Spray Can Show Quality?

I've been a professional painter for decades I've been an instructor for 20 years and you want me to do a paint job with a freaking rattle can okay sounds like fun [Music] [Music] hey hope everybody's doing good so yes we're going to go here we're going to go down this Rabbit Hole of rattle can paints there's a lot of people with the turbo cans and with this and that I've had discussions with Derek about doing rattle can paint jobs and my saying is that there's no such thing as cheap paint there's only misunderstood paint and all we have to do as technicians is make the the paint chemistry happen and guess what rattle cans are no different it's legit paint but you got to know how to use it so I've been called out onto the carpet let's do a rattle can paint job prove it buddy anybody can do it in a professional spray booth with expensive materials and the high dollar guns although that's a separate argument I will say it's interesting and difficult to get a very nice paint job out of a rattle can we're going to do it though so before we go on if you like what you see on this channel make sure that you subscribe make sure that you hit the button get the not notification cuz we got a bunch of cool content coming up and so I want you to be a part of this as much as um you might want to see some cool stuff on the YouTube channel paint ucation by Kevin Tate so we're not doing a full-size vehicle spoiler alert we're going to do harly tins this is a Harley-Davidson gas tank and um it needs a paint job is it Horrible no has it been bounced down the freeway no but look here look real close here you can even can hear them there's some scratches there we've got scratches here I can feel it with my hands okay right here this is chipped off that's where the seat goes as you can see the rubs right there from the upholstery of the seat that's not even going to be visible but I'm still going to smooth that out overall it's in good shape there's a couple of scratches here it's flaking off around the fuel fill anyway so it's it's a pretty easy candidate for a rattle CAD paint job but what I want to do is make it look really really good and we're going to do it with this I went to the local Home Center and I scoured to see which kind of spray can I wanted to reach for and I found this Stu and it's rustolium common brand it's a gloss enamel protective enamel I don't even know what that means but what really intrigued me was this tip right here and I don't know what it does but it looks like I've got options as far as a spray pattern which is my biggest beef with these spray cans now there's lots of different types of spray cans there's the 2K Arrow spray that Eastwood has where you plunge a button on the bottom and it releases Catalyst and it becomes a professional product in a spray can that's a really good idea that's not what we're doing we're going to do rattle can just like this but one of the things that's the hardest thing to control on one of these regular cans is that it comes out in the shape of a cone and not a flat pattern if this does what I think it's going to do and comes out in a flat pattern then money then we can do a lot smoother paint job and I can show you how to do a lot smoother paint job with something like this so let's test out the pattern obviously you want to shake up the can but let's look at this nozzle it comes locked just like that we're going to go with number one and see what number one does there's number one that looks typical let's see what number two does there's number two smaller interesting let's see what number three does there's number three looks exactly the same as number two I don't know what does number four do here's number four oh wow okay okay Game Changer and we got number five H okay it's like I've turned my air cap on a professional gun so this is really interesting so this one here looks like the largest of the patterns this one is maybe I I I can't tell much difference between those two I between those three but these look at the pattern there that's a nice flat pattern and I can turn it one more Notch this is number five and I get that pattern which that's good for getting into tight 90s we probably won't have to but this shows me that I can get a super nice pattern and I've got control over the overlap on a flat pattern instead of a round pattern so this is cool now we got a prep 99% of a good paint job is in the prep work and we're not going to be any different with this just because it's a $8 rattle can doesn't mean we can compromise on prep so we're going to be sanding with good materials and properly uh taking care of scratches and stuff like that we're not going to hack this up and I really want to try and get a nice paint job out of this so so if you know me at all and even if you don't you got to understand that I'm a big subscriber into the proper prep steps so what we're going to be using to sand this is 800 grit and an 800 to 1,000 grit scuffing pad we're also going to be using a flexible interface pad between the Sandpaper and my fingertips so I don't dig a bunch of grooves so why prep with 800 grit why so fine the fluid nozzle on the spray can is Tiny it's about the size of the head of a pin P the fluid nozzle on a top coat gun is 1.3 mm much bigger why is that we can get a pattern this wide here's why it's thinner than water in that spray can so if we have big gnarly sanding scratches that are made for a different material that's thicker and will fill them in and we use that thin rattle can paint guess what we're going to have we're going to have sanding scratches showing through proper prep procedures like I said there's no bad paint there's only misunderstood paint so we're going to use quality sandpaper this is Nik