Undercoat

[Lochie]

Hi

i recently bought a prep 4 in 1 water based primer sealer undercoat and was wondering if this would work?

Cheers Lochie

[BobP]

Anything will work, just depending on what qualities are important to you.  Personally, I only use waterproof undercoatings to increase the durability of the lures I make, and in my experience NO water based coating is actually waterproof. I keep several kinds of waterproof clearcoats (epoxy, MCU, uv cured polyester) on hand and I use one of them for undercoating.  But most solvent based coatings lIke shellac, spar varnish, urethane, etc can also be used.  But water based primer?  Not for me.

[Lochie]

On 12/31/2020 at 1:33 AM, BobP said:

Anything will work, just depending on what qualities are important to you.  Personally, I only use waterproof undercoatings to increase the durability of the lures I make, and in my experience NO water based coating is actually waterproof. I keep several kinds of waterproof clearcoats (epoxy, MCU, uv cured polyester) on hand and I use one of them for undercoating.  But most solvent based coatings lIke shellac, spar varnish, urethane, etc can also be used.  But water based primer?  Not for me.

Thanks, do yo you water based or oil based when painting your lures? If you use water based do you have any problems like chipping or peeling?

[BobP]

I use water based acrylic paint.  The truth is, it lasts as long as the topcoat you put over it.  If the topcoat is cracked or chipped, water can infiltrate the paint, cause it to expand and push the finish off the lure.  You can avoid that by using lacquer based paint but it is much more toxic than water based.  Most hobbyists and small batch custom builders use water based paint.  It works fine for most crankbaits, most of the time.

[exx1976]

23 minutes ago, BobP said:

I use water based acrylic paint.  The truth is, it lasts as long as the topcoat you put over it.  If the topcoat is cracked or chipped, water can infiltrate the paint, cause it to expand and push the finish off the lure.  You can avoid that by using lacquer based paint but it is much more toxic than water based.  Most hobbyists and small batch custom builders use water based paint.  It works fine for most crankbaits, most of the time.

I may be somewhat in the minority on this, but I view lures as a consumable item, much like fishing line.  You wouldn't musky fish with line that is 3 seasons old and sun bleached and frayed, so don't go tying on a lure that has cracks and chips in it that is suspect to water intrusion.

Don't get me wrong - I try my best to build the best baits I can, but these guys that spend all manner of time doing 2 coats of epoxy sealing, and letting that cure off for 3 days prior to paint, and then they paint, then they put 2 more coats of epoxy on...  To be honest, I just find that silly.  At the end of the day, you have 4 coats of epoxy on the lure - but only two of them are protecting the paint.  Nobody wants to fish with a lure that has a paint job that is all messed up and half missing, so what's the point if the wood survives, but the paint is half gone?  Seal the wood with whatever you want, then put all 4 coats of epoxy on top of the paint to protect both the paint AND the wood.

Maybe I'm looking at it wrong, but I think it's best to protect everything, rather than to half-ass protect two things.

[BobP]

I also view crankbaits as expendable and I don’t have customers who expect (unreasonably) that they last forever.  That doesn’t mean I want them to disintegrate an hour into a hot crankbait bite though.  I undercoat with epoxy and topcoat with various stuff - MCU, UV resin, or epoxy.  So my baits have 2 tough waterproof coatings.  That’s enough for me.  But all of us are “rolling their own” and if you want 10 layers of finish on your bait for some reason, well, no fault, no foul.