Fw: [DML] What I learned about painting fascias

["Chris Parnham" <chrisparnham@xxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Grimsrud, Knut S" <knut.s.grimsrud@xxxx>
To: <dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, January 05, 2001 9:38 PM
Subject: [DML] What I learned about painting fascias


> I used some of my holiday to learn how to paint fascias and thought I
would
> share a couple of the key learnings from my adventure. Thanks to Ken
> Koncelick who provided a lot of very helpful tips and gave me the
confidence
> to give this a try.
>
> I had a lot of fun with it and learned a couple valuable lessons:
>
> 1) My shop is not as clean as I like to think -- regardless of how clean I
> kept everything, it wasn't clean enought for a flawless finish due to dust
> flecks. I didn't get any fisheyes, but I did get some dust flecks. I
havent
> cut the clearcoat yet to take the orange peel out and expect that the
> imperfections from the dust flecks will rub out as well as I cut the
> topcoat. I not only had a really clean shop to start with, but built a
paint
> tent around my work area in order to avoid overspray from getting all over
> my shop and to also keep the dust down.
>
> 2) Surface preparation is really the name of the game -- I thought I got a
> pretty darn good surface as I stripped my fascia down to bare plastic,
> however minor scuff marks in the underlying plastic fascia are really hard
> to get to disappear by sanding down an overlying paint layer
>
> 3) Good tools really help -- I was really happy with the Binks HVLP spray
> gun I bought. It really made getting even coverage easy and was a joy to
> use. The controls for amount of material and spray pattern were easily
> adjustable and were not overly finicky in getting good settings to lay
down
> an even coat. Although orange peel is expected, I was pleased that I got
> what I consider a pretty good coverage with minimal orange peel that can
> readily be buffed out.
>
> 4) Good protective equipment is essential -- in my paint tent I would have
> asphyxiated without a good respirator. I made the mistake of not having a
> hood over my head and the clearcoat did a pretty good job of serving as
> semi-permanent hairspray. For those of you that have met me and know
> my hair situation, you probably realize this is not a pretty picture.
>
> 5) Get enough paint on for it to get "wet" and flow properly -- I was a
> little too timid on my first coat of basecoat and did not lay down enough
> material for the paint to flow and get "wet". Fortunatley I intended to
sand
> this layer for the purpose of smooting out minor defects and scuffs in the
> underlying pastic fascia. The next coat went on properly to yield a good
wet
> coat without putting so much on that I got any sags.
>
> I have a couple minor defects that I will be fixing through a couple
means.
> I have very mile orange peel that I have not yet cut and I have a few
minor
> dust flecks in the clearcoat that I also expect will be fixed when I cut
the
> clearcoat. Currently the fascia is also incredibly glossy (looks like it
is
> totally wet), but I have yet to cut the clearcoat and expect that by
> experimenting with a couple different cutting compounds I'll arrive at the
> proper grit to yield the satin finish expected for the fascia.
>
> As you can probably tell I had fun with this. I didn't save any money
doing
> it myself as the cost of materials and equipment completely offset the
> cost of a new fascia, but that was not the intent -- I wanted to have fun
> acutally doing the repaint. As many of you might already know, with me the
> tools are the end and the projects are only the means.
>
> Knut
>
>
>
>
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