[rossrods]

Palmetto its two soft, almost like the hardness of the lure had changed from rock solid, to almost like a plastic coke bottle feel with the spring back one pressed upon. I would say its not in the epxoy finish, or the createx, paint, or in the primer, Could be a reaction between the resin of fiberglass to instant glue to the urethane foam. I cant belive the cooked chemical state could change its hardness this blows my mind.

[The_Rookie]

What brand of foam are you using... Im just curious so I never try it.. cause it sounds like a pain in the butt!! Let us know if you get it fixed..

[Vodkaman]

I would not give up just yet. You need to do some tests to find out what the problem was. Cast a few more and coat with the resin. When cured, put them out in the sun. Put an uncoated casting out too, for comparison. It could, as you suggested, be an adverse reaction. You are playing with a very complex chemistry set, the sun's UV is another reactive component.

Try a different sealer!

By giving up to move to resin, you are making me nervous, as I am about to make the move in the opposite direction! You have already invested plenty of money in the foam, you might as well follow through. By all means, build some resin baits, but do the foam tests. Then you can compare the pro's and con's of both materials.

[K.C.K.]

I have been currently using 16lb foam for my swimbaits and had a reaction similar to what happened to Rossrods. but only on the one bait i primed with bulldog plastic primer. I have experimented with bulldog , fusion and rust-o-leum plastic primer and I have had my best results with the rust-o-leum Plastic Primer it drys matte not semigloss like fusion more bite for my creatix coats I also let my paint cure for a week before I devcon 2 them I personally believe that with acrylic paints you should wait and let them get good and hard before you topcoat I do not think What is happening to rossrods is the foam softening but the paint pulling from the bait off of his primer that will make it seem like it feels like a coke bottle, it did the same on mine. the foam under the paint and topcoat were intact.
Good luck
K.C.

[Travis]

I would be looking at the fiberglass resin as the main culprit. Since you mentioned the bait was soft we know a reaction has occured and with most "foams" solvents are going to be your culprit. I will assume youre bait was sealed by the fiberglass resin so the rustoleum product would have no effect. I always stay away from solvent (non water based) products with foamies or take the time (gulp slow down on making a bait) to make sure that it is really dry. You might be surprised to see how long it can take to really dry some products especially when we start to layer. Take a look at the organic solvents contained in the products you used and then look at the compatibility with the 16 lb foam and you will likely find the answer to your problems.

[pikeman]

it's happening along the joint ? maybe the pressure is causing the air caught between the two halves to pop out ... just a suggestion...even so the air can travel underneath the primer to a certain point

I'm preparing to try some foam tests , but I'll try a one piece mold ... hope I wont run into the same problem, I'll use propionate+acetone mix vs lacquer as primers

[rossrods]

Update to all. I will bow down to the Urethane foam and have to be a man, and not a mouse, and admit that I was to quick to jump to conclusions. The foam had no reaction with any of the glues/resins/or the primer. The foam had no problems. The problem occured from the D2T pulling away from the primer coat. I have been building baits for almost 3 years and never have had a issue like this before. The castings and foammies is something new so I was quick to point failure at something new. On one hand I am relived to know that the lessons learned here are sometimes hard earn but very much worth it. So in conclusion to this, the foam baits did very well. It was the epoxy pulling loose from the primer coat. So I will say to all who wants to learn how to use foam keep on and dont give up. To all I appreciate your inputs and next time I will not use the D2T below 60 degrees this is probally were I made my mistake. How I found the solution was dissected one of my air pockets and found everything still intact underneath the primer/resin/instant glue/and down to the foam. So had failure either at the createx or the D2T. I heat set the createx so I would be more willing to lean towards the epoxy being the culprit here because I applied below 70 degrees. I have noticed alot of flaky things during cold weather popping up about our beloved clear coat finishes be applied at this present time. I wonder if anyone in the tropical or warmer climates have had any issues as above. So to all I will go now and EAT MY CHEESE. lol

[cheesehead]

how long of a wait did you have between primer and painting?
it is very possible that the primer hadn't fully cured thus adding to your troubles.

Now about eating some cheese that thought scares the heck out of me!!! what kind of canibal are you?

[rossrods]

Good one their my cheese friend, look out I watched Mr Brooks the other night.LOL. I would say at least 24 hours and for some of this time they were heat set with a quartz halogen light about 2' away which keeps my temp around 70-80 in my crankbait dungeon for about 2 hours. I sprayed my createx at about 60degrees this could be the problem

[Vodkaman]

I am relieved to hear this, as I think polyester resin makes a great sealer coat. Very strong, smooth and it seems to accept paint well, although I don't do much there, other than applying some white for visibility.