Rick Kubicki
Forum Replies Created
- Posts
i agree with Jim. it’s probably the lighting. ive painted a lot of show cars and bikes. In the shop and outside they look good, but with well placed lights at indoor car shows they look great. A whole lot of difference lighting makes. The best you can do is get the clear really flat before buffing, the flatter the better, block it evenly so you dont get ripples in it. take your test panel and bend it so its bowed and shine a spot light on it, you will see a huge difference from indoor or outdoor light.
If you put 4 or 5 coats of uv clear with or without KK on a job, chances are its gonna solvent pop. Much less chance using DBC 500 with or without hardner. I use whatever hardner that I’m using in the clear for the DBC 500 because I use sikkens HS+ and I’ve heard years ago to keep the hardner the same throughout a paint job no matter what intercoat clear or uv clear your using. I’m not sayin it’s right but it works for me, if I go strictly by tech sheets I’d be using SG100 with KK instead of DBC500. And the HOK uv clear which I’m not a fan of.
I’ve only used HOK KK, with DBC 500,if you use that, get tech sheets online for both. I think the KK mixes up to 10 percent with the 500 then reduce. Make a spray out card with the step down method so you can get an idea how many coats it will take to get a match or to get to the darkness of color you want. Each coat added gets darker.
Use a gun with small nozzle, like1.0 to 1.2, I use a 1.0 touch up gun for bikes. Spray first coat on very light or it will look gritty, see what difference it makes by painting spray out cards first. I also add a little hardner to the candy if I’m going more than 3 coats, the same hardner that I’m using in the final clear.I keep a red scotchbrite pad nearby to scrub off the primer that sticks to the sand paper, it helps sometimes and gets a little more use out of the paper. Also I DA the primer a little first to get that hard to sand film off before blocking.
Blowin the vehicle off helps me the most, every little crack and crevice, inside and out after sanding. After its in the booth and wiped down, I will quickly, lightly blow off the outside again in case there’s any dirt or lint left from wiping it down, then Ill tack it off. If I forget to blow it off the second time Ill get some dirt. I use anti stat for plastic parts, and the dx103 will take off base coat and lacquer primers.
get a dual action airbrush, press button down to get air and pull back for paint flow, the further back the more paint flow. A good one to start with will have a .3 to .5 mm fluid nozzle and needle. An eclipse is a good one to start with, bottle feed is easier to use and change colors, but is like a siphon gun. A top feed or side feed with gravity cup will give you better control on very fine lines. Practice, pratcice, and practice some more. Lots of great info at airbrush.com and coastairbrush.com
If I was doing that job and couldnt replace the stripe or clear over it, I’d cover the stripe just below it with tape on paper rubbing the tape on my clothes so it’s less tacky and less chance of pulling the stripe off. Very little (if any) tape will touch the stripe. If you have to, on your tape machine, adjust the tape going onto the roll of paper so most is on the paper and just an 1/8 or so is overhanging. then back tape bellow that on the body line, having a little overhang. There is a really cool tool out there, cant remember the brand name off hand, that will fold one edge of the tape as you pull it off the roll. I use it all the time in jambs and sometimes on body lines like you have there when necessary. I also use it for gravel guard on rockers.
thanks for the info, the paint rep is sending me a tint chart, and has faxed a chart for metallics and 777.
DRP
My sprayouts are usually a little darker than the deck cards (colored metallics). If a deck card looks good, it’s tough to go with one that is lighter off the bat. I can lighten up the face with a drop coat, but the flip (sikkens’ term) is usually the same. I tried one yesterday, chrystler PEL red metallic, the standard deck card looked the best using a sun gun inside the shop and also taking a part outside checking there too. Y was the next closest. I mixed the standard, did a sprayout card with half of it having a drop coat. both were a little too dark although the face was closer on the drop coat half. Both were darker (face and flip) than the part and the deck card. I did another sprayout adding a little 777, wow!! it got way too coarse looking, I didnt realize the 777 would change the metallic appearance that much. The flip was still too dark, I dont think it changed it much. I guess I’ll have to mix the Y version and try again. I know its always easier to darken a color than lighten it, I should remember that.
I’ve been painting for 30+ years and this waterborne is a real challenge.
do you know where I can get a tinting chart?
color with metallics seem the darkest, not much problem with silvers. I was doing a drop coat when we used lesonal wb, but havent with the sikkens yet, I would get coverage, let that dry , tape half and spray a lighter coat, like a drop coat. There was a huge difference in them.
Unfortunately we have to panel paint most jobs, so blendable usually isnt good enough.
I’ve been at this shop 10 years (been in production shops for 32). When I first came there I tried to convince the then manager and some adjusters about full paint time on blends because of the time prepping, they agreed but said the time allowed comes from above them, also about buff time ( I actually got some buff time for a few years).
This shop is close to home, 10 minute drive. I’d hate to quit , who knows if the next one would be the same situation. All I know to do, is when The manager complains about color match, I tell him it should have been blended, but then my reputation could eventually be in jeopardy. His should be if it isnt, don’t know why the employer keeps him on, his numbers have to be in the toilet unless he’s writing double sheets. My average f.r. used to be about 110 before this manager, now it’s about 70, but in fairness, he came here in 2009 when the economy tanked.
I like the peelable white booth coating, cant remember the brand but it’s about 200 per 5 gallons. we recoat about every 4-5 years. It doesnt peel off too good because the booth walls were really rough before the first time coating it, but it does peel off once the coating gets pretty thick. we just sand and recoat over the old.
I got a laugh out of the prep station pic. reminds me of the bodymen’s areas, they just leave everything including tools wherever they worked last. Yesterday one backed out a car and ran over his wetsand bucket.
more overlap works for me, 80 – 90 % sometimes. Think of how candies are sprayed. Have you ever used a crayon on it’s side to cover a large area? lots of overlap works good. IF it’s a coverage issue, similar color or value of sealer will insure good coverage, on silvers try to match or be a touch darker than the side tone (flop), anything lighter will be tough to cover and look mottled. Blues need a darker sealer, reds need a lighter sealer.
wax and grease remover is the only way to get the tape glue off and some of the glue was right up against the edge of the wb.
I’d use all solvent base colors, but our shop switched to all wb and the dbc 500 is mine that I use occasionally to protect airbrush art. And yes I can add a little hardner to the dbc 500, the same hardner thats used in the final clear.
We switched to autowave this week, the rep says to try using hardner in the base in a situation like I explained here. I havent tried it yet. Can I clean over it with wax and grease remover without removing some of the color? providing sufficient dry time. Also, is there truth in adhesion problems if using a solvent based intermix clear over the wb? and if so, would adding hardner to the solvent based intermix clear help? I use ppg dbc500