can paper it's 800 grit it's wet paper it's not wet or dry paper it's not dry paper so it's got to soak a little bit before we start scuffing and sanding this pad doesn't need any prep but we'll probably do it wet anyways just so we don't have a bunch of dust around before we do any sanding guess what you got to clean it you have to pay attention to the procedures and I'm a huge huge disciple of procedure you just have to take care of it so we're going to do a two-step cleaning process and if you've taken any of my pain ucation courses or seen any of my pain ucation videos you know that I subscribe to a two-step cleaning process organic and then solvent and it doesn't mean that you got to buy super expensive stuff although I would prefer that you buy a paint system with good quality chemicals you can get by with regular household cleaners our first step is a glass cleaner and we're going to clean the hack out of this spray the cleaner on Let It soak it in real good all these spots here represent contamination of some kind I don't want to grind that down into the surface so I'm going to take my wiping towel and wipe this look at that I'm going to wipe this cleaner off if it's nasty enough I might even do it again and I know somebody out there is saying look how nice that looks it doesn't even need a paint job let's just go ride I understand that I'm actually going to clean it again cuz my wiping towel was nasty there no such thing as too clean look at that take a close look at that that's stage one of cleaning now we're going to use a solvent based cleaner what that means also is PPE now I'm using a solvent-based wax and grease remover this is pretty standard fair for auto body products if you don't have a job or supply store in your area and you want to use an alternative nap from a home center works but but it's always best to use good products especially on a step like this which is preparing the foundation of your project all right so that looks clean to me look here that's the second stage of cleaning so the water-based cleaner didn't pick up everything that's why I do two steps of cleaning always so now we've given our paper a chance to soak you can tell when wet paper is ready by how it curls the backing absorbs water and if we were to use this dry with 800 grit it might load up on the top but also the paper backing might separate and it lasts 10 times as long if you actually use it wet here's my soft interface pad I've got a quick trifold and now we go to work so just in case you're wondering what type of surface that you're working on it always helps to know what type of surface you're working on one way to tell is if you're sanding it and your sanding water comes up white regardless of the color that's underneath it that's a good indicator that it's a clear coated finish whether this is clear paint or clear powder I don't know I don't really care but it's a clear coated finish so 800 is going to it's going to knock the Shine off pretty dang quick what it's also going to do it's going to leave unsanded and shiny spots behind you look and see those little shiny dots there those are low spots those are just beat up parts of the surface right along through there you see that big that used to be a scratch if I paint over that it's going to show through I want to level that out [Music] all right let that dry and take a look right there it's hard to see but you can see little Dent little depression in it I'm going to mark that there's another one oh there it is right there all right we'll mark those for later [Music] all right so now we can take a closer look now I know these two spots are low because I marked them when I could see a reflection got a couple other little shiny spots we've got this spot right here that we need to level it out I don't necessarily need any filler on there I just need to smooth it out cuz this the seat don't forget it comes up to here it's going to be covered right there where it's white that's a scratch these are scratches there's scratches there and there's a scratch there so oh there's another one right there that's probably not going to be seen But if I'm doing a paint job I'm going to do a good one and I'm going to smooth that out so what we're going to do from here because now we've seen where our damage is we're going to go up to 400 grit sandpaper which is going to a whole lot smoother and I'm going to go ahead and level and block out those spots and Imperfections there's no dents it's just depressions in the paint so we're going to do quick prep level it out Mill it down with 400 and then come back knock it over with 800 and then we'll come back with the scuffing pad and we should be ready to paint pretty soon so I've got my block loaded up with 400 grd it's wetter dry paper sticky backed and it's on a hardfaced block this is the next level block um if you're going to create a flat surface you have to use a flat surface to create it so if that makes sense what we're going to do is block these spots down with 400 and a little bit of water and we're just going to go down and flatten it out where what I tell people that go through paint ucation University is that we're human Milling machines we're manual CNC Mills capable of decision-making processes and coffee breaks that was good when I'm blocking I'm rolling over the surface I'm trying to use the flat footprint of the block but honestly I'm rolling over the surface and though those of you that have done this before you know what I'm doing but if you don't if you haven't hope this is making sense to you one of the fun things is that when you change sand gr sandpaper grits it shows up as a slightly different scratch so I'm going to know where my spots are that I got to go back in with 800 and finish those