fish eyes

[thefridge]

I have a question about fish eyes that showed up in a paint job i did. I really don't think that it's a water problem, I have a dryer, and two water seperators. I did build a sort of paint booth in the rear of the garage just for painting cars. There is paneling that I used for the walls, and for the seems I used a caulk. Could this be the problem? The silicone in the caulk? I don't know what the heck, everything was very clean, and I used PPG wax and grease remover on it. One more thing, I did use a cheap tack cloth the was bought from the hardware store. Maybe?


Thanks, Tom

[dave_demented]

i dont think it was the caulking on the paneling, it was probably the tack cloth, although ive used cheap ones before with no problem. when you used the dx330 did you jsut wipe it on and let it evaporate or did you wipe it on and wipe it off

[Serge]

Some tacks are based on bee's wax, they are for lacquer paints and are generally yellow in color. These are to be avoided for urethane and acrylic paints in general. Mind you, not all yellow tacks are bee's wax based, but most of the general cheep hardware store ones are...

The blue ones are based on acrylic resins that are compatible with urethanes and acrylics in general.

I have seen bad yellow ones, I have not seen a bad blue cloth yet although I would not bet much that there are cheep bad blue cloths out there...you need a tack that is made for basecoat...

I don't think the silicone caulk on your walls would have created fish eyes on the car...but then again I could be wrong...but I would bet more on something that touched the car or in the compressed air...

Just my 2 cents.

Serge

[Jon E]

Some tacks are based on bee's wax, they are for lacquer paints and are generally yellow in color. These are to be avoided for urethane and acrylic paints in general. Mind you, not all yellow tacks are bee's wax based, but most of the general cheep hardware store ones are...

That would explain a lot.

Ive used yellow tack-rags in the past (Made by Gerson I believe?) and they were the gooy and greasiest tack-rags Ive ever used and caused fisheyes everwhere. They were out of the Surgical Blue's at my regular paint store, so I tried them once. I won't do that again, that's for sure.

[Len]

There's a hundred different reasons for fish eyes. We had a shop that started getting fish eyes in their jobs and had every paint rep in the northeast in the shop before someone went up on the roof and saw that the intake for the booth was downwind from McDonalds and was inhaling the grease coming out of their eatery.

We learned the hard way that spraying any aerosol lubricant in the shop is a big no-no. Now we drive the point home with anyone who even looks at these aerosol products.

I absolutely agree that some tack cloths shouldn't even be sold for tacking off cars. You can feel the film on your hands after you use a bad tack rag.

[thefridge]

Well i just want to thank all you guy's for your input. I will be repainting it tonight and I bought a good tac cloth for it. As for the wax and grease remover I just wipe it on and let it air dry. Is that wrong?

Thanks, Tom

[dave_demented]

you shouldnt let it air dry, that can too casue fish eyes. wipe it on then wipe it off with another clean dry rag or whatever your usin.

[dcrog]

Get a roll or four of Bounty. Spraying on would be better but wiping it on will work. Work small areas and don't allow it to air dry. Wipe it as much as you can in one direction, off the panel if possible. And use a clean fresh towel for each wipe. You don't have to dry it completely but it needs to float the contaminates. That is why spraying is a better option if possible.

[thefridge]

Well it was the tack rag that was causing the fisheyes. Thank you guy's for all your input on this, this sight is great and i'm learning a lot.

Thanks, Tom