I am a complete newbie to painting but I want to learn. I am painting some dinner-plate sized repairs on painted epoxy fiberglass surfboards with an HVLP sprayer.
Whenever I see advice on how to prepare areas for painting the advice is pretty much “sand and then paint”. I began doing this, but am having a difficult time where the new paint should start and stop.
The System Three paint I am using expects a surface prepared with 220grit sandpaper, which produces a relatively rough surface. My question is “do I sand a spot larger than I will paint, and then sand and buff the new and old paint together”? (this seems like the most likely advice).
Or “do I sand a spot smaller than my paint, feathering the paint out onto the unsanded periphery.”
In a nutshell I’m asking “do I sand bigger than the area I am painting or do I sand an area smaller than the area I am painting?”
I’m not a pro but I’ve sprayed the System Three stuff quite a bit. It doesn’t have quite the gloss that the 2pac auto stuff has on the popouts. You may have to do a high gloss clear to make it match shine wise.
Also if you are using what I think you are you are going to have a hard time matching the colors. With that said you can try a painting trick to blend the patch area with the surrounding colors.
Sand the repair area and the immediate area around the repair. Clean and prep the other areas away from the repair but don’t sand so that it is super hazy. 600 can be enough to rough up the good paint/clear so that the new paint will stick. The clear coat should hide the scratches after you paint.
Mask the repair. Spray your color over the repair to hide the filler or primer. Always apply in thin coats. Try make sure each previous coat is dry before applying another. Before the last coat dries pull the tape and feather the edge into the surrounding color. That way your repair area is hidden and you don’t have that hard tape line. If you do it right you can blend the repair color with the surrounding color, like a fade.
Make sure you air is clean and your prep is oil/silicone free. The paint can fish eye like the devils ass. I’ve had nightmare paint jobs with the stuff and it never seemed to dry completely hard. I ended up never using it again and went to 2pac auto stuff.
System three says that (crosslinked) paint should be sanded if longer than 8 hours elapses between coats. If that is true, I suppose that I have to start putting the clear coat on within 8 hours then.
Do you know what type of paint it is that they use on the tufflite boards? Is it 2pac (which I assume means two part acrylic)? Do you know of any specific brand that I could try?
To me my paint job looks good, but all I’ve ever used in my life is rattle cans and never was able to accomplish much. I did have to sand my first attempt out. I seem to have produced good results by applying a whole bunch of very light coats (like 12). From what I understand, that won’t be an option with the clear coat. I have read that I need to put it on to produce a “wet” coat.
If you check the data sheet it will say when you can apply an additional coat, which would be your clear. If you wait till you can sand you can hit it with 220 or 320 to knock down any zits or orange peel which will make your clear coat finish better. Also just a tip, every single one of my paint jobs done with the System 3 paint eventually peeled and had to be redone. Yes it is easy to spray, easy to clean, low toxicity, etc. but it is not durable enough for use near or in water.
The 2pac on the popouts could be acrylic enamel or urethane. EIther way I doubt that they are 2 stage paints (base and clear). The single stage (high gloss 2 part paint and hardener) is the easiest for small touch up spots if you don’t want to get into multiple steps.
Any good auto paint shop will have a color sheet which can help you color match the board you need to repair. But remember 2PAC PAINT IS VERY VERY TOXIC! Understand fully what you are getting yourself into before you go that route. Why is it used? Because it is the best.
You should check out the Board Lady http://www.boardlady.com/ she is da master. I could go on and on about how to do this and how to do that. She has pictures that will guide you better in your repair quest.
I am as pleased as a pickle to learn that the stuff will eventually peel, since I just bought about $150 worth of it :). Did you use the cross-linker when you used it?
Sorry about the bad news. I have a small box of the paint that I haven’t touched in 2 years. I read all the info and thought it was the stuff but every single kiteboard that I sprayed with the paint peeled and had to be completely sanded and resprayed. And yes I used the crosslinker. It was because of this paint that I switched to the 2pac.
If you use the paint on the deck and cover it with wax it should be fine but rails and bottoms that will sit in water will eventually peel. The average time to peel was about a year.
Another tip is the paint is almost impossible to mix. Once the components settle out in the can almost no amount of stirring with a stick will get them to recombine. I had to nicely ask the local paint store clerk to run the cans in the commercial paint mixing machine to get it to mix. I eventually found that an electric hand blender will do the trick and that isn’t the 2 blade kind but the high speed ones with the little sharp spinning blade on the end. Just try not to aerate the paint.