scratches out if I don't if I just cheap out and I think boy it's 5:30 and it's time to go and hydrate and I miss a prep step it's it's going to show through the paint job so fall in love with that that's my best advice to anybody out there that wants to start in the painting process get used to sanding and get used to the panels telling you when they're finished I've said that for years it's not up to us it's up to this gas tank to tell me when it's flat all right so this spot right here I'm using my Sharpie Mark as a bit of a guide code so I'm lightly going over the Block in theory when I've sanded my Sharpie Mark out my Surface is flat in theory no Sharpie must be flat we'll see here's another one this one you can see it's a little bit deeper it's takeing a little bit longer no Sharpie must be flat right here I'm just it looks like some knuckle head has put JB Weld on there sorry Tracy so I'm just going to smooth it out I'm just kind of going through the motions this paint that we're using the rustolium is designed to go over bare metal so on a technical level I don't even require a primer on this repair I don't know if I'm going to do it or not I'm not sure I want to complicate the process but I do want a smooth trans transition we're getting there all right I think that's good do I see any other spots I don't know might be one right here see those light spots those are scratches going to get them I don't know why I'm talking so much do you ever wonder about the pebble in the pond so there's a Clear Pond you drop a pebble in the middle and the waves that form from the center of the pond and radiate outward hit the shore and then they come back that becomes a metaphor for a lot of things but what I wonder why is somebody disturbing that perfectly smooth pond that's kind of a violent tendency I think about those things I have [Music] all right now I know so I'm going to come back with a different block now I've got the soft flexi pad that's an interface pad that's going to Contour to the surface and I'm going to take out those scratches I'm not leveling the surface anymore I'm just taking out those 400 grit scratches so surprise more sanding I'm going to start at the four oh that's floppy one two and a half three four one because of paranoid five one more because I got beat up on a school bus in grade school couple of spots right here this should be the last of it I'm pretty happy with the surface of the paint I think I've got everything smoothed out now we've got a bunch of holidays like this in here see how that's shiny in there and that crevice look in here where the gauges go all of that stuff it's hard to block that with a big flat block you can't get in there that's why we use these scuffing pads they are the same grit value as the 800 grit paper but they compromise they will Contour I can fold this over and I can get down in here inside all of these spots and the important thing here is not to smooth this out cuz it's never going to be seen the important thing is to make the paint stick to it so again the same grit value it's about 800 grit this is what I Ed to blend out clear coats into blend panels if I'm doing a collision repair it's it's fine enough to where it doesn't make a huge scratch that'll show through but it's coarse enough to where the clear coat will stick to it which also means that my $9 can of Rustoleum with super thin paint will fall nicely into an 800 grit scratch profile it's kind of like math but easier down in here I can work it in I can fold it like that I can just jam it down into that little recess see that see I'm I'm getting there when it's not shiny anymore that means there's scratches in it that might have sounded condescending but that's how you tell whether it's properly sanded or not if it shines back at you then you got more work to do and if you want to take some shortcuts you do you man but the one thing that I've learned over years and years of doing this is that there really are none and prep is prep and you just got to kind of resign to the process so rattle can turbo can shine juice patina preserver it doesn't matter you got two types of adhesion you've got chemical adhesion or you got mechanical adhesion sanding is mechanical adhesion chemical is when two wet things bond together and cross link and form a layer kind of like a velcro layer of chemistry and if you cheat on either one of them your stuff's not going to stick we've all seen those paint jobs on the bumper covers of late model cars flaking off in fist sized hunks we've all seen them going down the road that's because somebody didn't follow the Sops for adhesion that's just it's as simple as that or they didn't clean the the the release agent that's the word we they didn't clean the release agent off of the bumper before they started prepping it or they just didn't care we've seen jobs out there where guys just didn't care that little Scout behind me it had some just don't care on it we're going to do a cool paint job on it we're going to turn it army green with a matte finish it's going to be a cool looking rig but the person that had that thing before this current owner they did some uh some sketchy stuff to it and you know not trying to beat up on anybody they can't defend themselves in front of me [Music] but all it takes is once and then somebody trust a paint job on top of that once and then it becomes a sketchy paint job or a good paint job on a sketchy one and somebody gets blamed for something and makes everyone sad and I'm thinking none of what I'm saying is going in this video I don't know so you've seen me clean this thing five different times right is it cleaning up to paint you know the answer to that no it's not so we're going to clean it again with a two-step process