walleye warrior Posted January 9, 2018 Report Share Posted January 9, 2018 I have several thousand soft plastic minnows I have to paint, they were packed with worm oil from the manufacturer. Any good ideas on how to remove the oil so I get better paint adhesion? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alsworms Posted January 9, 2018 Report Share Posted January 9, 2018 I used to toss them in the kitchen sink, add some dove, work them around in the soapy water, and let sit on a dry towel for a couple hours. This is what I did "back in the day." There are probably easier methods now and hopefully someone else will chime in. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gus1969 Posted January 9, 2018 Report Share Posted January 9, 2018 Dawn dish soap works 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McLuvin175 Posted January 9, 2018 Report Share Posted January 9, 2018 (edited) All soft plastics exude some amount of oil over time (some worse than others) so it may not be that they were packed in worm oil; just normal seepage. The longer that bait sits the more seepage you tend to get. If your painting minnows is it a simple back color or is this a more complicated multiple step paint job? At any rate a paint job is only as good as the surface prep you do. You need to remove the oil to get any paint to adhere well (water based or solvent based). There are no surefire methods but here are some ideas. Dump the baits on some cardboard and let it soak up some of that oil. Take some paper towels and dawb up and wipe down the baits as much as possible getting as much oil as you can. Then douse them with a good soap, something like full strength Dawn works best, not the cheapo dollar store watered down stuff. Lather em good and rinse well. Lay them out to dry on some clean card board or paper towels to dry. You can speed up dry time by putting a fan on them. Then test a few by painting them to see how you did and how the paint behaves. If need be you can wipe the area to be painted with something like Acetone to remove any residual oil, check how the paint behaves. That should be a good start and give you some positive results. I hope your making enough off these minnows to make it worth your time, its going to be a lot of work. PS Dont clean your baits to far in advance of painting them, the sooner you paint them after washing them the better your results. Remember that baits exude oil so if you wash them and let them sit 2 weeks before you paint them then it may give you problems where you have to wash them all over again. No sense doing work twice. Good luck and let us know how you fare. Edited January 9, 2018 by McLuvin175 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alsworms Posted January 9, 2018 Report Share Posted January 9, 2018 15 hours ago, Gus1969 said: Dawn dish soap works Dawn is what I meant, not dove. Old mind. LOL 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walleye warrior Posted January 10, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2018 (edited) Thank you for all the replies. Using Dawn dish soap has givin the best results so far. Paint seems to be adhering well. It is very time consuming, but something that keeps the customers happy. Thanks again everyone! Edited January 10, 2018 by walleye warrior Spelling 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
