Painting when it is cold

[mikester]

Hey folks, I'm working on painting some car bodies for my cars and it's just a little chilly out - I'm in Southern California so it's probably pretty easy to wait for a warmer day to do it but I DON'T WANT TO!

I had planned to do some painting this weekend but it's when it is chilly the paint never goes on as well for me.

I was curious what other folks did when it was chilly? By Chilly - I mean under 70 degrees...so...that might be summer for some folks...

My main thing is simply to go slower and do lighter coats. I was painting a wing today and reminded myself of that by NOT doing it and I ended up with a little puddle of purple in the wing when I came back to it after a little while.

Great. Oh well, that's why I started with the wing.

Thanks! Pictures to follow up.

[Coelacanth]

Maybe you could warm up the body with a hair dryer for a minute or two before spraying each coat of paint? Then, after each coat, blow-dry again to dry the coat. At least with water-based paints, I've read that the heat-setting of the paint helps it to bond better to the Lexan.

[GoMachV]

That's how I paint, warm the cans (Pactra for me) in hot water, use a heat gun very carefully on the body, and spray. When done spraying, a little more heat. The paint dries very quickly, the hardest part is deciding when to pull off the tape. I usually pull too early

[slotcarrod]

Better to pull early than late!

[Diamond Dave]

Better to pull early than late!

Nice Rod, you been hanging around with Ken (Thumbs) to much lately?

I would have said the exact same thing if you didn't.

[GoMachV]

No credit for the setup?!

[Diamond Dave]

You know Jeff, when I read it... I thought the exact same thing. How did he (gomachv) not see this coming?!?

Credit where credit is due my friend!

[Blacktiger355]

Ahh too funny!

On to the question, first off which paint are you using? Rattle can, or airbrush? And if airbrush are you using pactra or faskolor water based stuff?

70º should be plenty warm to get good results though with either though.

Are you painting outside, or indoors?

[Johnboy72]

Ok, I've been stationed in SoCal for 5 years so you should be good to paint at any time. I'm currently in upstate NY and I've had to paint bodies during the winter. It gets a little chilly here...phones says 4 degrees out right now. Anywho, I paint in my unheated garage all the time. I have to cracked the doors for the fumes as my wife is like a damn bloodhound. I'll leave the paint in the house to stay warm or you can heat it up with warm water. I use shaker cans too by the way. I spray light coats and then use a hair dryer or more recently put them in the laundry room to dry. As gomachv stated, tape is the issue. Either I'll get in patient and my tape lines bleed or I'll pull to early. But if you can keep everything warm before spraying and then let the paint fully cure, spraying in the cold shouldn't be an issue.

[THEYTOOKMYTHUMB]

Better to pull early than late!

Nice Rod, you been hanging around with Ken (Thumbs) to much lately?

I would have said the exact same thing if you didn't.

I'm not that clever...

Around here the humidity is a huge issue in the Summer. I have to either paint in my parent's basement or wait possibly 2 weeks sometimes for less humid days. It sucks being dependent on the weather, so I know how you feel. It's been like 20 degrees here the last week though, so I don't feel too bad for you!!

[Coelacanth]

When to pull the tape isn't an issue with liquid mask. You can peel it off after the paint dries.

[mikester]

70's usually alright - I mean colder than that - in like the 50s.

I paint out doors - just outside my garage using rattle can from Pactra or Tamiya.

I'm working on a Porsche Body for my TC4 right now as practice for the buggy bodies I need to do for my RC10s.

This is Camel Yellow and the racing stripes will be bright blue trimmed with silver. I sprayed the yellow lightly a 4-5 times to keep from having any runs.



It's also important to wash the inside prior to painting. Oh man does it suck to start painting a body and realize in the first few sprays that you forgot to wash it because now you're finger marks are immortal.

[Blacktiger355]

Ah, yes 50's is a tad chilly for painting. As suggested, warm the cans up in a bowl of water that covers at least half the can. For the body a hair dryer will work fine. Just go slow and you should be ok.

[mikester]

I'm not terribly pleased with my masking job. I have a little bit of issues with masking sticking around the panel lines where I used striping tape instead of the blue tape I normally use.

Oh well. I'm just getting back into the swing of this.

[mikester]

Here we go, not bad but don't get too close...