Downriver Tackle

Watch what you thin acrylics with. Being that there's probaly 1000+ different types, and not all thin the same. They may spray and look nice, but they film will have no integrity and be like a chalk coating and lead to premature paint failure. Many are Ph dependent and that's one reason why you see them curdle and get chalky. The PROPER universal thinner for acrylics is 80% water: 20% glycol ether, sometimes butyl alcohol also. Windex will work for some paints, but don't expect it to work for all. It's a "ghetto" thinner. LOL Nothing personal to anyone, but I find it funny how people will spend all that time carving a bait, getting all detailed, charging someone $30-70 for the lure, but skimp on the $0.01-0.03/lure it takes to follow the paint manufacturers directions and use the proper materials. LOL

There's no detergent in winshield wiper fluid. Having made 10's of 1000's of gallons of different brands, I can tell you that it is about 93% water, 7% alcohol(usually methanol), and a fraction of a percent of surfactant to make it wet out the glass, and another fraction of blue dye to keep you from drinking it. Windex is pretty much the same, but with a different alcohol than methanol, because it is poisonous. Watch what you thin acrylics with. Being that there's probaly 1000+ different types, and not all thin the same. They may spray and look nice, but they film will have no integrity and be like a chalk coating and lead to premature paint failure. Many are Ph dependent and that's one reason why you see them curdle and get chalky. The PROPER universal thinner for acrylics is 80% water: 20% glycol ether, sometimes butyl alcohol also. Windex will work for some paints, but don't expect it to work for all. It's a "ghetto" thinner. LOL Nothing personal to anyone, but I find it funny how people will spend all that time carving a bait, getting all detailed, charging someone $30-70 for the lure, but skimp on the $0.01-0.03/lure it takes to follow the paint manufacturers directions and use the proper materials. LOL

The Autoair color combo is: Candy Color 4605(Red): 4333 Metallic Gold(base)

I use them all the time in my epoxy clear for highlights. Not D2T, but it shouldn't make a difference. As mentioned, you only need a small amount. 1-2% by weight, and it must be over a dark background. Black brings out the biggest color shifts, but you can get different effects over other colors, like dark purples, blues, and greens. For best color-changing effects, I mix it in Auto-air clear and mist it on in several fine layers, then clear the bait. That's the way you're supposed to apply it as you see on cars. Same 1-2% by weight.

You can mix a little bit of talc in the clear to get the gloss you want. Make sure it's pure talc and doesn't contain any oils though. Very very slight impact on clarity.

Bondo.

Jameso is right. It is still a type of isocyanate though. Basically, just with an acrylic polymer added. Something like that and the amount used isn't much of a concern because it is meant to react super-fast and has already done so before it reaches your lungs, but I wouldn't recommend breathing too much of it. Most of what you smell is a byproduct of the reaction. The real concern is when spraying isocyanate-cured paints. They release lots of breathable mist and the iso reacts much slower and isn't reacted yet when it reaches you lungs, and is just dying to link up with some oxygen in them.

Waterborne epoxy looks like a pretty cool newer technology. I have a project at work to formulate a coating to adhere to stainless steel. From all resin manufacturer recomendations, w/b epoxy was the way to go. The application is for high abrasion resistance, so I'll have a good idea how they perform in lure applications. The only problems I see is that they're really low solids(30-40%), so it will generally take quite a few coats to get a descent film build. Some of the hardeners are also a bit nastier than usual. Some use isocyanate. Many also need heat in the range of 300F+ to cure properly. BUT, like I said, it looks pretty cool and looks promising. I'll report back.

4:1 with catalyst? Just a note for the unkowing if it is: If it's an acrylic or urethane, that catalyst is isocyanate and one NASTY chemical. Even if you have the best ventillation, you HAVE to wear a properly rated respirator. Every molecule you breath in reacts with the moisture in your lungs and catalyzes instanty. Over time, it WILL kill you. If cancer doesn't get you, the lung/breathing problems will.

Just wondering why everyone wants to strip the old finish off? I've been repainting lures for almost a decade and rarely ever remove a factory finish and to date have ZERO reported failures because of it. And I do some pretty beat up baits and full factory refurbishing. The only time I do is if it's a chrome finish that is peeling. 99.9% of the time, I just scuff them with 220 grit sandpaper and prime them. If there are still imperfections showing, usually a second sanding and coat of primer gets them flawless. From past experience, if you try to remove the factory fininsh, you do WAY more harm than good and make your job 10x harder. With balsa, you take yourself back to having to seal the wood when it was already sealed with the factory finish. Just food for thought.

