The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop cold weather painting

getting ready to paint a truck in 40 degrees .. a few years back a guy painted his vw in my shop in the cold and it came out like glass anybody with any pointers for me should i get a faster dry thinner and add more hardner just want the truck one color and not to much orange peel thanks we are using enamel

What kind of paint are you using?

acrylic enamel with thinner and hardner and a little fisheye and no primer the truck is sanded down to the funky water base primer chevy used that gray stuff that the top coat peels hes painting the truck just to get it one color

There will be a tendency for the paint to orangepeel. The only personal experience I've had painting in an unheated shop was heating the shop, then turning the heat off to paint (exposed flame), venting the shop & restarting the heater. I'd strongly advise against using fisheye eliminator as a prophylactic additive. It's OK to use if you experience fisheyes while painting but understand that ANY paint or primer you apply in the future will HAVE TO have fisheye eliminator in it to keep it from fisheyeing.

Ditto, on the use of fisheye eliminator. Don't use it if you don't have to.
Cleon

I have not tried painting in 40 degree weather myself. But having seen the results of a professional shop that tried it several years ago with bc/cc, I invested in a heat pump for my shop. Bad sags and runs. Owner said that after he sprayed it, it looked great. Came back the next morning to a real mess that had to be sanded off and reshot. I would say try a test panel first on something other than your vehicle.

Hello cold painter.I have to say I have had to spray in that temp and colder many times, and it takes a little getting used to. I actually had the gun sticking to my hand it was so cold.Like they said above only use the eliminator if you have to,that stuff creates peel.Now the only thing I change in the cold weather is, flash times, and film build on the first coat.Do not try to cover on the first coat with acrylic,just spray a nice even tack coat on and let it flash,so on and so on until covered,and no more than three coats,too much build can cause different things,just take your time and use the fastest hardner and reducer you can get!hope this helps and have fun! remember TAKE YOUR TIME!

thanks i think what we will do is only a few drops of fish eye im hooked on the stuff saved a few jobs for me then will put one medium coat and walk away till dry to tuctch then one heavy and leave it and turn the portable heaters on seems the orange peel shows up as its cureing i wish the building was heated but thanks any more ideas let me know thanks

It's your decision but I hope you understand what fisheye eliminator is and what it does. ANY future paint applied will suffer PLUS the FI eliminator itself causes some orangepeel. I spent a lot of years with a paint gun in my hand and this is the first time I've heard of someone using it as a prophylactic. It is NOT a good idea. Bad bad!!!!!

ok ill hold of on the fish eye but it seems everytime iv painted a car they show up no matter how clean i get the surface but ill have it handy just in case

If the car is freshly sanded and washed down well with grease and wax remover, and you don't have a source of airborne contaminants like spraying silicone lube, there should be no reason for FI's. FI's are simply a spot of some substance on the surface that the paint won't adhere to.

It's been said a million times... Paint is only as good as the prep work.

Woody is correct, prep is the key. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people start sanding without giving the area to be painted a good cleaning first. That includes using a wax and grease remover FIRST. If a surface has any wax residue on it when sanded, the wax can be driven into the sand scratches where a subsequent degrease will not remove it. Then you get your fisheyes. If you are getting fisheyes of a regular basis you either aren't cleaning it correctly or the surface you're painting over has FI eliminator in it.

32 you mentioned the peel starts when you ad the heat.it sounds to me like what's happening is dying off! this happens when the top coat is dried to fast and the under layers are pushing up through causing the paint to look hazed and flat or solvent popping.peel is a spraying deal.if you decide to heat after, make sure you crack the door open to let the solvents escape the room ,or leave your fan on and let the heat get sucked across the job and out, paint must cure from the inside out just let it do it's thing, after all it is a chemical reaction!