[pizza]

I had an older but new in box norman floating minnow that was unpainted (and molded from an ugly yellow plastic to boot). Painted it black (with automotive touch up paint which also probably has some nasty solvent)and coated with D2T that was thinned with acetone. Everything seemed fine. For about a month. Now the lure is all deformed, bulging in places and the clearcoat is cracked in a bunch of places. Suprised me too.

[Vodkaman]

Mark, if more people posted their screw-ups, more people would learn. You haven't lost anyones respect, just gained more.

[redg8r]

Hey, Welcome to the club, its mishaps like these that increase your knowledge.
Some failures spark a new process or ideas & actually become fruitful.

My experience was that the solvent didnt ruin the integrity of the bait, it simply soaked in & "hazed" the plastic. I'll still fish mine, shoot think of it as an etching compound.

If the bait is a "must fix" you might have some success buffing it back to a reasonable gloss.

I have some that were dipped a little TOO long & actually developed a textured/wrinkled skin similar to the finish on a "Rhino lining".

I like the idea of hiding the lip somewhat with added claws, another idea would be to paint the exposed lip with a transparent neon, those are somewhat popular. but like I said, unless you let it soak TOO long, it's still fish-able.

If I cant mechanically remove a finish, I go with mineral spirits/paint thinner. If the paint isnt lacquer based, it should wrinkle up & come off relatively easily.

Someone had a quote in here along the lines "those who dont learn from thier mistakes are doomed to repeat them", I think it was Albert Einstein, but very relevent, none the less.

[mark poulson]

I thought Einstein said the same thing I did when it happened.
"Whuda thunkit?"
I actually coated a Lucky Craft lure with clear vinyl finish, and it wrinkled the crawdad decal finish. I like the added texture, and it's held up for two years now. I must not be fishing it enough, since I haven't lost it yet!
I don't think my Norman lure's ruined, just mad at me for peeling a little of it's skin off.
So I'll repaint it this week, and contemplate how to use that "solvent ice finish" to advantage in some jerkbait repaints. A clear suspending jerkbait, with an iridescent violet fog over the back and shoulders.
Yeah, I like the sound of that.

[Mavrick]

Acetone is also what they use to glue the body halves together!!!

[Spike-A-Pike]

So media or soda blasting would have probably removed the finish entirely and without damage??? I sometimes think that the different concoctions crawling out of the cauldrons would have gotten you burned as a Which in the simpler times of the 1680s. Enjoy, just don't hurt yourselves...

[Downriver Tackle]

You guys should see my blemish box, uh I mean my tackle box. During the learning process, I've acquired wrinkled lures, cracked lures, warped lures(cured too hot ) , tacky clearcoat lures, and some of the ugliest after a 6-pack creations you've ever seen. LOL Funny part is that most of them still catch fish. LOL

[Terrydabassman]

As Tony the tiger would say, "Frosted Baits are GREAT."

[b75nweav]

Some of my best baits in my box are my screwups. I probably couldn't give them away, But the fish seem to love those ugly critters..

[BobP]

I figure a new DD-22 is $3.97? If it's screwed up beyond my ability to make it "perfect" again, I toss it. Life is short!. If the coating won't cure, a second coat of PROPERLY MEASURED AND MIXED epoxy applied over it will almost always make it right again.