Just realized I was being stubborn about waterborne paint for no good reason

I spent 5 years swearing by solvent basecoats. Thought waterborne was too finicky, too expensive to set up, and just not worth the hassle. Then we got a big insurance job at the shop in Portland that required waterborne and I had no choice. First couple of panels were a disaster with orange peel and flow issues. But then my buddy Mark from the next bay over showed me his trick of using a slower reducer and bumping the gun pressure just a hair. Night and day difference. The color match was actually more consistent than what I got with solvent. Plus the overspray doesn't hang in the air all day and make me feel like I'm eating paint. I still don't like cleaning the guns as much but I'm finally getting over myself. Has anyone else switched later in their career and found a trick that made it click?

3 comments

3 Comments

max_torres4428d ago

Your buddy @wilson.joseph is right, that preheat trick changes everything for cold weather spraying.

wilson.joseph28d ago

Man, that's funny you say that because I got a buddy down in Eugene who was the exact same way. He used to rag on waterborne every chance he got, said it was for guys who couldn't handle real paint. Then his shop got hit with a big fleet contract and they had to switch. He told me he spent his first weekend fighting with his gun settings and wanted to throw the thing in the river. But after he figured out you gotta preheat your paint a little in cold weather, he said it was like a whole new world. Now he brags about how much less mud he has to sand out before buffing.

jana_shah28d ago

I ran into the same headache @max_torres44 until I started warming my paint to about 75 degrees before spraying. It thins out way more consistent and my gun stopped spitting halfway through a panel. Now I keep a small heater in my mixing room just for that and it saved me a ton of rework.