There was a bit of information about this in the archives but not a good answer.
What’s causing the crystalization & discoloration of airbrushed color when glassed with UV cure resin???
Kokua did you figure this out? Herb, are you even here??? Anyone???
What’s happening here?
I’ve seen posts for travel advice; pics of other people’s strange boards; best place for a vacation, Pics of my #8 dog; santa stories; chinese vs. quality boards; etc… but ask a question about a real problem AND nothing???
“Where have the gurus gone?”
From what I have read around here that crytstalization may be because your paint still had some water in it. Always give the paint plenty of time to dry and never put it on too thick, also use good quality paint.
What colors crytslized?
Rolliges, I am hardly a guru but here is my input. I had two of my boards glassed by a glasser that uses UV. I painted the boards the same as I do my others. They came back dull looking and one of the boards colors ran like crazy but no crystalization… Sometimes with non UV I get crystsalization on boards that I used 100% acrylic thinner to thin the paint…I find that if I use a combo of water and acrylic with the paint I get better results. oh yeah and high quality artist acrylic paint helps to,
Hey Rob - I’m also solidly in the non-guru category, but
I suspect the crystallization and discoloration are two separate problems, not necessarily both due to use of UV resin. I"ve not had either of these problems so it’s hard to diagnose… but different variables associated with UV resin might be at fault - one reason people use UV is to give them more time before the resin kicks. It might be that the longer working time is affecting your paint. Only way to know that would be to control for the time variable.
The only other thing that it might be causing discoloration would be the UV catalyst chemistry reacting with the paint. Is it only with certain colors? If so, that would indicate a chemistry problem; the UV catalyst is reacting with the paint.
PS Oh yeah what’s happening here? I think some folks went over to surfermag and similar forums and told them how cool Swaylocks was… now we get all the travel posts and whatnot that used to get posted over there. ha ha.
The “guru” thing was in inside joke reference to an ancient thread. Just kinda lamenting the same thing here with the new crowd. Call me grumpy, call me old, but I’m riding shorter and shorter boards these days. 
It’s not cure time. The board goes into a UV cure box right away. Perhaps too fast?
Don’t know about other colors?
I think it was more of a discoloration than crystals (wasn’t me, I swear).
Probably won’t be done again since there’s plenty of MEKP around.
I think I’ll search the archives harder.
Thanks to all,
surfermag kooks go home! (that too is ment to be funny; calm down now)
Howzit rolliges, Sorry about not answering you back faster but I had to run to Lihue yesterday to take care of some business. Yes I think I've figured out most of the problem and how to fix it. Lately the boards I'm glassing have been painted with Nova Paint and there's no discoloration happening. Rick Massey has been doing the airbrushing and he shoots only 1 heayy coat where I used to do several coats (not Nova Paint) and I think that the several coats may not be evenly sprayed even though it looks right. when it's glassed the resin will bring out the discloration at that time. I still get a little crystallazation when there's black over red so I leave the tape from the paint job on and apply a coat of thinned out resin over the black and this has fixed the problem. This seals the paint before glassing. Using UV resin should actually help since you can kick it off so fast that the paint doesn't have time to pull any dampness left in the paint. If the glass lamination takes a while to cure it will keep sucking the moisture til it's totally dry. I have done boards that didn't crystalize and then the next day when i opened the shop low and behold they had crystalized over night as the resin continued to cure. If you have access to Nova Paint use it, don't thin it out more than 10% (per instructions from the compnay) and spray at about 80 psi . Fiberglass Hi now carries Nova paint and it is less expensive. Hope this helps. Aloha,Kokua
Now THAT’S what I’m talking about!
BTW, anyone got any ideas on what to get my wife for X-mas???
Sure. Get her one of those $700 dust-free sanders. Make sure she leaves it in the garage, unlocked…
Rob,
Take your wife to Costa Rica for X-mas. She can relax - go shell hunting - generally chill - all the while you get to try out your latest creations.
Been doing this for a few years now - works like a charm - for both of us plus our 19 yr. old surf muscle son and 16 yr. old daughter who takes after her mother. I work all year for this trip - leave in two weeks - YOWZA
As for the paint problem. If you’re glossing the board, I have started painting the foam then painting again over the hot coat prior to glossing (thinning all with Future). It’s a bit labor intensive but the color really pops and looks great. I think it was Herb who brought this to my attention a couple of years ago. And I agree with you - where’s Herb?