Top Coat Adhesion

[xllund]

Has anyone else ever encountered this situation.

Some times (Devcon or Flex-Coat) my top coat doesnt seam to adhere to the bait. Example: I recently finished a bait, and 3 days later I had noticed that too much top coating material had gathered around the hook eye. As I was trimming off the excess (with an Exacto knife) I noticed that at one point I could lift a small portion of the top coating material, just like a thin sheet of ice looks when you scrape your windows.

Any help from you gents woudl be appreciated.

Also, I spray a coat of Gloss Enamel on my baits prior to top coating. This was a recomendation from the folks at Flex Coat to help the coating from peeling.

Should I be spraying my baits with something else prior to top coating?

HISTORY:

All baits primed

All baits painted with Acrylic paint (Createx, Testors, etc.)

Top coating material: Devcon or Flex Coat.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Skeeter]

Mike,

I need to know:

1. What kind of wood?

2. Do you use a sealer of any kind before priming?

3. What kind of primer?

4. What did you use to clearcoat this particular bait?

5. I assume that from what you said that regardless of the brand that all of the paint that you are using is acrylic.

I know it is alot of questions, but I need to know before I can make a diagnoses.

Skeeter

[xllund]

Hello Skeeter,

Thanks for helping out. OK here goes,

1) The baits are plastic (from a major manufacturer in the muskie tackle ind.)

2) No sealer needed

3) One of the baits comes to me already primed (dont know what they used) the other I shot with a new product made escpecially for plastic. I let them dry for at least 24 hours before I begin to paint them.

4) It has happened with both Devcon & Flex Coat

5) Yes all paints are acrylic.

Let me ask this Skeeter, do you and possibly most of the other craftsmen let your baits dry (say for a day or more) before you top coat them?

What I have been doing is shooting them immediately after painting with a gloss enamel. Drying it with a heat gun, then top coating immediately afterward. Do you think maybe the paint isnt dry enough?

Thanks for you help.

[muskie1958]

Mike,

I live very close to 4 or 5 major manufacturers of Muskie baits here in WV. I know all but 1 of them. All of them basecoat today and paint tommorrow. I tried what you are trying with simlar results. When I coated the baits the same day the paint would still be tacky the next day and the colors would bleed into each. This can be used to your advantage if you want an undertone to show through. Well any way, my .02 cents. Mark

[Skeeter]

If this new product for plastic is anything with Krylon on it, ditch it. There have just been too many problems that folks have experienced on this site with Krylon products. I don't really know why, but there have been a bunch of them. I have only played with one color of acrylic paint. It seems to dry pretty fast. I don't really see any problem with shooting the entire bait in a day, but I would let the entire bait after being painted cure for a day before I would clearcoat it. Is this gloss enamel a clear? Also get rid of the heat gun. I think it is doing you more harm than good. I shot a white undercoat on a bait once in my garage while the temperature was pretty cold outside. I was able to shoot it pretty thick onto the bait. I did a couple of others and let that one hang on my rack for awhile. About 20 min. later I took the bait inside my house to finish drying in a warmer environment. I went back a half hour later to check it and the paint had run. While the paint was cold it was thicker and would not run outside. Once it hit the heat the paint got pliable and ran. It could be that the heat gun is actually keeping the paint from drying properly. It could be making the paint pliable. Or it could be curing the top layer and it feels dry to the touch but the underlying coats of paint have still not cured.

Skeeter