September 2011 The Paint Spot Newsletter

The weather continues to be hotter than I ever remember it being before. I don't know if the heat has anything to do with it or not, but the collision work seems to be flat as well. We have also noticed that the Hystik tape is not doing so good, and it seems to have gotten worse with the excessive heat. We were having the exact same problem with the Norton Gold (bright yellow) tape before we went to the Hystik. I had informed our Norton rep about the problem with the yellow tape, and his response was that nobody else was having problems (seems like we've all heard that before). Anyway, he agreed to take it back and issue us a credit. Now at the same time, we had been testing the Hystik and the response we were getting was this stuff is great . We put the order in (and it was quite expensive) and received a pallet of #832 (3/4 ), #815 (3/4 ), #832 (1 ). We had received nothing but favorable response on the demo tape, and when we started selling it we soon started getting complaints. We still carry the Norton beige and the American for those of you who can't tolerate the Hystik issues, but hear me when I say this .I refuse to take it in the shorts on this Hystik thing! The whole idea was to save you guy s money and for that reason I will not give in! This company made a big presentation on how I could really lower the cost to you guys without lowering quality, if I did a direct buy deal with them. They also said that because of my location and no one else geographically close to me already set up as a distributor, I would have exclusive distribution rights. It all sounds really good, doesn't it? Well, not if it don't work! I have spoken to the Technical sales manager, Agustin Diaz , and he assures me that we must have got a bad batch (already sounds fishy) and that he will be out here next week to sort things out. Here s the disturbing part, he claims that the #832 did have some problems with one batch number, but the #815 (the cheaper of the two) has never had a problem. Well, I did some testing of my own, and both let go from the panel within minutes. Here s what else I found. Both the #832 and #815 seem to let go faster the hotter the surface is, and if you reset the tape (press it back down with your finger) in cooler temperatures it will stay, while in warmer, it won't. At any rate even when it sticks, just passing over it with the paint gun seems to lift it.

Anyone having problems with this tape can return whatever is left, and I don't care if it's a roll with nothing left on it, for a full refund or credit towards Norton Beige or American tape. Even if you had problems and had to use it anyway and have nothing left at all, I want to know about it, and I will make it right with you!

Last month I told you of a guy that had been mislead by another paint rep, in that air pressure was not explained correctly regarding HVLP guns. Well since then he came out to the store and brought his gun with him. It was a Saturday and we decided to go over to Slix and play around with his gun and some single stage metallic paint (North Star). We grabbed an old hood from the scrap pile, wiped it of with thinner, and set it up in the booth. We used a copper metallic for the demo (coppers are hands down the toughest) and along with his gun, I took two other guns of mine into the booth. He had a Sata NR 2000 1.4. I took a Sata NR 2000 1.3, and an Iwata LPH 400 1.3, along with a diaphragm regulator. I loaded his gun, and sprayed half of the hood. First coat the metal started to gather ( believe it or not, that's normal ) . At that point he commented how he had the same problem and he couldn't get it to level out no matter what he did. I told him that the gathering was absolutely normal, and there s no need to try and do anything with it. I totally understood what he meant, but for the purpose of education (and letting him see what he was doing wrong) I had to let him explain what he was trying to remedy and how. Turns out (and I ll bet this is what happens to all who have tried this) that what he saw was not at all acceptable, and if the job was to be salvaged something would have to be done and done quickly! So he told me that at that point he was cross coating and misting good after bad to get the mottling out, and all he got was a mess. I then explained what was happening and why, and I ll explain it now for all of you. The metallic in this single stage is so coarse and so heavy that when it hits the panel, it wants to move. Because you put a full coat on for your first, and the surface is smooth from just being sanded, it's totally understandable that the metal will want to move. And you need to let it. If you try to put the first coat on so light that the metal doesn't mottle, you ll orange peel the shit out of the job and nothing you do will overcome it. So definitely put a full coat down first. So now what you have is a mottled first coat. Let that coat set half the time you would normally let a first coat set (normal flash about 20 min / metallic about 10 min), add just a little reducer to the mix (the same speed) draw your gun back a little ways from the panel, move faster, and put the next coat on. If you don't wait and try to cross coat it, you won't get the mottling out (the first coat is too wet and the metal will continue to move). If you wait too long, the mist cross coat won't be able to melt in (first coat is too dry and now the mist coat will dry like overspray on top). Moving faster and more reducer will help orient the metallic, and because you only let it flash half the time, the mist coat will melt in. Let sit about 10 min and look at the job, if it looks good, your done, if not put another coat on the same way. (Here s a neat trick, if you don't have enough gloss because you waited too long, or didn't put the mist coat on wet enough, you can take some regular binder, add just a little of the color, catalyze it, over reduce it a little, and put a full coat on the vehicle, making sure you let it flash good before doing so.) When I did this with his gun, I noticed right away that he had other issues. First problem was the 1.4 fluid tip (not as good atomization as my Sata with a 1.3). Secondly, I'm certain that the famous nylon seal that Sata started putting behind the fluid tips was wasted (it should be changed every time you remove the fluid tip, and had never been done). Third, he was using the restrictor type regulator instead of the diaphragm. I let him try my Sata NR 2000 1.3 with the diaphragm (he noticed a big difference), and I also let him try my Iwata LPH 400 1.3 with diaphragm regulator (again, an even bigger difference)

.and then he said I want one of these ! Long story short, this was a perfect way for Rusty to find out what was right and what was wrong, with no opinions or bullshit to confuse things. I have nothing to gain by misrepresenting The Paint Spot, a product, or misleading a customer, but I have everything to gain by taking the time to help you. I may not always have the answer, but I promise you, I won't give up until I do.

At Slix we are working on several restoration projects and two of them just so happen to be 1973 Mustang Mach 1 s. If you're familiar with these vehicles, you know that the front bumpers are urethane (Chrysler, Ford, and GM all had this style) and it's impossible to find one that doesn't have cracks running all through it. It s almost equally impossible to get one restored, not to mention cost prohibitive. If you prime over the cracks, they come right back, if you use fillers that doesn't last long either, and even if you use the two part plastic repair compounds, that's difficult to work with and doesn't seem to last more than a year or two. We found that if you grind about an 1/8 off the surface and take some Norton Armor Liner and spray it out of one of the Iwata primer guns (3.5 fluid tip) instead of the typical shutz gun, it builds it back with a pliable and workable surface that doesn't look like a bed liner. After setting for a day or two it can be shaped and primed and ready for paint. All the cracks are gone and they don't come back. The cost is nominal and the quality of repair can be warranted.

Have a lot on my mind, and it's getting difficult to concentrate on writing this newsletter, I ll try to be more informative next month.