Ratttle Cans Paint

[headcoats]

Having a go at the front mudguard and using the Hycote stuff that goes on great but has shown up my terrible prep work !

So how long do I have to leave the paint to go off so I can tidy it up for another coat ?

On the can it says 24 hours to harden off but as I'm going to wet and dry it down , longer ?

Also what grade wet and dry to not leave scratches

Is 1200 OK ?

[shaunthe2nd]

I usually go to 2000 grit. Can't help with the cure time though, depends what time you have available I suppose.

[headcoats]

It's in the sunny porch at the moment baking I hope !

I'm in no rush as I'm Captain Slow anyway LOL, but want to get a nice smooth finish hopefully

[LC_BOTT]

I've just done a few parts, and the 'new' Hycote went off overnight, was very slightly tacky, but wet and dry, bit of soap and nothing went wrong, seemed fully hard in a couple of days, left a tank haging in the shed while I sanded the panels. Think I used 600 grit, but I am going to 'clear' on top.

[headcoats]

The Hycote stuff looked that good I was not going to go with the clear coat but may do it now :-)

[JonW]

I usually leave paint from a can for over a week to dry out fully, sometimes longer.

2000 as has been said is what you want. but you might need to start at say 600 and work up to get there, take your time.

[headcoats]

Think I will go a week like you then Jon as I laid it on pretty thick !

[abar121]

24 hours in this warm weather is fine although if it's as thick as you say, then a couple of days.

You don't need anything finer than 600 grit if you are going to put on another coat. Even 400 should not leave any marks once painted.

Colour sanding afterwards, sure, start at 1500 and work upwards.

[jon]

Sept 26, 2019 16:22:01 GMT 1 abar121 said:

24 hours in this warm weather is fine although if it's as thick as you say, then a couple of days.

You don't need anything finer than 600 grit if you are going to put on another coat. Even 400 should not leave any marks once painted.

Colour sanding afterwards, sure, start at 1500 and work upwards.

Sorry abar121, I disagree a further coat will get covered by 400, or even 600 for that matter.

Maybe proper paint from a gun, but not a rattle can.

You see they thin it down so much to allow the pressure in the can to be able to work on it. The thinners will flash off and leave less paint behind to cover the scratches.

With a proper gun and compressor you can have far more solids, and still have enough pressure to atomise it.

As others have said I’d use maybe 600 then 1200 then 2000 before a top coat.

Halfords sell all these grades so readily available from the high street.

Jon

[abar121]

Hi Jon,
Edit: Just re-reading the OPs post, I got a little confused

I use 400, then primer, then top coat. No issues with that approach and Hycote for me.

Between top coats, sure a higher grade would be needed. I've not needed to do that, only flat back with 800 for lacquer on the odd occasion.

Cheers.

[donkeychomp]

Hycote every time. I buy it in bulk off ebay works out about £3 for a large can. Best to wait at least a day before rubbing it down. Have you used any filler or is it just some light scratches you can see? Go down to about 1000 grit for the last rub a dub dub. And the lacquer they make is very good too, even the petrol resistant stuff works!

Alex

[JonW]

I think there are two answers to this question going on in this thread, this would be my take on both of them and the way I would do it:

1, if you want to flatten paint and keep the paint layer underneath and make it 'pristine flat', then you need high grades; 1200-2000, usually hand sanded. This will remove a small amount of raised material and leave you with a flat surface for re-coating or between colour and clear or prior to polishing. Great for keeping layers and final work.

2, if you don't care about the lower layer as you know its too rough and need more colour anyway, then start with with the lower grades like 400 and progressively come up as far as you like, usually with a DA or a block. Some people like to have a totally flat base but other will say that paint needs something to stick to.

These are some of the tips Ive come up with in the years of doing this at home with home gear, Im sure the pros will have lots of advice but their work, products and tools are far superior to what we do at home and they have almost zero experience in cans of course:

Remember that new wet n dry is more abrasive than old used one you've got on the block and that wet n dry is great for higher grades as it wont clog with a tiny bit of dish soap in it. Its not ideal to wet sand filler on steel panels, the filler can be porous and can soak up the water and rust the steel behind. Filler often needs more colour coats to seal it or a decent coat of sealer like primer and then the edges feathered well or you can see it as a hollow in the job. Black needs very flat panels as it shows everything, white is very forgiving to paint - pick white if doing a quick blow over. HTH.

[JonW]

I know this isnt my thread, but thought people might be interested to see what you can achieve with cans.

This is something Ive been working on the past few weeks... its a piece of garage art (I'll do a thread on it later when it's done) so it's not going on a bike and I wanted a cheap repaint:

started like this:



Repairs in the gel coat then primered and sanded back with 240 here and then more primer and 250/400/600 after.



2 base coats of cheap reds, sanded with 600 in between coats.



