Help, my Paint Process

Good Morning and Merry Christmas to all of you and thanks for your help through out the year.

I am posting about paint on this forum to get a broad coverage to my question, no pun intended, just turned out that way.

In the picture are my painting supplies. My results are not consistent so I will describe what I have been doing and ask for comments.

I turn the heat up to about 65 degrees in my shed and it is usually dry in there, even in the summer as I run de-humidifiers. All my painting is with spray cans of Enamel.

1. I use white rags and PPG cleaner, wax and oil cleaner, to get ready for primer. This seems to work well.

2a. I had used the JD Yellow Primer exclusively under the JD Topcoat but it does not seem to dry well under the JD Topcoat. I end up with a firm Topcoat and a soft Undercoat. Maybe I don't let the JD Yellow Primer dry long enough or I put it on too thick. I did use it on a 4020 engine once with a JD Topcoat and after two years it looks good. As I recall I let it dry much longer. I don't think I sanded in between. I normally don't sand in-between under and top coat.

2b. Lately I have been using the Rust-oleum Rust Reformer as a base or primer coat. I like the way it goes on, thinner, and am confident it is dealing with any rust in the pores of the metal. I have used the JD Topcoat with varying results. If I don't wait too long I think it works OK but the jury is out yet on that. I waited several days on a step kit before I put the JD Topcoat on, it did not seem to adhere as well. I put a step rail on one cold day, I got a couple flecks of green come off the black when I scratched it.

On yet another project I used the Rust-oleum Green Topcoat as recommended on the Rust Reformer can. It was thinner and seemed to adhere better although I did not let the Rust Reformer sit as long before I top coated it. It turned out real good. The color seemed a touch darker. My son warns me about it turning blue like the Farm & Fleet paint. Any experience with this?

3. As mentioned above my Topcoats have been the JD Green from JD and the JD Green from Rust-oleum. Does anyone have any longer term experience with the Rust-oleum green in sunlight or otherwise?

4. My son likes like the Rust-oleum Premier Primer. I am going to try that.

I suspect most of my issue is I am not consistent on how long I wait to Topcoat. Does anyone else put the JD-JD Green over a Rust-oleum product.

Mr. A-Case Guy, your paints look good, what do you do?

I would appreciate any and all comments. Sorry it is a little long.

Paul

My suggestions are;Stick with one system start to finish. Even a cheap hvlp sprayer is easier to use,pay's for itself in saved material cost and will do much better job than rattle cans. Whatever material you decide to use,follow the directions to the letter,playing chemist is short cut to failure.

Concerning spray can paint, here is what I have found. No excess moisture in air on paint day, don't mix different manufactures paint, spray coats very lightly, let dry between coats according to directions on can, don't recoat until fully dry according to directions on can. Try to paint earlier in the morning so paint has a chance to dry before dark. Wear a good paint mask. I am not a professional painter but this is what works for me after years of trial and error.

Follow what is on here already. I use Rustoleum pro paint if the colors match what I need. If you can somehow paint on a dry very low humidity day and it is 80? or higher "August" rattle cans work fantastic. Yes paint as early in the day as possible. Evening time is your enemy cause everything will go cloudy. Thin coats ,yes! But I am going to tell ya. Sooner or latter you are going to need to buy a good paint gun and learn how to use it. Good paint, $130.oo per gallon or more, with hardener is the way to go. NO QUESTION .!

Get away from the rattle cans. It's hard to get a good even coat and a coat the will last. I use an epoxy primer. Its easy to work with but, you have to have the top coat on within 3 days or you'll have to fine sand it to make the paint adhere. Then get a good paint and use a hardener. I use Omni paint. Make sure you get a good paint mask. The cheap masks are useless. Might as well not use one. These paints can and will cause lung problems. Don't mess with them without a correct mask. Next get a hvlp gun. Gravity feed work the best except for painting under the tractor. I find my gun does the best job at 28lbs. It is atomized perfect and hardly any overspray.

Can you tell me a little more about your hplv gun and air source? Paul

Another thing....stay away from tractor supply rattle cans. The blasted stuff never drys.

I have minimal painting experience, but I echo what they are saying...you get what you pay for. The reason for you inconsistencies is the fact that rattle can paint jobs have a very small latitude of perfect conditions that can produce a quality finish say 20 percent of the time. The other 80 percent of the time you are just working against to many road blocks heading you for a poor quality paint job. Using a good quality paint and air gun will just give you so much more ability to get a good finish in the end. So to wrap up I just got to say this. Any good painter I have ever seen has way more over spray on his tool box than yours is sporting. Lol.

I never could get a sprayer to work, had different ones. Now as far as being cheaper For me it would not be as for what I paint on parts the cleaning of that sprayer would wast 5 times the paint that I would use for what I am doing. I yse a lot of the rusoleum 2X paint in cans when I am rebuilding one of the hay rakes and I have right after a rain and I paint outside while the piece is wet from the rain sprayed it and no problem with being wet. And have also painted in the 30'sF with no problem, just takes longer to dry at times but the 30,' paint actually dried faster than in 60's. And a lot of times the piece is ready to install in 2 hours. And i have not used a primer.Dealer that gets the rakes is satified with the paint jobs.

In my experience Rustoleum does not have very good UV protection and fades in the sun.

I use a Devilbiss gravity feed gun. I have a siphon gun that I use for under the tractor. Compressor is a 5HP with 80 gallon tank. Air dryer at the tank and one of those little black balls at the gun.I've tried different air pressures but 28lbs works the best. Any more and you get more over spray. Any less and the paint isn't atomized as well so you can get a rougher finish.