Painting with cold weather
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I’m getting close to the stage where I can get some primer/paint on the parts of the car that have been worked on. My concern is though that it might be to cold now and that there is a lot of moisture in the air.
What I want to do it clean all the temp paint that has been sprayed over any baremetal after fixing rust, most just patches and welds and most if not all of it is either under the car or in area’s where it wont me seen. Anything under the car will also be covered over with underseal. I have some area’s around the engine bay and interioor of the car as well that need primer/paint on them.
The plan was to do all this where I have the car, under a lean-to at the back of our house, the 3 open sides will be closed of with plastic or something on a temp basis. I would also like to spray the inside of the car which doesn’t have to be perfect as it will all be covered over again with trim and carpets etc. I’m working with a complete bare shell.
My concern is that it is getting to cold and damp to spray primer and paint on any area’s that won’t be visible. Are there any precautions I can take when laying primer/paint? I was thinking of heating the metal a little with a hot air gun, spraying primer/paint and heating it a little with the hot air gun. For the most part it’s patches that need painting with the exception of the interior of the car which has the biggest panel area’s.
I paint in my garage in the winter and I live in Canada…never had a problem. I admit that when it is really cold, putting on the big fan and exhausting the garage has caused problems. So I wait for “warmer days” and try to move fast.
I’m not even in a garage though 🙁
With cold air containing more moisture are you not spraying paint with a higher moisture content? Could this not cause the paint to bubble when it gets warmer or promote rust?
usually in the winter the air is much dryer as evaporation is slowed down and more likely to freeze than go into the air, Not like in warm weather water evaporates faster
this is why most paint manufactures do not recommend spraying anything below 55 degrees F, I have a lil ready heater I use to keep parts warm during the colder days you could do the same thing with the plastic covering the front of your shed .
below is a link to a page to try to explain about the humidity in the air at colder temperature that is heated to room temperature
We’re pretty much at 55F (12Celcius) and it’s probably only coing to get colder, surprisingly warm for the time of the year though!
I suppose when you think about it, there would be less moisture because it doesn’t evaporate, being Ireland it rains all the time though 👿
I have a small infra red lamp, was thinking I could heat the patched up with it, spray and then put the lamp back on?
if you warm your panel up to temp this is what matters so yes the heat lamp would do wonders, Bad thing is you have to keep moving it around.
If it means I can get things done then I’m happy. All the time in the world to do it!
Might be a little offtopic but still sort of relevant, I guess it’s not a good idea so under seal either with this weather?
If I coated the primer with some solid paint would that seal it up enough to be able yo do the underseal in a few months when the weather pics up again?
The only humidity problem in cold weather is for humans not having enough. Its not about evaporation, its the amount of moisture that the air can hold. Slow evaporation in the winter is because the cold air already has all the moisture it can handle.
You can tell that humidity is not a winter problem by draining your air traps. What little moisture I have stays in the tank in the winter. My air compressor is upstairs without any heat so its cold, and with a 7 foot metal line going up to the ceiling, that is enough to cool the air for the moisture to run right back to the tank.
Its because cold air can not hold as much moisture as warm, even though the air temp may be 30 degrees and humidity is 88%. It sounds like a lot of moisture, but humidity is relative to air temperature. When you bring that 30 degree air inside and heat it up, the 80% humidity that it had, drops dramatically.
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