Ok I'm definitely doing something wrong here. I'm trying to get a descent paint job done on the wheel pants of my Dragon Lady ARF. The wheel pants are the cheap injection molded plastic ones. I've sanded the shine off of the plastic & sprayed them with white rustoleum paint. I let them dry & light sanded again before applying the decal & clear-coat. It was looking great until about 5 min after aplying the clear-coat. I looked at them & the paint was wrinkling up.[:@] So I started over, re-sanding all the paint off, after trashing the decals that are now ruined. I decided I'll have to do it all in paint. Repainted with the white, let it dry 48 hrs (as stated on the can) then started to apply the Cub-Yellow & same thing, wrinkled right up.[&:] So I am obviously using the wrong kind of paint or doing something wrong in my prep work. I have been using a tack cloth after sanding to remove any dust or debri. So the question is, what am I doing wrong?[sm=drowning.gif]
And does anybody know of a certain brand of paint that will stick to injection molded plastic?

Please Help! [X(]

Thanks in advance.


Mark

I bet the clear coat is a lacquer -- sounds like you are applying lacquer over enamel --a no-no.

I agree 2 different types of paints. you could paint it hundred times, and get the same finish. I believe you can paint enamel over lacquer as lacquer is harder once cure, but not the other way. thinner in laquer is to aggressive.

Nope, Both the clear & the white are enamel by rustoleum. The only Cub-Yellow I could find was at the LHS and it is Lusterkote, by Monokote. I just occurred to me that those little cans of Testors paints are for plastic models. Maybe that might work? A new Decal sheet for the plane is only $6, but is of course on back order, I guess I'm not the only one screwing em up. lol

Mark

Testor's model paint will work, BUT...

It's not fuelproof. Use Krylon primer first, then Krylon paint. Any poly-u clear coat will go on over it.

Dr.1

Thanks Dr1, I was thinking about krylon too. I've got a test job drying right now from the pieces I had to cut off the bottom. On one I just sanded it & hit with the Clear since the plastic is white anyway. The other piece I painted with the Cub-Yellow Lusterkote. So far, so good. I'll see what I have in the morning after they have dried well. As soon as hit the sanded white plastic with the Clear it popped alive, nice & shiny & white. So I think I'm just gonna mask off everything that is to remain white, paint the yellow, color sand it all a little then hit the whole thing with the clear. It should work well, but if not & have to buy new paint I'll certainly give the Krylon a try. Thanks again for your help, I appreciate it!


Mark

Quick update. The test pieces still look great this morning. I believe I found the ticket. The Clear on the white plastic looks very good. It got rid of that funky looking blow molded white plastic look & gave it the appearance of a nice glossy white paint job. It looks soaking wet while being nice & dry to the touch. The Cub-Yellow piece came out very well too, & clearly states on the can that it will except the Clear very well after a 24 hr curing preiod followed by some light color sanding. It would appear that I have the right combination now. Thanks again for your suggestions & input. This plane is coming along very nicely & shaping up to be my best effort yet, so I didn't want to let anything get in the way of that. Not even something as minor as a set of wheel-pants!

Unfortunately our digital cam grew legs & walked right on out of here, so I now have no way to play show & tell with her to show ya how purdy she's looking.[&:] We tried to help an indigent woman attend her brother's funeral by flying her out here & letting her stay in our home until after the funeral. When she went back to Ohio, the cam went with her. Apparently it is true that no good deed goes un-punished! But that's okay, I gues she felt she needed it more than we did.[]


Mark

We can close this one up. I have finally had success! They are looking good now. Thanks again guys.


Mark