rlemaster

Hi all,

I've started to try and transition to water based paints, etc. for my planes. I've found Behr Premium Ultra to be a good solution for the paint, but so far all of the water based primers I've tried have left me less than satisfied. I've historically been using auto primer's like the Rustoleum spray cans from Autozone.

Specifically, I'm trying to find a water based primer that will sand well. All of the acryllic latex based primers I've tried are understandably not very good for this. I'm thinking that if I can maybe find a straight acrylic primer it may be better.

Has anyone had any good experiences with primers like these?

Thanks,
Russ

Rick W

My Feedback: (20)

Hello Russ,

I've gone with waterbased paint for my color coats. I use Auto Air colors and a urathane clearcoat. I also wanted a sandable water base primer and the only one I found that was sandable was for automotive applications and had to be sprayed. Which was OK, but the cost of it was, well lets put it this way I had to re-finance the house. So I'm back to urathane two part primers. Also, using the WB primer with balsa it had to be sealed. If it isn't, it will cause the wood to swell.

Rick

rlemaster

Hi Rick,

Thanks for the info. For the planes I fiberglass, the sealing issue isn't such a big one. I use West Systems resin for that and for me it works much too well to go any other way. However, for planes I cover with canvas type materials (eg: Koverall), I'm experimenting with using something like Hodgepodge glue. It works pretty well so far, but you raise an interesting concern. Given that it is water based, I'm not sure it will do such a great job of sealing the wood. So far I've used Sig Nitrate Dope on those but that stuff is really nasty from an "air" perspective.

I may just have to stick with the auto primer, but one of my biggest gripes about it is having to go with the spray can based products. I'd really like to find something similar that I can brush on for the sanding coats then maybe spray for the base-coat. I've found grey primer like this, but in this case my plane is mostly white, so I really need white primer.

I've been using KlassKote clear for the clear-coat and I have to say that even over latex paint, it works really well. Just seems like we aren't at a place where we can get away from solvent based solutions for all of this.

Thanks,
Russ

Rick W

My Feedback: (20)

Hello Russ,

If your looking for a white primer look into House of Color, it's really nice. It's a little heavy but we're sanding most of it off. I'm just fininhing a T-38 which will be white and I'm using it as a sealer coat by thinning it down before spraying. I'll be using Auto Air for the basecoat.

I just saw on the internet that Valspar has a waterbase primer they say is sandable. I'll see if I can get some and give it a try. I don't think it will be a filler primer that will met our requirements like a automotive primer. I'll get back to you on this.

One of he best sealers I have found and have been using or years is Minwax sealer. If you follow the directions it works great. Never had any problem using a waterbase product on top of it. I also use it under epoxy resin to seal the wood to keep the epoxy from soaking in and adding weight. Very little smell, wife loves it....

Yep we're stuck with solvents at this time, but it's getting better..By the way I still use lacquer primers out of a spray gun. The stuff in the spray cans are so thin it takes several cans to get good coverage. By spraying I can control the thickness and it is a lot cheaper and covers much better.

Rick