Stomp box painting

[Papa_lazerous]

Ok I know this has been covered in various different ways and seems to come up quite often.  But I cant find what I am looking for 'search' wise

I Normally do all the usual prep (ie Flatting the enclosure then cleaning with acetone)
Then Prime
Then Spray
After Decals etc I add clear coat.

I buy all this paint from B&Q (I am in the UK)

The thing is the paint is ok but the products are acrylic, so as you in the know will already be aware of Acrylic clear coat NEVER goes rock hard its soft and easily marked.

I know there are different tpyes of paint but the thing that I am having problems with is finding specific products or even knowing what the paints should be based on.  I here things mentioned in here but they all relate to things from the USofA and over here I may not be able to find that specific brand.

I am strongly considering buying a home spray kit.  you know the little compressor and spray gun.  they got them at a good price at the moment.  I figure this will open up the door for me to try dfferent products rather than over priced stuff from a DIY store thats already in an aerosol can.

So If anyway wants to tackle this I would be most happy

John

[markm]

If your meaning Acrylic Enamel, it does harden but needs time to do so and despite what the can may say, it sometimes takes more than say 48 hours for it to do so.

[Thomas P.]

I been there, man!
I never gotten the acrylic clear coat to harden - I really hate it...

[markm]

I been there, man!
I never gotten the acrylic clear coat to harden - I really hate it...

Wait longer between coats and give it about a month in the sun! 

[DryRoasted]

The best primer I have found in the UK is Halfords Zinc Oxide primer (the grey stuff) and I also use Halfords car paints but like you say they are Acrylic and chip easily.  If you have a Hobby Craft near you they sell Enamel sprays but not many colours and quite dear.  Oh yeah you can get a mini oven thingy from Argos.  about £30 give or take. 

If you want to do a sort of swap, painting my boxes and I'll bake yer boxes kinda deal pm me.  I'm in northamptonshire

[Papa_lazerous]

If your meaning Acrylic Enamel, it does harden but needs time to do so and despite what the can may say, it sometimes takes more than say 48 hours for it to do so.

It Just says Acrylic clear coat, It DOESNT harden EVER NEVER EVER....... 

Thats why I want to get something that does.  I am going to get myself a little oven but all thats going to do is speed up the time between coats.  I need something different. Acrylic as I know it may be a slightly different product to what you have.  I am thinking maybe 2 part Urethane Clearcoat  Something that is guaranteed to go solid as a rock.  but I need advice on whats best to try and whats compatable with other paints and laser water slide decals etc. I have seen some professional looking results here I know people must be using more superior porducts than what I have available to me

[markm]

The best primer I have found in the UK is Halfords Zinc Oxide primer (the grey stuff) and I also use Halfords car paints but like you say they are Acrylic and chip easily.  If you have a Hobby Craft near you they sell Enamel sprays but not many colours and quite dear.  Oh yeah you can get a mini oven thingy from Argos.  about £30 give or take. 

If you want to do a sort of swap, painting my boxes and I'll bake yer boxes kinda deal pm me.  I'm in northamptonshire

For the best adhesion (I like that word!  ), do yourselves a favor and look for a Self-Etching Primer.
It's the best hope one can have for sticking to aluminum, the topcoat is only gonna stick as well as what's under it!

[Papa_lazerous]

I have no problem whatsoever with primer and top coat adhesion.  Its the quality of the clear coat.  It adheres just fine but its soft!

[teddybear]

the picture plzz 

[Shed_FX]

I second the recommendation for Halfords grey zinc primer. This makes the job a lot easier. The second coat paints ive used in the past have been mainly the small can's of Plasticote Enamel paint which has worked with varying results. Most of the paint jobs have set completely solid, but my dynacomp remains soft and impressionable. Ive gained more reliable results with the larger cans of Plasticote which isnt enamel and costs £6 a can (unless you are from cornwall and you'll know about Trago!) This sets really nicely but unless you want to paint a lot of stuff the same colour you'll end up with a lot left over. The other one ive used with success is hammerite. This has this sets really solid but works better with primer on aluminium. This can be overpainted and clear coated with tough results ("its iron on iron" if you remember the old adverts).

The clear coat i use is Halfords Clear Automotive Lacquer this states it takes 2 weeks to set completely solid. Its designed to melt the top few layers of paint and then set it as one. After 3-4hour it is dry enough to tough and after a day can be handled. Once this sets the whole thing is sorted. Without baking but it is best to leave it alone for atleast a week. The only unsuccessful jobs I've done with this resulted from the second colour coat being of different composition. The photo's below are my "mxr homages" the bluebox was painted with plasticote enamel and lacquered this is as solid as a rock. The phase 90 was brush painted with plasticote fast drying enamel and this took about a week to set hard. Im afraid it seems to be an inexact science even if you stick with specific brands. I now have confidence that hammerite and the large tins of plasticote high gloss would dry very well the lacquer. Hope that wasn't to long and boring!

[Shed_FX]

Here is an example of the hammerite finish with enamel lettering and clear coat. This pedal is another homage and not intended to be a recreation of the pedal it closely resembles i simply built up a configurable fuzz circuit of my own chosing and fiddled with what does what. (Im not giving out the schematic of what i used or anything. I did it to test my electronics and painting skills!) The white lettering worked well and i used a Tip-ex pen to draw them on as the letters are relatively small. The level needs a knob but that is only because smeggin' maplin only had 4 at the time!.

[petemoore]

  I think they may make that acrylic soft like that for aluminum applications especially, since it's always moving.
  If the paint were like glass it'd break or come loose.
  Hammerite has alot going for it, the 'mottles everywhere look' [reminds me of old industrial and electronic device finishes] may not be for the 'flat-minded', and perfect glassy looks great but shows everything including marks, dust..etc. scratch lines are very easy to pick out of a very flat surface.
  The topology of HR finish makes it super easy to not even worry so much about surface preparation perfection, any 'scratches' appear as nicks on the hills, or teeny curves amongst curves, much harder to pick out by the eye. This seems to 'pad' blows, isolating the pressure instead of expecting a 'thin ice sheet' to absorb it.
  Plus the textured finish looks cool.
  I don't know what the thermal expansion rates are on the material / thicknesses used in various aluminum type boxes, or how much/if that even matters in paint finishing.

[zarathustra]

I've found that acrylic clear coats meant for automotive applications give a much more durable finish than the clear coats made for the average hobbyist.

Also, has anyone tried the Eastwood urethane top coat from SmallBear? It's expensive, but I'd be tempted to try it if it gives good results.

[markm]

You just can't beat Eastwoods stuff......it's tougher than Clint!!