RC-1 build diary

[Moony]

Whoops. What kind of paint are you using? Is the clear from the same manufacturer?

Yeah it's the rustoleum 2x stuff, paint and clear. I guess it's just the curse of the rattlecan- sometimes you do everything right and the luck of the draw still stuffs it up.

Colour has been on for about a week, wet sanded it to 400 and let it dry completely. Sprayed a light first coat of clear, and another later on. I walked away and I'll go back in a minute to see whether a miracle has happened and it looks ok, but i very much doubt it.

[Moony]

Just went to check it after half an hour and this is what I found:



Frustrating but interestingly some of the bits that were initially the worst have settled down and fixed themselves, so maybe it'll all just shrink and look ok.

I should have known better than to trust the rattle cans, but often when you go for quick and easy it ends up being the opposite. I even had a thermometer out there to make sure i was spraying at the right temperatures, and I did a test panel, which came up perfectly

So the options are to wait and hope that it somehow miraculously fixes itself, sand and refinish, or tell people I was going for a "custom crackle finish".

[king casey]

I don't like Rustoleum.
Been using Belton Molotow for a few paint jobs.
Goes on at a lower pressure and nice and flat. Dries really quick.
Clear goes on with a lot of 'orange peel' but after a few coats, sands back nice and smooth.

I get it from Union Heights in Prahran but it's readily available elsewhere methinks.

cheers, Mark.

[Sonic Mountain]

Yep. Ok well that is a classic 'paint not fully dried' reaction. Rustoleum takes AGES to go off properly, especially if its a bit of a thicker coat. What has happened here is the top of the coat has hardened into a skin - it probably felt fine to to touch. When you've sprayed the clear over it the solvent has penetrated this skin and reactivated the not quite cured paint underneath.

By ages I am talking months. There are guys here who have noticed even well after the build that rustoleum is marking because the solvents coming out of it are reacting with the foam on most guitar stands. I have a guitar complete finished in it and have done a few necks and you need to exercise super human levels of patience unfortunately. Once it is cured it is very very durable though, so I think it it worth while in the long run.

You will now need to let this cure really well before knocking it back and respraying. It will probably settle down a bit, but you will be able to see wrinkling in the finish thats really hard to buff out. Try putting a fan on it for a few days, if you can evacuate the solvent gases from the surface it will speed up the curing.

Temperature problems usually show up as clouding in the finish, greatly extended drying times and occasionally as bubbles.

[Moony]

Yep. Ok well that is a classic 'paint not fully dried' reaction. Rustoleum takes AGES to go off properly, especially if its a bit of a thicker coat. What has happened here is the top of the coat has hardened into a skin - it probably felt fine to to touch. When you've sprayed the clear over it the solvent has penetrated this skin and reactivated the not quite cured paint underneath.

By ages I am talking months. There are guys here who have noticed even well after the build that rustoleum is marking because the solvents coming out of it are reacting with the foam on most guitar stands. I have a guitar complete finished in it and have done a few necks and you need to exercise super human levels of patience unfortunately. Once it is cured it is very very durable though, so I think it it worth while in the long run.

You will now need to let this cure really well before knocking it back and respraying. It will probably settle down a bit, but you will be able to see wrinkling in the finish thats really hard to buff out. Try putting a fan on it for a few days, if you can evacuate the solvent gases from the surface it will speed up the curing.

Temperature problems usually show up as clouding in the finish, greatly extended drying times and occasionally as bubbles.

Interesting. Thanks heaps for the info. TBH the idea of waiting months doesn't really appeal so looks like it'll get sanded back and something different done. Is this just a rustoleum issue or spray cans in general? Most of the paint was laid down about three years ago, and then some light touching up done a week ago after a some light sanding. I actually thought I was playing it safe by waiting a lot longer than what the instructions on the can say to, but now I know better. It's a bit of a motivation killer but you live and learn.

[Sonic Mountain]

Yeah it is annoying for sure. Rustoleum is different from say automotive lacquers, its got different suspension mediums and solvents.

Automotive stuff drys a lot quicker and is a lot less reactive. The finish is not quite as hard as Rustoleum, but still pretty good. The biggest disadvantage is that it tends to sink back as it cures. So if you were doing clear over wood, it might cut back great and polish up to a mirror finish, but then in a few months time the wood grain will start to reappear if you look at the right angle. This happens on some commercial guitar finishes as well. So long as you've built up a reasonable amount of clear another good cut and polish will often rectify that. If you have a look at Phrozin's thread you can see some very impressive finishes that he has achieved with it. The Black Cherry (in my signature) and the Rellicaster were both done with that as well. I've done a lot of automotive stuff in my time so I'm familiar with it and find it pretty straight forward. Pretty excellent selection of colours and effects available as well.

The only other thing I've use on guitars is polyurethane (Cabots exterior gloss to be exact on the Sonicaster). This is much more resistant to sinking back and a lot more durable once dry. I've had some problems cutting and polishing it, but I've also found that if you do a really good job spraying it settles down to be very flat on it's own and doesn't really need it. Its probably been the easiest overall to get a nice result with.

[Sonic Mountain]

I should also note that you need to be very careful using another product over an existing one. You can end up with reactions similar to what you've encountered or worse if the paint types are incompatible. I sprayed rustoleum over automotive acrylic primer on the Shoegazer and it was fine. So long as its well cured I think there reverse will work OK - but don't quote me.

[Moony]

I'll sand it all back and then see where I want to go from there. Maybe it is the universe telling me that I should've stayed true to the original plan with the comic book finish

[Sonic Mountain]

Yeah its funny, things can go off the rails despite best efforts. The good news is that there is almost nothing that can't be recovered from and sometimes it ends up better than you originally planned. You just have to keep at it .

[FrankenWashie]

I'll sand it all back and then see where I want to go from there. Maybe it is the universe telling me that I should've stayed true to the original plan with the comic book finish

The comic book idea sounds pretty cool, it will be a pain to get it all flat though. WOuld you do whole pages or simply stitch individual panels or pictures together?