Colour sanded with 2000 to remove the orange peel and make it flat, taking out a couple of runs in the process. Then cleared:



now just needs a sand with 2000 to take out the orange peel again and a polish. Thats for next week, it only got cleared yesterday.

This was all with rattle cans.

[headcoats]

Looks great !

[JonW]

Thanks mate, I didnt mean to bomb your thread, just inspire people to use a can on stuff now n then, its not all as shit as people think. I know Alex has done his Popsicle's tank with cans and it came out well too. Can are a bit of an unsung hero and can get you out of trouble or save you money now n then.

[headcoats]

Had a go at flatting it back and I used 1200 just to see and it has taken it back nicely
Just a bit more to do but being nice and gentle !

I reckon one more coat of black then if that goes on OK , I will clear coat it

Can't say how great this Hycote stuff is :-)

[abar121]

Great! I'm also a big fan of the Hycote spray cans.

They cover so well and are in a different world to the cheap crap sold elsewhere!

[headcoats]

Can the rattle can paint be polished after as I read somewhere it is till quite soft compared to 2 pack etc ?

[chrisg]

Oct 7, 2019 20:01:33 GMT 1 headcoats said:

Can the rattle can paint be polished after as I read somewhere it is till quite soft compared to 2 pack etc ?

I used a base coat from autopaints and they mix what ever colour you want. Go for a smooth finish, dont worry about shine. several coats and flat down, when dry. The shine comes from the lacquer. If its too shiny, the lacquer will not adhere and crack.

auto-paint.co.uk/email.html

[donkeychomp]

Yes I did the Popsicle with rattle cans and every other part of every other bike. Yes you can polish them after but wait a LONG time maybe a month. But with final lacquer coat they do come up very very well. Saves me a bleedin' fortune! Just takes time and a bit of skill but you'll pick it up in no time.

Alex

[JonW]

I agree with Alex that you dont need that much skill really. They say that youre either a 'welder' or a 'grinder'. Ie you can weld properly and do pretty welds or you have to throw on lots of weld and grind it pretty. Same idea with paint. 'Painter' or 'Sander/Polisher'.

Honestly, if you put enough colour or clean on then you can sand out the orange peel and runs before the next coat or part of the process. Flat paint shines; thats what polish does to get its shine, it fills in the valleys and cuts back the hills of the surface.

I will say that I dont think you need to wait a month, but any waiting you do will be good as yes these paints remain quite soft for ages. Depends on climate of course and the paint youve used.

This was my top fairing after about a week of sitting to let the clear dry, then a sand with 1200 and 2000 to take out the orange peel as seen in the pics previously.



Then hit with some Meguires Ultimate Compound which Im a big fan of, its really quick to work and brings up the shine well enough that you can see what imperfections you have left in the panel.



You can see in the edges of the reflections in that pic that the clear isnt really flat yet in places and some orange peel is still there to get sanded / compounded more, so I went over it again and again taking small amounts of clear off until I was happy with the panel. All this takes time and effort but it can come out really well with time. Im sure a pro will try and get the paint to look great from the gun to save rework time after, but when youre doing this a hobby and saving money you can afford the time. Sit n polish in front of the TV in the eve etc

Ok, I will polish this with some posh polish I have once its stickerd up, but it looks amazingly flat, shiny and luxurious now.

The only thing I wish is that I could find some clear here that was fuel resistant and then I could paint tanks, sigh...

[Deleted]

One thing I read was if you can smell the paint, it's still drying .

[JonW]

Thats a fair call Ken.

[headcoats]

Cheers all

I saw some petrol proof laquer advertised on Fleabay by Hycote

[donkeychomp]

Yep and it works as I have tried it! The Popsicle tank is coated in that.

Alex

[JonW]

I might have to get some when im in the UK next year and ship is seamail to myself, seems pressurised cans cant go on plabes :/ Perhaps I should put some ACF50 in the same box as that costs stupid money here :/

[JonW]

Just found some interesting reviews:

www.amazon.co.uk/HYCOTE-Petrol-Resistant-Lacquer-400ml/dp/B004SMP6QE

Seems its a bit yellow and a chap said over clean white it didnt work for him and seems its not as fuel resistant as many would like :/

[donkeychomp]

Well you've seen my purple tank. It's purple lol. And yes waiting a month to polish it is overkill but it does stay very soft for a surprising amount of time. Once the lacquer is applied it doesn't need a polish anyway.

Alex

[JonW]

Haha, yes I wasnt thinking of your tank as such, more that my tanks are mostly white as are many Yams, I was thinking the yellow would kill that idea for most of us etc.

[JonW]

FYI If anyone wants to see the stuff i painted with cans as it happened, layer by layer including the finished result, this is the thread I did for it:

rdlccrazy.proboards.com/thread/48920/garage-art-on-cheap