Black waist trim paint - what is it?

[Linegeist]

I want to tart up the black around the doors and tailgate where it's got worn away over the years - but my attempts to respray it have met with crazing of the substrate......

Given that I'm using Halfrauds satin black acrylic, I'd have thought there wouldn't be any reaction.

What am I missing (or does the car just hate me)?

[scarecrow]

Sorry if I'm asking the obvious here, but did you sand off the lacquer first?

Steve

[prm]

Try wiping the area first with cellulose thinners. Could be car wax underneath?

Flat with approx 600 wet and dry. Apply a light tack coat of finish colour, allow to dry, very lightly flat and then spray top coat.

Test a small section first to see if there’s any reaction, you may need to apply a base sealer to suit paint type to avoid any crazing.

Very difficult sometimes with unknown top coats. Try warming the area with a heat gun/hair dryer first, but not to hot.

Regards

[kiwi]

To be blunt it sounds like piss poor prep of the surfaces as stated above.

[Linegeist]

Thanks gents. I'm afraid I did all the usual stuff of degreasing, flatting with 800 grade, pre-priming with universal primer. At first the finished job looked good - I even de-masked the area (tailgate). Then, several hours later, the crazies appeared, allowing a silver substrate to grin through.

I can only assume, in the absence of the entire forum shouting, "Hah! Everyone knows you can't do THAT to a BX" that there's something unusual under there on my car. I know the one previous owner (an elderly gent who gave up driving) was in the habit of regularly creating fresh new dents in the bodywork - it's possible that his local paintshop did a patch repair using a synthetic enamel or an early two-pack.

I need to be aware of this when I respray the thing later this year (if we get a summer) 'cos I was planning on using a traditional cellulose clear over base.

[Defender110]

Bob

Could it be a reaction to the new universal primer?

[prm]

Don’t give up, a few more tricks you may like to try before you get the paint stripper out.

Attack a small fresh area. Wipe down with cellulose thinners and try cellulose satin black with no rubbing down. Use the thinners to possibly blend in any chips.
Any faded or light coloured areas, cover these first with several very light coats, until you achieve an overall uniform colour. Leave each layer until almost dry.
With the final coat, use a hair dryer to speed up the drying time.

If cellulose fails to work, try acrylic with no primer.

When you’ve got a reaction between paints sometimes stripping is the only way.

If both types still craze, would have thought you’ve got a conflict with an oil/enamel/primer based coating.
Aerosol propellant can react with certain paints, also they contain a large proportion of thinners. Rough guess, 30% of contents is actual paint colour?

How about trying Hammerite smooth satin black. Again, cover the lighter sections first. Compatible with most auto paint materials.

To praise dear old Halfruds with their paint code mixing service I’ve had no problems with any reaction on Citroen top colours. Not sure of the code for satin black.

Best of luck

Regards

[sub777w]

try degreasing with petrol befor spraying satin black or use blocking primer this is wot we do in are garage works every time,

[electrokid]

I've had some problems with the trim paint too Bob.

When I got the car 4 years ago I masked the trim and cleaned the are to be painted with isopropyl alcohol (IPA) - chosen because it dissolves most things and I always have it to hand. Sprayed in Halfords satin black it looked good but probably could have been better in grey (car in Ven red).

The strip adjacent to the roof went patchy over the years but apart from the usual scratches and the strip at the bottom of the windows where the rain stays longer it was ok.

I got to thinking that part of the problem is the different materials used - fibreglass at the top. plastic section down to the air vents, and steel everywhere else. This is fine in production but when re-fettling perhaps different primers are neeeded for each substrate - maybe even different cleaners as well.

Recently I re-fettled the roof section and I used Halfords plastic primer this time but it's worth reading the spec on the tin - there are different primers for "plastic that flexes" and "plastic that doesn't" so I might not have got that right - time will tell.

Of course, masking each different section to spray individual primers is even more of a pain than masking the whole lot and blatting it with matt black.

I have a tiny bit of rust showing at the bottom of the sills - I'm going to wire brush / kurust / then spray the sills using "Simoniz tough paint" which seems to have performed well elsewhere.

[electrokid]

Actually no - I got that wrong ! I used a universal primer on the fibreglass - took ages to thin it enough for the airbrush - had to crank the pressure up so high I blew a pipe on one of my airbrushes - took ages to get enough paint thickness on the car - took ages to clean the airbrush out - unusually I used many words from the Anglo-Saxon section of the dictionary - and promised myself that I'd use Halfords plastic primer... next time

[Linegeist]

Thanks for that info I'm experimenting at the moment - I tried satin hammerite the other night, thinned out and sprayed from a normal spraygun.

"Ruddy 'orrible!" as my RSM used to mutter. Doesn't look right at all.

I'm going to try taking the whole blacked area down to substrate with 600 W&D then pre-priming with a sealer, then grey prime followed by clear over base acrylic.

If that doesn't work, there's always the chainsaw!

[Defender110]

If that doesn't work, there's always the chainsaw!

Or The shotgun! Black peppered look??

[Linegeist]

You could be on to something there Kev!

Would I have to threaten the bugger in French, or do BX's parlez Anglais?

[Defender110]

Technically should yours not 'areithia Cymraeg'

[electrokid]

Would I have to threaten the bugger in French, or do BX's parlez Anglais?

I would try English first and if that didn't work...

I've only been completely fluent in French on two occasions - once in the French Alps having become much the better for alcohol - and again having lost patience with French customs in Lyon who were insisting that some sensitive electronics kit I was carrying went through the X-ray machine while I was insisting it didn't.

On the paint front - I discovered today that the Simoniz Tough Paint is available in matt black - this stuff can be sprayed direct to metal - if it works on fibreglass and plastic as well it's a one-coat, one-masking-operation job.