Jeep Posted May 16, 2009 Report Share Posted May 16, 2009 jusr wondering, how long doyou guys let your paint cure/dry before topcoating? i use auto-air paints. thnx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
68KingFisher Posted May 16, 2009 Report Share Posted May 16, 2009 (edited) You just wanna make sure all the moisture is gone before you seal it up......if your just lettin the stuff air dry it may take awhile, but if your using a heatgun or hair dryer to speed up the process it shouldn't take more then a couple of minutes.....You can usually notice that the shine on the surface seems to fade out into a dull flat finish as the water evaporates....thats what you want. I always ran a heat gun over my stuff when using AA......heated it up till its nice and warm in to my touch and all the shine was gone....that always worked for me when using that stuff on helmets and motorcycles....never had an issue once it was cleared. Edited May 16, 2009 by 68KingFisher Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark poulson Posted May 20, 2009 Report Share Posted May 20, 2009 There is a difference between dry and set. I'm no chemist, but T shirt paints, like Createx, may be dry if left to sit long enough, but they don't achieve the cross link molecules that make them waterproof and strong unless they are heated above a certain temperature. I know there has been a thread here in the past that dealt with that. I'm having trouble finding it with the search feature, so I'm going to ask a question here about that thread, in hopes that Snax will answer. In terms of heat generated cross link molecules, didn't I read here that the new water borne paints, like Wicked Colors from Createx, don't actually need heat to form their cross link molecules? I've sprayed a color, then had to clean up and go in before I could heat set it. I've always heat set it when I resumed painting, before the next coat, but, if memory serves, Snax said this new paint doesn't need the heat to achieve the cross link molecule set. 68KingFisher, if you know the answer, I'm all ears, except the foot that keeps finding it's way into my mouth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
68KingFisher Posted May 20, 2009 Report Share Posted May 20, 2009 (edited) The way I understand it is that the original formula acrylic paints designed for airbrushing onto tee shirts from either Createx or Aquaflow or whoever, must be heatset which caused the crosslinking Mark mentioned.....this insured the paint bonded with the fibers of the cloth, so this heating with blowdryers and heatguns or heatpresses came about for that reason. Since their creation, these paints have been reformulated various times......So i'm not 100% sure what their policy is now, but from what I could find on their website, the original Createx acrylic paints are still designed with the tee shirt artist in mind and needs to be heat set...nothing was mentioned reguarding "crosslinking". Their AutoAir line does not mention heatsetting anywhere I could find, and even has a new line of waterborne paints(4700 series)....not your normal waterbased........the new line called "Wicked Air" is called an acrylic polymer according to the MSDS sheet, and uses its own reducer for thinning....which i'm assuming is NOT water?....no mention of being waterbased or waterborne was found on their site or in any literature I could find. Now, on a personal level I can tell you that having used the original Createx and the AutoAir that both paints bonded better when using a heatgun to set the paint peridically as I painted........How do I know it bonded better than not heating??.....Cause I've tried it both ways on motorcycle helmets, and I can assure you that when it comes to sanding those paints back off that i'd much rather sand the Createx that was not heat set....Why?....Because its sands off waaaaay easier......So that tells me one thing......Heatsetting does something and it works cause it tough to sand off once its heatset, so my suggestion to all those using regular Createx is to always heatset if you want good adhesion. Edited May 20, 2009 by 68KingFisher Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snax Posted May 21, 2009 Report Share Posted May 21, 2009 (edited) Hi guys, Sorry I've been really busy and haven't checked the forums in a bit. Some of you are probably curious as to why Mark was hoping I would chime in. I speak with Craig Kennedy of Createx/Auto Air on a regular basis and use their paints exclusively. If there's a question about their products, chances are I can give you the answer. As far as the Auto Air Colors and the new Wicked and Auto-Borne paints go they only need to dry not be actually heat set as with the Createx for t-shirts etc. The main suggestion I have to ensure maximum adhesion is to spray light coats and hit them with a blow drier on hot or heat gun on low in between coats. You should achieve full coverage of color in three coats minimum. The first coat is only supposed to look speckled and the next two fill it in. Any heavier spraying will potentially cause adhesion problems down the road. You never want wet coats on wet coats either. The beauty of the Wicked Colors and Auto-Borne is that they contain a small amont of solvent which not only helps speed up the drying times but it also helps atomize the paint so it sprays very smoothly. If you've been using Createx, give the new paints a go and I promise you'll be amazed! By the way, Wicked Colors and Auto-Borne are the same paint, just labeled differently for different market bases to avoid confusion. Edited May 21, 2009 by Snax Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