I save everything. I have a 12x18 cooler filled with various lures that need repair or repainting. Most are worn out stock lures of my own or lures that customers gave me for the heck of it. I fish on the Detroit River and usually snag a few lost lures per year to add to the collection. I even carved a Rapala Original out of a pikes mouth where it had been there so long that the skin started to grow over it. Pike was fine and I got a free lure. LOL I also have a customer that goes out in waders to a local river when the water drops to around 2' or less and rescues lures lodged in the rocks, then gives them to me to repaint for him. Since most of them are shallow baits, he takes them to the deep water on the Detroit River and handlines them.

Nothing but customs. See link in profile.

Yep, Lincoln Park, MI. I use a proprietary clear that I formulated myself, but I used to use Flexcoat Ultra V. Pretty close in performance. As long as you don't get a build-up on the bill, they'll run fine. I did a huge weight study a while back. A fully primed and painted lure w/epoxy clear, only increased the weight 10-15% and had no effect on any lure we tested, floating, suspending, or whatever. Some stock lures right out of the box varied by up to 50%! I use Bombers all the time around here, trolling for pike, ski's, and walleye. My second favorite lure next to the Shad Rap. Thanks on the Bomber. Have to admit though, I cheated. I used cracked ice tape instead of foil on that one. Even with two layers of clear and that thick tape, it runs beautifully.

It's the other way around. Duals are much better for detail. Much more variable control of air vs fluid flow. The only thing I've ever used singles for was to hose on primer.

Sure you can. Just make sure every layer is cured before you mix paints. My old system was a solvent-based primer, Createx colors, then a automotive clear.

You might be able to get away with mixing the layers if you FULLY cure the old type first, preferably with heat, then continue with the new formula and just don't hose it on. Still a maybe though.

There lies the age-old question. Which is chartreuse! ???? LOL I've had a few old-timers beeeoootch because they ordered chartreuse and I gave them Createx Flo Yellow. They wanted that ugly green shaded Flo Yellow. That takes a shot of Flo green in Flo yellow to get that color.

You can't mix to get flourescent colors. Cartreuse is a single pigment.

Didn't use Etex, but used to use a multiple coat clear system that was pretty cumbersome. Switched to FlexCoat Ultra V for single coat coverage and could knock out probably 50-60 lures in that 1.5 hours with 5-10 lures per mix and probably just as high of quality of clear, if not better. If I ever quit manufacturing my own clear, I'd go right back to Ultra V in a heartbeat.

Blue masking tape???? In extreme cases, like a wrap around, I use 1/8" to do the edges nice and clean and straight, then just cut strips of wider tape to fill in the rest. Lay the lighter color down as a base coat, then tape and paint those areas with the darker color. Prime to block out the base color, if necessary.

Never tried it, but I can almost guarantee you will never get anything to stick on top of it with all the water repellants in it.

Regular Createx is non-toxic. Autoair isn't. The big hazard with both is the dust because of the fumed silica they use as a thickener. It's basically a barb of glass that looks like the barb on a fishing hook. You breathe it in, the barb digs into your lung tissue, and most of it is there for life.

BOTH. LOL I don't know which came first, but they are two totally different animals based on the same chemistry. When glues are formulated, the main properties are adhesion, cure time, and strength. When it comes to paint epoxies, it those, plus chemical resistance in the earlier formulations. Mainly used for chemical tanks, as a primer, or interior floor coatings. Over the years formulators realized that nothing can really match epoxy for strength and abrasion/mar resistance, but the problem was that it yellowed like mad, so it was limited to interior applications only. Within the last few years, great advances have been made to it's UV resistance. Newer epoxy resins and hardeners have been able to pretty much match the UV resistance of urethane, but still short of acrylics natural UV resistance. Not everything is broken down by water. A fully reacted polymer like epoxy or 2-part urethanes are virtually 100% water resistant. Even some of the harder acrylic grades. You could leave them in water till the end of time and they would be fine. Most of the time, it's what's under the coating that gives out. There will always be microsopic holes in a coating, and over time water migrates through and just sits on whatsever under the coating. If it's metal, it rusts and lifts everything on top of it. If it's a paint that isn't so water resistant underneath, that fails and lifts the topcoat. I've even seen glass-filled plastics bleed water from the unpainted side, through the plastic, and lift the paint on the other side. Paint and coatings are probably one of the least cut-n-dry sciences out there.

VERY cool! It's Pantera, Vulgar Display of Power album

Sweet video. Pretty professional. Gotta do one with metal though! Maybe a Slayer or Pantera background . I'm tellin ya, Mouth for War is the ultimate fishing song. I crank it when I blast off at tourneys and when the fishin is HOT as hell. LOL