Has anyone ever tried painting a board with Automotive paint (specifically PPG)? I’m touching up my Camaro and thought it would be cool to have a board with the same paint job as my car. I’m going to have lots left over so I though I’d give it a try. It’s a dark green metalflake auto paint mixed with reducer, and covered with clear-coat. I thought while I was shooting my car, I’d just bring my board into the booth and hit it too. Is there any special prep I’d need to do. Board is a compsand 1# EPS / d-cell deck. Can I just shoot this paint between layers of glass, or is it more complicated than that?
If anyone’s ever tried this, I’d like to hear about the results. All info is appreciated.
All the same rules apply for spraying HD foam skins as do for polyurethane. Its all do-able, as long as you don’t cake it on so thick that you fill the foam cells and therefore remove the bonding surface pores. I’ve airbrushed extensively on corecell, a little on rohacell and divynicell.
Thinners based automotive paint etches these foams slightly, giving you superior bond, and PPG is a top brand.
As with any paint under glass also however, there is the chance of de-lam from a number of factors, and filler coat spray work is the safest bet structurally. Metal flake would be way more effective on the filler coat than glassed over anyway.
It’s easier to treat fiber skin the same as the skin on your camero, all the same prep work applies. I would not put PPG on HD foam and then glass over the paint, its not a good base to bond to.
I have painted over some rail repairs using water-base paint, then sealed it with 2 part automotive clearcoat. I did it as an experiment to see if the clear coat would hold up. So far it has held up fine after about a year on the board.
I don’t see any problems spraying automotive paint and clear coat onto the sanded hotcoat.
You may have problems using auto paint on the foam. I did a complicated color job on the foam of one board. It was a tribute to the old Santa Fe Super Chief luxury passenger train. All red and yellow, like the beautiful engines they used to have. The lam separated from the foam in a thousand little “bubbles”. The resin just didn’t want to adhere to the paint. I ended up repainting the entire motif on the hotcoat. I had a splitting headache after that one, but the board came out great…eventually.
I figured it shouldn’t be much different than painting my car, I was just wondering if painting between layers of glass to protect the paint was a good idea or not. Sounds like it’s not due to the possibility of delam. So I’ll go with your advice and paint over the sanded hot coat, then cover it all with clear coat. Was thinking about doing silver to green fade ghost flames on the front end of my Camaro. If I go with that I’ll do the same on the nose of my board.
Now I just need to come up with some custom built removable racks for my car, no one makes 'em for a '95 Camaro, there is not enough of a roof. That will be another project…
