Paint problems (what's new?!)

[bilingham]

Many of you saw my birdcage Maserati at the NNL, painted in Testors flame red and lookin' good. Well a problem arose. I painted the seats in flat finish Createx. They look excellent. However, when I test fit the seats into the interior, where the seats touched the lacquer exterior paint on the rear bulkhead, the Testors lacquer paint stuck and pulled off all the way to the bare plastic!! The red stuck fast to the Createx. Needless to say, the only fix is to strip it all off and try again. Any ideas what is the problem between these two types of paint?

Bill

[Zoom Zoom]

I have no idea why the Testors stuck to the Createx better than the plastic, but I suspect that there may have been some contamination of the plastic under the Testors to cause it to come off like that. What, if any, primer did you use under the Testors? If you did use primer, did that come up too?

[Eric Cole]

That's strange. My experience with Createx is that it's not that durable of a paint, until cleared. I would have never expected it to pull testors lacquer away from the plastic.

[bilingham]

I started with Dupli-color adhesion promoter, followed by Tamiya white primer, then Testors paint and clear. It may have only pulled to the primer, I cannot tell.

[Dino Scuderia]

Then again who knows what Testors paint is made of.

[bilingham]

What the?! I put the body in oven cleaner for 3 hours... the paint was untouched!

[Ron]

Have you tried brake fluid? Its what I have used a couple of times and overnight the paint usually just falls off.
Ron

[Zoom Zoom]

New lacquers from Tamiya/Testors respond best with regular old 91% rubbing alcohol vs. oven cleaner. If the alcohol doesn't strip it, Polly S Easy Lift Off will take it off.

[Zoom Zoom]

Also, depending on the severity of the paint damage to the body, is it worth considering filling those voids and reshooting just those areas carefully w/the airbrush, before a general re-clearing of the entire model? I've gotten away w/murder before doing paint repairs that send most people to the paint stripper. It saves a ton of time and paint...as long as you don't have too much paint buildup already.

[bilingham]

I tried filling the flaw, but the color was slightly off; the paint thickness influences the intensity. However, your suggestion of alcohol may be the key to Createx attacking the lacquer. Many water based acrylics are thinned with an alcohol/water mix. although I added no alcohol to the Createx, perhaps it is in the basic paint formula. That might be the cause of the softening of the lacquer.

[bilingham]

I finally got all of the red paint off, but the Tamiya white primer is still there. Unfortunately some has come off in flakes, so it looks like I'm going to be doing some sanding. BTW, I talked to Createx and they say ther is no alcohol in their paint formula.

[Eric Cole]

Bill, did you use the normal Bonding Additve and Catalyst in your createx paint? This could explain why it stuck so well to the Testors paint.

[bilingham]

Eric, I didn't use anything in the Createx. My theory that the Testors clear stays slightly tacky for a long time. It probably needs a long drying/curing after the polishing exposes a "new" surface. Bill

[Firehawk]

My theory is that the acrylic didn't stick to the lacquer, the lacquer stuck to the acrylic. Even though the lacquer seemed 'dry' - lacquers dry from the outside in and they tend to gas out a long time. I suspect that the volatiles gassing out from the lacquer melted the Createx and created a bond. Then, it's just a battle of "which paint bonds better to the plastic", and surprisingly, the Createx had more adhesion. We tend to think of acrylics as weaker paints because they are water-based, but I learned the hard way using Testor's Acryl, that can be some strong stuff! I can strip a lacquer paint job far easier than I can an Acryl paint job. (This is back when I actually painted things...)

[DrBob]

This is natures way of telling you the Birdcage should be painted white with blue trim. Those would be Camoradi colors.
I grew up in Miami (actually Coral Gables - the WASP section of the Greater Miami area). My uncle and Lucky Casner were good buddies. Lucky had a lot of success with the Tipo 61 until he was killed at Le Mans in 1965.

[Firehawk]

Doesn't sound very lucky to me. lol

[Dino Scuderia]

Birdcages are cool until a cat gets in.

[Matt Wadlinger]

Sylvester needs a spaybooth.
http://images31.fotki.com/v1039/photos/4/431166/5427700/Spraybooth-vi.jpg