n00b Q - spraying with cans

[Megazone23]

Just as a practice exercise, I've been painting coke bottles, and I decided to take my stock E-maxx wheels and paint them a metallic color to match my planned body scheme. This entails painting two wheels metallic blue and two metallic red. I bought Pactra Racing Finish cans for this.

I put the cans in hot water as recommended for about 5 minutes, and then shook them for 2-3 minutes after that. Spraying the metallic blue went great. I got fairly even coverage (for my meager skills anyway) and it looked pretty decent.

Now when I sprayed the red, using the same process, no matter how much I shook the can, it kept spattering. I made sure the nozzle wasn't gunked up, I cleared it, I even tried re-warming the can, but it kept spattering. It looked like the bumpy finish you get on sheetrock on house walls! :(

Is it possible I just got a bum can? I was spraying downward at approximately 45 degrees and using slow side to side motions, so I don't think the motion was causing the paint to get shaken up while I was spraying.

Fortunately, I was able to remove the crap paint job with rubbing alcohol....twice. :mad:

Any ideas? I'd hate to get my new body and immediately f*** it up, especially since it's just going to be a field of red without any fancy masking to it.

[Megazone23]

Okay, I did some testing with this can by just painting a section of newspaper to see if the spray improved. As the can got emptier, the spray quality improved to the point where it was actually providing even coverage without spattering. I was finally able to put on a decent coat on the wheels without it looking all mottled.

I was looking at the bottom of the can, and I noticed that over half of the concave bottom looked like it had been pushed out from the inside. I compared it to the other cans to see if it could have been the marble, but they only showed minor denting from the marble. So I think this can may have been a bad one.

Does this seem like a reasonable cause of the problems?

So the lesson I've learned from this is to check to condition of the rattle cans when I buy them, and also to do a test spray before painting the actual item.

[SteveK]

I've never had problems with Pactra cans, so maybe they froze at some point or were otherwise damaged?

I do know of one problem you might have beyond the spray can itself: Pactra paint is meant for going inside Lexan bodies, so it won't have as glossy a finish as regular model paint. You can try something like Tamiya or Testors lacquer or enamel paints (Tamiya lacquers work really well, and don't need primer), or even the Krylon stuff from Wal-Mart.

[Ideal]

Well I do most work with cans, and it serves me really well - basicly what I think is it must have been a bum can. I've had this happen once or twice, and usually that will happen when a can has been stored for like a year or two without use. Or, it can happen if it's cold outside. Spray cans don't like winter temperatures, and the paint wont "dry properly" (in lack of better words) if it's cold outside.

[HauntedMyst]

I've gone through maybe 200 or 300 cans of Pactra and there have been 3 or 4 bum cans in the bunch.

[SteveK]

I remember when I worked at the LHS, one guy had a can labeled one color, and inside was another, but since then, I haven't heard about any problems at all.

Could always be the way the cans were handled after: I'm sure some of the stuff we see on the shelves now is years old. Heck, maybe more, since the labels haven't changed in the 13 years I've been painting.

[Megazone23]

Thanks for all the input. I really think it must've been a bum can since the bottom was pushed out. The problem wasn't that the finish wasn't glossy. I'm actually quite happy with the finish that I got from the blue -- it came out looking like a satin finish blue aluminum wheel, which was the desired effect.

The problem was that it was literally three dimensional. If any of you have done interior housepainting, it was exactly like when you texture the walls so it's like orange peel. Like I said, from now on, I'll check the conditions of the cans and do some test sprays before working on the final product.

[Cosmo]

How old is the paint? I've noticed that Pactra paints (especially metallics and pearls) don't last long on the shelf, and last an even shorter amount of time once they have been sprayed.

[Megazone23]

Not sure -- I didn't see anything on the can or labels that looked like a date of manufacture. I suspect it was probably a bum can, since the bottom was blown out.