because the sanding dust is now considered an organic dust just like a dusty road would be just like carpet fibers would be so we've got a got to treat it even though it's a chemical byproduct we've got to treat it like an organic contaminant on the surface and I get nerdy about this stuff I kind of like the science of it and then we'll follow that with a solvent cleaner which is our wax and grease remover and a new cleaning towel dry one soak it down wipe it off before it dries on the surface and make sure you're doing all this stuff in a well ventilated area you guys know this just have to say it out loud I've got a big space here but probably when I'm painting I'm going to crack open a door get some air flow you never want to be in the same room is a whole bunch of contained fumes of anything all right so now we are prepped man the tank is prepped I'm going to do a little bit of masking on the uh on the fill ports here I've got a rubber gasket here that I don't want to paint over top of we've got a little um drain valve here and the shut off valve on the other side we'll get a little bit of masking to do and then we can do the thing we can do the rattle can thing and see what happens there you ready I'm [Music] ready 2 minutes no less more if you can all right so I've shaken my spray can for 2 minutes got a tack cloth my Surface you saw it is super clean just going to gently rub on the surface make sure there's any weirdness I get it off of there so it didn't get trapped super clean I've got my biggest fan over there in the corner check it out why is that important it's important to have adequate air flow going over top of any painted surface if your air is stagnant then the stuff won't dry properly we have to allow this to dry between coats so that's why we have air flow even though we don't have a paint booth we still need air flow all right so I'm going to mask up now this is a non-catalyzed paint so this type of a respirator is just fine for this and I've got safety glasses on for eye protection and this is a low overspray vehicle anyway so we are protected we're safe I'm not doing a full wet coat the reason I'm not doing a full wet coat is because it would be too wet this is called a setup coat see the space in between the splotchiness that means the droplets are drying on the surface by themselves what that's going to do is create a surface on this tank to where the next coat which is going to be a little bit heavier will stick properly when I'm spraying I'm starting off the panel spraying past the panel doing a 50% overlap as I travel right watch me got the first coat down it's a setup coat now I'm going to set my timer back of the can tells me 5 to 10 minutes between coats I've set my timer for 5 minutes and I walk away you need to walk away between coats otherwise you're not painting with this stuff if you're just flooding it on there to make it shiny you're coloring with it not painting So egg timer three bucks at the dollar store [Music] timer went off we'll do a touch test on a place that not seen I'm not pulling color off with my fingertip we're ready for the next coat and it's ready for the next coat this one's going to be slightly wetter than that one we're going to work up to wet coats but not right away that wait wait [Music] wait longer all right so this is my third coat it's starting to look better there's a little bit of texture in there and I sprayed that third coat wetter than the first two we've got pretty much full color coverage now like I said it's starting to look good we're star to see some good reflection on there a little bit of dirt in it oh what is that all right guess what folks it happens happens to everybody see that moving a little closer you see that guy see that that's a kamakazi right there that's a Tennessee paint bug he is no more stuff like that is going to happen get used to it get ready for it we're not painting in a booth while I'm between coats I want to talk about my biggest beef with the rattle can and trying to get professional results with it with the can in this position the paint as the level goes down the pickup tube still finds it if we're painting the top of the tank guess what it's starting to spit it's starting to pick up air so then you got to tilt it and then you got an consistent pattern so it becomes a problem now we finally got color coverage on this tank and we're starting to run out of paint not really run out of paint because there's more left in the can but we're starting to run out of control over the can with it inverted so that's why I have a second can of paint for the last couple of coats that way I know for sure I'm not going to spit when it matters the most when I need a full wet coat on my very last one then that's when can number two comes in handy so take that for what it's worth but that's my way of navigating that El problemo [Applause] this coat is going to be even heavier than the last one try and get it to flatten out a little bit more on the surface there's spitting silly sucker oh I HTE that ah we have an issue I got cocky so I was leaving it longer flash times between coats I had five coats on and it looked really good it was looking really smooth and part of me said okay I'm going to get six coats on I have a lot of material that I can polish down so I left it for an hour and 10 minutes or so and then I came back in and I did a a what I call a flow coat it was a nice wet coat and I come and take a look it wrinkled it it wrinkled up on the top so I don't know if it's just on the top layer or if these wrinkles go all the way down I don't know so what I do know is that it's still it's still it's not tacky but I can push into it and I can leave a fingerprint so in my experience that tells me that it's too soft