flash the waterbourne. It takes about 5 -7 minutes at 70 Deg.s The other things is reduction, 10% for solid colours, 20% for metallics and 30% for pearls. So you'll need twice the amount of product. I'm so use to spraying Base that I mixed up Waterbourne like Base and painted 1/2 as much car. Then I had to scramble. The price is the same but now you use twice as much!!! Great eh!! Keep on learning, The Old Tinbasher P.S. The colour match is good!!
Thanks guys for your thoughts. I guess like I had thought, the drying process will be my biggest issue but like K13 says our super dry humidity up here might be a huge help. Since this is obviously my hobby and I'll never be in a rush to finish a paint job is there an issue with letting the water base dry for say a few days or even weeks and then tack and spray the clear? Also, how can you tell that it's dry enough for the clear? Is once you see that It's flashed good enough or does it work off a set amount of time after it flashes?
i dont know where u guys are getting light coats. most of the big players recommend wet coats for coverage then lighter coats for orientation. as far as waterbased/waterborne rm onyx is one of the only waterborne, waterborne has is more of a hybrid with solvents in them most all the others are waterbased.... ppg enviro. lesonal/ sikkens, dupont, matrix, glasurit and so on.
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