Plug paint pickling!!!

[the1much]

the mekp is part of your resin.doesnt "stop" being mekp until the chemical reaction stops and the resin is kicked off,then its jus resin, but until then its still mekp,, paint a spot on a spare piece of glass,use same paint,, give it a few days and drop a drop of mekp on it,,its great stripper lol.

[SamSam]

I've made big molds using regular 1 part auto enamel that worked fine. All it took was a buffing for the shine, 5 coats of wax, (Johnson's paste wax) pva wiped on with a sponge and then made the mold. It came off fine and all the mold took was a light buffing with the very finest, last stage cutting/polishing compound, then waxes, pva and starting making parts.

Something I did once that has nothing to do with the thread but might be of interest to some here. I had a hand hewn oak beam that I wanted to copy one side of to apply architecturally to a building to create the medieval half-timbered look of exposed beam framework filled in with wattle and clay/stucco. There were all kinds of small under cuts from the adze work that would bind pieces in a mold, and I didn't want to wreck the beam with paint or wax etc. So I took that real thin plastic sheeting used for paint masking, like the stuff they used to use on dry cleaned clothes bags, and lightly stretched it around the beam and taped it up. I made a frame for plaster, put some vacuum to the plastic which sucked it down tight but not into all the small undercuts, and filled up the frame with quickset plaster. The plaster mold came off with no problems. I let it dry overnight and then sprayed in a coat of $1 a can spray enamel paint to seal the plaster, a couple coats of wax, no PVA and then started pulling (polyester resin and mat, no gelcoat) fiberglass parts. The detail in the parts was incredible, even the minutest nick in the blade of the adze was visible, the open pores of the oak could be seen with magnification.

Back to the topic, I've used auto enamel and cheap spray can enamel with no problems. No problems so far, anyways.

[SamSam]

I just remembered a time I had a problem with alligatoring paint or gelcoat, it was a long time ago and I have always assumed it was cured gelcoat. A guy wanted a beer cooler right next to his steering wheel and there was a big expanse of horizontal console right there, so I cut a foot square hole in it, laminated a foam cored cooler and tabbed it in beneath the hole. I then gelcoated the interior of the cooler. As the boat was at the dock and evenings were cool, I covered the hole with a shallow cardboard 'tray' a few inches bigger than the hole, to keep the heat in and help the cure overnight. In the morning, all the years old cured console surface inside the box edges was severely alligatored from the gelcoat styrene fumes.

I had to fix all that alligatoring which is a little story in itself. I was bummed, this was a very expensive boat. People said paint pigments could be used for tinting gelcoat, I doubted it but had nothing to lose. I took some white gelcoat in to the auto paint store and the guy said he couldn't use charts to mix the color (a dark tan color) so he would have to guess and experiment. He put in a little of this and a little of that and it was a perfect match the first try. I sprayed it on with one of those Prevail bottle things and the whole repair was invisible.

[rxcomposite]

Originally Posted by the1much

the mekp is part of your resin.doesnt "stop" being mekp until the chemical reaction stops and the resin is kicked off,then its jus resin, but until then its still mekp,

You are technically correct. MEKP is an initiator to start the cross linking process and is consumed in the process. So until the process is complete, it is MEKP. Another chemical, Styrene, a solvent, is a crosslinking agent that reacts with the polymer to provide the crosslink.

So until the process is complete (cured), both chemicals will attack and dissolve anything in its path.

[mickbrowne]

Thanks guys for all your replies.
As it turns out, DURATEC was the solution...
I tried to remove the damaged 2 pack from one of the panels with paint stripper, a really good one! Some of the paint came off no problem, but the majority, it just wouldn't touch, even after 3 attempts. The paint that didn't come off, well, I recon a good half an hour with the buffer would've had it looking like new! Unfortunatly, the same couldn't be said of the body-filler in the panel, the paint stripper turned it into a jelly mush. The whole panel had to be taken back to bare metal, re-filled and re-shaped. Another 2 weeks of work!
I then re-painted using DURATEC. With a bit of effort, it polishes up damn near as good as the original paint-work, a good waxing to, a light coat of PVA and the mold came off perfectly. I experimented with spraying the DURATEC over my original paint-work on the last loose panel, and it seemed to work fine, so the whole thing got re-painted... No problems! I've just finished setting the 5th mold and, touch wood, everything seems to be working just perfectly.
As some wise sage stated earlier, "The poor man pays twice".... How true! That said, the DURATEC was only slightly more expensive than the original paint, the difference is, IT WORKS!! I'll never paint a plug in anything else again!
Thanks again guys, and thanks to EAST COAST FIBERGLASSfor providing so much help and advice, along with all the materials for my project.
Oh, if anyone is interested, the project in question is a GRP Hillman Imp bodyshell for my race-car.

[tunnels]

Originally Posted by mickbrowne

Thanks guys for all your replies.
As it turns out, DURATEC was the solution...
I tried to remove the damaged 2 pack from one of the panels with paint stripper, a really good one! Some of the paint came off no problem, but the majority, it just wouldn't touch, even after 3 attempts. The paint that didn't come off, well, I recon a good half an hour with the buffer would've had it looking like new! Unfortunatly, the same couldn't be said of the body-filler in the panel, the paint stripper turned it into a jelly mush. The whole panel had to be taken back to bare metal, re-filled and re-shaped. Another 2 weeks of work!
I then re-painted using DURATEC. With a bit of effort, it polishes up damn near as good as the original paint-work, a good waxing to, a light coat of PVA and the mold came off perfectly. I experimented with spraying the DURATEC over my original paint-work on the last loose panel, and it seemed to work fine, so the whole thing got re-painted... No problems! I've just finished setting the 5th mold and, touch wood, everything seems to be working just perfectly.
As some wise sage stated earlier, "The poor man pays twice".... How true! That said, the DURATEC was only slightly more expensive than the original paint, the difference is, IT WORKS!! I'll never paint a plug in anything else again!
Thanks again guys, and thanks to EAST COAST FIBERGLASSfor providing so much help and advice, along with all the materials for my project.
Oh, if anyone is interested, the project in question is a GRP Hillman Imp bodyshell for my race-car.

My son was given a imp free and ended up costing half a fortune and it was a horrible thing im sure it was haunted !!
there motors were based in the coventry climax motor !! first time i saw one was on the local firebrigade water pump ,was light weight and able to be carried by two men!!