Been getting some fish eye , I don't understand why. Shooting epoxy over my primer as a sealer. I used the dupont low voc water based wax and grease and I got fish eye, then I tried the martin senior w&g I had kicking around and got some fish eye on that. I put on a tack coat and that was fine, but the next coat I got fish eye. but the next coat buried most of it.
Whats the standard procedure for applying the wax and grease and am I using the right stuff?

thanks

 

Go to the paint store and buy some fish eye eliminator. It works great! Just pour a little in the paint, follow the directions on the can.

 

For applying the W&G remover you want to wipe it on in one direction and then wipe it off with a clean towel right away in the same direction. Just do small areas at a time. I use bounty paper towels. Some spray it on using a plastic sprayer and then wipe it off.

 

always do an area small enough to keep really wet. the point is to float the contaminate up and wipe off. if you let it flash at all it just sticks to the surface again. water base is best as it leaves no solvents behind to gas out later.

 

First time I've heard anyone say to use this stuff.
I've never used it myself but I've heard lots of bad things about doing so.

 

is it all over the car or just in spots?

do you have sufficient filters running to the gun? sounds like you have a contaminated air feed.

 

Maybe your neighbor sabotaged the spray gun he loaned you.

 

fisheye eliminator is the absolute worst product ever invented. once you use it your shop is contaminated. as far as my shop went if a painter could not clean as car there was little hope he could paint it. if i found any of it someone had a problem.

 

check your air lines and filters for oil and other contaminates

 

1) It can't be stressed enough that there is no substitute for good painting heigene. It starts with before you even strip the vehicle and includes how you use and store all the stuff (oils, waxes, Armour All, etc) in your garage, right down to little details like cleaning the outside air hose if any oil get on it. Don't ever pour anything back into your thinner or reducer jugs. If you keep your shop and equipment clean and reduce oils/silicates fish eyes won't be an issue. Of course you can get a lone fisheye or two during a paint job, sometimes the result of a certain particle of dust, but that's the exception. I usually do final wetsanding using a soapy water solution. That goes a LONG way to avoiding fisheyes.

2) You have to be careful about wax and grease removers. According to the Martin Senour rep I spoke with once about this issue, the older stuff designed for lacquer paints can cause big problems when used with tec-base. He recommended throwing out the old. In fact, my brother once had paint delamination problems he tracked down to using old W&G remover. I use PPG DX330 which is pretty good.

3) I would shy away from fish eye eliminator. It's gonna reduce your shine too. There shouldn't be any need for it. When I was a beginner I used the stuff. As I got more experienced I realized the fish eyes were due to my lack of good shop cleanliness. Go back and track down the source of your fish eyes and eliminate the source. You might have to sand out the fish eye paint and respray, but it'll turn out better.

Good luck,

Mark G

 

As an amature, I found that my fish eye problems were water in the line. I couldn't get rid of it with filters until I added hard lines around (origianlly I had a 25' hose right out of the compressor) my garage and that gave the air time to cool and then could be filtered out.

 

Great point 71white!

Here's something else I've seen ...even among guys that should have known better: Make sure your moisture trap is at least 30 ft from the air compressor. I've seen some guys mount them right on the compressor and that does nothing to trap moisture. You want to have enough line to allow the air to cool and let the moisture condense out ...then the trap will collect the condensed moisture.