I painted two panels today; both had it. Have painted other panels from same vehicle with no fisheye. Recommendations for dealing with fisheye preferably without using eliminator. Suppose I should mention this is single stage acrylic.
And I don't know your setup, but it can come through your air hose also. And lay the back of your hand on the panel before you paint, is it warm? If it feels cold, you'll have issues. Just because the shop is warm, doesn't mean your panels are. And when you wipe it down with final wipe, prep sol, wax and grease remover, whichever you choose, make sure you give it time to dry before you spray. Lots of possibilities
Yes, I was going to mention the same that is why I asked if was only in one spot (indicating contaminants on the panel) or everywhere (which may point to contaminated air line/supply).
"Filth" somewhere in the process. Some oil residue is getting in. Clean panels. Clean new wipes. Water / oil separators on air system. If you lube your air tools and use the same hose to paint with - Your air hose is contaminated at the tip. Is your compressor worn out and allowing lube oil into the compressor housing and into your air supply. What gun are you using, if it's new they put oil in guns for while ***embling. Any fans going while painting? Any other activity in the shop while you painted. Did you detail your car recently in the same garage - spray tire shine in the same building as youre painting in will F up your world.
I had a compressor that would cause fish eyes when it needed an oil change. We would change the oil and everything was fine. I would drop the air from the filters and traps you have inline also...
Plus don't they make a fisheye preventer that you can add to the paint? I know they used to. Looks like oil or silicone contamination.
I’ve painted lots of stuff over the years and tons of equipment at work . Fish eye ****s ! At least it’s a small spot . I’ve seen it at work on forklifts and equipment. We pressure wash with hot soapy water then just hot water , clean clean clean and clean again. Blow everything out with compressed air Wipe it all down with a grease and wax remover I think the brand we use right now is Pro-Sol. Anyways , we still will get a patch of fish eye here or there at times. And it usually shows up in a spot that either , A . Had oil repeatedly leak on that spot and “soak into “ the steel . Or B. A spot that was really dirty with “ something” . and even after all the scrubbing , hot water etc it just could not get all the shmeng out of the pores of the metal . now at work it’s just forklift and equipment , no one is looking for a show quality job, just a nice one colour somewhat nice coat. I’ll scuff up the offending area, clean it again, prime and paint . It’s dirt and oil man ! ****s but almost unavoidable when dealing with old stuff. and like @Lloyd's paint & gl*** said paint likes to stick to warm metal most paint says minimum surface temp of 15* Celsius . I don’t know what that is in ferenheight or presidential ****** hair length or whatever you guys use down there but essentially room temperature or slightly less.at a minimum.
Wipe down was with Kleen Strip Prep-All Wax and Grease Remover; twice. Used two fresh micro cloth for wipe down. No inline oiler. Industrial compressor is approximately two years old and is oil cooled. Air line has two homemade cooling towers with water traps then to a set of Wilkerson filters (water and oil) and finally an inline filter at the gun. Used Crystal tac cloth. Gun used is a Walcom Geo W4103. Used gun to paint close to 12 vehicles. Paint is N***on acrylic, N***on hardener, with TCI fast reducer. Ambient temp was was 65 for roughly 90 minutes before paint application. Sanding was done with a Dewalt electric orbital or by hand. Don't even own a can of WD-40. Can't say for sure put may have used Chicago Pneumatic air powered DA on one panel but definitely not both. Could panels been exposed to oil/silicone substance; possible. Now how to rectify situation? Let paint cure for 24 hours. Do I wet sand fisheye areas flat and repaint? Can I scuff and lay down more paint to fill in fisheye which could mean many layers? I have read fisheye eliminator can bring completely new set of issues. Thanks
I will defer to LLoyd on the repaint questions but I agree on the additives, I don't like it either. Too many products to go wrong.
One way to help prevent contamination is wash down with soap & water , then some sort of prep Sol BEFORE you sand or grind . sanding & grinding can drive silicon & other contaminants in to the paint ./ steel / fibergl*** , etc .
Did you spray WD-40 within 50 feet of the paint prepped metal? That is a no-no. Ask me how I know.....I painted the p***enger side of my avatar twice.
Body shop I worked at, prohibited any silicone on the property. They hired a contractor to redo the office bathrooms and owner came completely unglued when the guy caulked the sink with silicone. Red faced, Screaming. MFing him, ran the guy outta the building. Took 3 days for him to come back after the office mgr smoothed it out.
Dang fish eyes. Sand them out and re coat unfortunately. Maybe try a couple of drops of fish eye eliminator, worth a shot. My compressor was low on oil , topped up to level plug. Sheet fish eyes for Africa . Luckily i dodged a bullet and was able to run some degreaser through the lines and all seems good.
Using the tack cloth improperly ( wiping the surface too hard, too much pressure) will sure cause them also. The sticky off the wipe will end up on your panel. Lippy
I had heard for years about having WD-40 anywhere near where you are painting or even in the shop would cause fisheyes in paint but wasn't sure if that was the case.
Fisheyes ****. Sounds like ya have the filter set up. I’ll add that I will have different fittings for paint equipment than air tools. Using an impact then a paint gun with the same hose can cause an issue. I’ll also clean with a water based cleaner followed by a solvent based wax and grease remover. Air borne contamination, spray lubricants, recent silicone products, dressings …….a neighbor using armor all …..can cause em
Yeah, and you should have seen how pissed off the painter was that I hired to paint the new fibregl*** hood on my Kenworth. He was swearing about fish eyes. I didn't know what he was talking about, till he traced the air line I handed him back to the inline oiler. I wore a younger man's clothes then. I'm smarter now. I hope.
Lloyd is spot on with the trick of putting the back of your hand on the panel to check if the panel is warm enough. Less chance of leaving oily fingermarks with the back of the hand plus if the panel is cold it will fisheye.
Wax and grease remover does not remove water-soluable contamination such as salts from your sweat, hand soap, etc. You need to wash the car with soap and water, then use wax and grease remover before applying the paint. Get it clean and your problems should go away. Be careful also not to transfer contamination to the surface after it's been cleaned. It's easy to do. Setting your tack rag down for a moment on a contaminated bench top will do it, or touching the grip of your paint gun and then touching the surface of the car with your fingers, or touching the air hose and then the car, letting your soiled sleeve or pants leg touch the surface as you walk by, etc. You probably won't even know you did it until the fisheyes begin to pop out... To fix what you've got you'll need to wet sand the area until the fisheyes are no longer shiny. Take it easy and you probably won't go through the enamel and into the primer. Then scuff and recoat as required, keeping in mind that during the wet sanding and scuffing process you'll have re-contaminated the area so you'll need to wash it with soap and water, then use wax and grease remover before laying down your final color coats. Good luck!
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