Primer Cracking

[Chaos For 2011]

I use Valspar Primer for my baits and only have one complaint. Every 1 of about 25 baits will wrinkle/crack about a minute after being primed. I scrub all with a wet rag and dry them off before priming them so there shouldn't be any grease/oil causing the issue. Does anyone know what could be the problem?

-Jim

[mark poulson]

What kind of material are you using to make your baits?

[Musky Glenn]

A photo would help, but my two thoughts would be 1- They are not as dry as hoped for. 2. The primer is applied to thick and shrinks as it dries. (Puddle up a dime size amount of paint and force dry with hair dryer and see if the cracking looks like what is happening to your lure.) Just a thought, good luck. Musky Glenn

[Chaos For 2011]

A photo would help, but my two thoughts would be 1- They are not as dry as hoped for. 2. The primer is applied to thick and shrinks as it dries. (Puddle up a dime size amount of paint and force dry with hair dryer and see if the cracking looks like what is happening to your lure.) Just a thought, good luck. Musky Glenn

Thanks I'll get a picture next time it happens

mark, it's happening to store bought baits I repaint

[mark poulson]

Since you're repainting store bought baits, if they're plastic, I'm thinking you don't need to prime them again.

I just scuff them with a scotch brite pad, or dip them in acetone, and put on my airbrush paint base coat and scheme.

If they're wood, I'd probably do the same.

But if you think you need a primer, here are my suggestions.

I wonder if you'r putting it on too thick?

The primer I use, a rattle can Rustoleum primer, says light coats, and recoat anytime in the first hour. I do three coats, letting them dry for ten minutes between coats, and then hit them with my hair dryer to accelerate the drying of the paint. Since it's a solvent-based paint, I want all the solvent driven off before I start my paint scheme.

The can says wet sand when dry to the touch, so I wet sand them between the second and third coat, and hit them with the dryer again. Then I let the hang overnight, and paint the next day. If I try to paint the same day, I sometimes get blisters where the solvent hasn't been completely driven off.

If the primer is going to do something funny, like crack, it will do it when I hit it with the hair dryer, but, so far, that hasn't happened.

Every paint manuf. has a slightly different formula for their primer, so this might not work for you, but it's how I do it.

Another thing that may be happening is that the original paint and top coat are what's cracking. Maybe they react to your primer, or to the heat of your airbrush paint drying process.

The only baits I've had crack like that are some older Poe's cranks, that had an epoxy of some kind on them already that cracked when I heated it with a hair dryer.

[BobP]

I agree with Mark that there's no need to prime plastic crankbaits. I think guys get confused by the terms undercoating/priming/color basecoating. Undercoating is used on wood baits to waterproof the wood before painting. Primer is a coating applied to a surface to increase adhesion of the paint you will shoot on it. Color basecoating is shooting a solid color, often white, on a bait so that later colors will have a uniform color base to be viewed against.

There are primers for plastic. You can use an "adhesion promoter" like Bullseye, or perhaps some aerosol white Fusion paint that is designed to chemically adhere to plastics (after curing for several weeks). I don't use either. I just shoot a white color basecoat of acrylic paint and then color. The topcoat on the bait will hold the underlying paint on there just fine, IMO. If I did feel the need for a primer, I'd probably choose Bullseye or an alternative brand adhesion promoter. A few guys dunk their baits in acetone to soften the surface so that paint will adhere better. I don't know if there's any hard evidence that works after the acetone evaporates.