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    • #14712
      Avatar photoKen

        This is just about my bad experiences with dust. Not how to apply paint.

        There’s no bigger dissapointment than leaving your paint almost perfect with the last wave of the spray can and coming back to… fresh paint covered with dust or pet hair.

        I had to sit back and think of the many possible reasons that could affect the final finish. Any one alone could easily ruin a paint-job.

        1) Dog

        2) Cat

        3) Shop tools (bandsaw, belt sander)

        4) Forced air heat/AC

        5) My wife doing things around the house such as laundry

        6) My own clothes

        I created a system to try and combat every possible angle I could think of. This is starting out with a body that’s already prepared for paint.

        The basement kitchen fan is used to evacuate the fumes. The entire area around and behind the oven-top is lined with cardboard and black garbage bags. Now I can explain a process that seems to work for this household.

        1) I start the basement kitchen fan around 10PM. Throw a paint can on a stirring device. Then go upstairs closing the door behind me to leave the basement undisturbed until midnight (No pets allowed). The kitchen fan has time to remove ambient dust around the paint area.

        2) I turn the heat/AC off around 11PM.

        3) At around midnight the rest of the house goes to bed and I slowly and carefully make my way to basement closing the door behind me to keep the pets upstairs. I walk very slowly to prevent stirring dust up from the floor.

        4) I head to the landry room first to put on a fresh T-shirt and jeans. Pet hair is the worst!

        5) I give the body a fresh wash. Then rinse in filtered water to avoid residue. Dry the body with a dust-free towel. It’s ready for paint.

        6) Heat the can that’s been stirring for the last 2-hours in hot water for 2-minutes. It’s ready to paint.

        I paint the body with 4-coats using a 1-minute timer between coats. After 4-minutes of painting I slowly walk back upstairs, close the basement door, and watch TV for an hour. After an hour I turn the heat/AC back on and go check the paint. Hopefully I go to bed with a smile.

        I installed exhaust outlets on my belt sander and bandsaw that fit the shop-vac to help keep the residual shop dust down. But prefer not to cut or sand anything the day I paint a body.

        I wish everyone the best of luck in finding your own way to paint without that dreaded dust thing. :good:

         

      • #14726

        Ken

        Excellent information… no wonder the paint jobs on your cars look so good.

        One thing you forgot to mention is to go over your project with a can of compressed air that can be purchased at the dollar store for $4 to blow any unseen dust off the body before you begin.  I have a small airbrush that I’ve never used to paint with but I use its compressor to go over all my projects and blow away any dust before I begin to paint.

        Thanks for your post.

         

         

         

      • #14728
        Avatar photoKen

          Great idea Jim! :yes:

          Thank you for the suggestion.

          Best not to use an industrial air-compressor or you might add more static charge to the surface of the body with the extremely fast moving air. Or blow the body out of your hands and onto the floor. Oops. :negative:

        • #14775
          Avatar photoJoe

            Ahh grasshopper when you can cross the basement floor without raising a single grain of dust, then and only then are you ready to paint!!!!

          • #14776
            Avatar photoKen

              Good one Joe! I laughed pretty hard. My wife wondered what happened and came looking.

              “Kung Fu” was a very cool TV series when it first came out. The late David Carradine. The original “Grasshopper”.

            • #14777
              Avatar photoJoe

                Ya you have to our age to remember that one. Great tips I wouldn’t have thought you could do the coats that close together are the first ones very light and then a heavier last coat?

              • #14778
                Avatar photoKen

                  When I first looked at the instructions for Testors “One Coat”. I did not understand what they meant by several light coats. How can you cover a car with several light coats if you have to cover the entire car with paint the first pass? Then Marty at Group25 took a body I had pre-mounted on a stick and showed me how to paint a car outside in the parking lot of a library. The first coat barely shows up and is only a light dusting. The next two coats are similar. Pay special attention to covering the window posts and bottom of the rocker panels (or hard parts) first, or the paint is sure to run trying to get them after the larger parts of the car are already perfectly painted. These first light coats of paint are called “tack” coats and they help to prevent the last coat from running. It takes practice. I painted 15-cars last summer and had to throw 3-cars into Super Clean and repaint them. No one saw those crappy cars… thank goodness. :good:

                • #14780

                  Excellent tips and candid honest recall that most would never admit to. Well done and Cheers Ken!

                  The Happy Canadian Scale Modeler!

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