Auto Painting Question

[Jack M. King]

Gentlemen:

Anybody tell me how cold is too cold to paint a vehicle? I'm stuck without a
garage and I'm in the process of doing some touch-up work on my 91 Ranger.
I've got one coat of primer on but now the temp is in the 30s. It will be in
the mid- to upper-40s later this week and I'm wondering if that is warm
enough. Still gotta glaze, prime and paint.

Thx,

Jack.

[Bruce]

Jack-

Anytime the metal temp falls below 60F, any paint product with a
Hardener-also known as 2K products- primer, color, clear, etc. stops curing,
and will stay soft until things warm up. By then the solvents will be gone
and they still won't be right. Several problems can occur-too many to list.

Any product that dries only by solvent evaporation- lacquer type products-
can dry at that low a temp but have poor long term durability compared to
the 2K products above.

You need heat to do proper priming and paint work. Won't suggest MAACO or
their like type shops, though some do a good job for the money.

Is there a community college or vo-tech school nearby with an autobody
program? You might be able to arrange to use their booth for a reasonable
fee.

"Jack M. King" <rebe...@lakeozark.net> wrote in message
news:uu5m7u2...@corp.supernews.com...

[451...@concentric.net]

Auto paint is formulated to work best at 70 degrees F. Too cold and the
paint won't " bite " the metal. Too hot causes the paint to dry too quick,
no shine. Too cold means the paint ' mottles '
stays on top, doesn't flow, again no shine. I've seen cars painted in cold
weather that look great, but peel like a hundred year old house when the
warm weather arrives. Your best bet would be a
primer / sealer like Corroless, and put off the ' real ' bodywork until
spring. Bare primer is trouble in winter, sucks in road salt, and rusts
under primer. Consider a thin coat of clear and wait.

I wish I had a simple fix, but temperature is a big factor with auto
paint.

[Daniel Ardeline]

I'm not sure how far you are but you can still phosphate your metal in cold
temperatures and leave the painting to later.. buy navel jelly which is
phosphoric acid, a chemical which kills rust, and apply to the rusted areas.
This is assuming you've sanded down to the bare metal and filled in any
pitted areas with a suitable compound. I've left bare metal exposed for two
years and it didn't rust because it was phosphated. Cars on the line
undergo a two stage zinc phosphate pretreatment to the bare steel followed
by a rinse, so by applying that jelly you're creating a thin iron phosphate
instead. Electrocoated primer usually follows, then we have a
base/clearcoat system where the base is typically a high quality acrylic or
polyester system, and at a higher film thickness than typical industrial
applications. I think a lot of people don't know about or forget the
phosphating in DIY touch up jobs. Rinse with water after the phosphate.
I've used zinc rich primer on my car rather than iron oxide (the dull red)
because the idea is to emulate galvanizing. I found this primer to be quite
soft as it was meant for pre-welding so I topcoated right away. For
temperatures I just followed whatever it said on the can. I used to be in
the paint business so I hope this helps. My main problem in doing touch ups
around the wheel wells was getting the film build up.. car paint is
originally quite a heavy film build which is hard to redo unless a number of
thin coats are used, requiring patience.