to try and polish and it's might be too gummy to sand since it doesn't have a hardener in it so what I'm going to do um and this you can use my my product or failure as a lesson what I'm going to do here is walk away I'm going to let this thing sit overnight and dry out and get the solvent out of it and then I'm going to come back and see see what's possible see what we can do all right so I let it sit overnight again and I may have taken the sting off with some adult beverages just saying so now it feels better I I can still push a fingerprint in it but it's not bad it feels a lot drier so I've got two possibilities here I've got enough material on to sand and polish so so that's my first thing if I can sand one of the worst areas right here on the top and polish it up and it looks good that's a win if I can't polish it up and if it doesn't look right if the wrinkles going to I'm just going to sand it flat and that's going to allow me to put another couple coats on but I'm going to have to let it sit overnight before I paint it again because I don't want this to happen again so step one we sanded with 2,000 grit and try and flatten out the wrinkles and then uh we might go up with another Ultra find grit and then I'll see if I can polish the spot out and then we'll know then we'll know so um it's yeah here we go so I've got 2,000 grit that's been soaking for a little bit in my bucket couple of drops of of water and I'm going to sand this and see what happens I'm going to see if I can flatten it out and it'll tell me the truth it'll talk back and so 2000 is super fine and all I'm hoping to do is smooth it out enough to where I can get past those wrinkly bits I don't want to sand too much material off I just want to get down through those wrinkles and see see what it does okay that's looking better I'm digging it I still see wrinkles there and I'm going to call that sanded so this is 2000 grid I've got 3,00 and 5,000 so in my experience when I'm polishing the higher the Sandpaper grit the easier it is to polish up and I don't know about this I can I've polished a ton of um professional automotive paint single stages and clear coats and all that kind of stuff I've never done this process on on this paint so I don't know what it's going to do but this is 3000 it's the 3000 Tria pad very very consistent grit it's one of my recipes in ultra fine finishing it doesn't take long all I'm doing is chasing those 2,000 grit scratches out with my 3000 and since I've got it here I'm also going to go over it once with 5,000 if I'm doing a show car I do I go to 8,000 and it just it's less time that I have to spend with that buffing wheel on the panel so I can feel the tension change on the surface and it feels like it might be ready to polish and interesting thing with the ultra grits it's almost got a gloss now it's almost got a bit of a shine so I'm going to use a dual action polisher and my Gill's garage boss system and we're going to see if we can make that happen here's my plan I'm going to use the boss correcting cream that's not the most aggressive compound and I'm using the yellow pad which is not the most aggressive pad this is a super soft paint film and I don't want to be too aggressive with it normally I would use this pad here which is their uh it's an aggressive polishing Pad but I don't trust the softness of this paint film just yet so I'm going to go with a little bit milder we can always go more aggressive but I always try I always try and do the least aggressive thing first and we'll see so this polisher is a dual action polisher it's a 15 mm stroke so it's still it's still got a pretty wide throw but it's got a little bit smaller of a footprint and it's about the right right size for this job so here we go I'm so nervous I can't stand [Applause] it hm I don't like that hazy look so that didn't really do anything so I'm going to try a milder compound and a softer pad and see what that does this is actually the finishing step and the four-step system so I'm going to change to this pad and the finishing sealant which still has a little little bit of abrasive in it we'll see what that does cross your fingers [Applause] okay that's better all right so we're starting to bring the gloss back back up again but here's what this is telling me typically when this happens the paint film is still too fresh it's still outgassing solvents but what it does tell me and you can see by the gloss on there is that if I sand through that top layer of the wrinkles I can make the whole tank look like this so here's my strategy now now that I've done a test I'm pretty okay with this I think it'll work I'm going to sand the tank I'm going to start with 2,000 go to 3,000 go to 5,000 and then I'm going to walk away again I'm going to let this sit overnight and then come back and polish again and see if sanding it flat will let some more of that solvent out and skin it over on the top and give me something to polish because what's happening is it's just too soft it's just too soft cuz it's a rattle can with no hardener in it so anyway that's this gives me hope this gives me [Music] hope so got the tank sanded to 5,000 I'm satisfied all the wrinkles are gone I sanded them flat and we're going to let her sit I'm going to back away the one thing that I've learned about repairing paint when it's fresh is that you can't do it when it's wet and even a version of wet Like This was um it doesn't respond well we saw that it didn't respond well to the polishing so now that I've got it flat that opens up the top and what that does on a scientific level is it lets more of the solvent evacuate and it dries down and it skins over even harder on the top so that's my goal here uh if you're doing this if you're sanding and polishing the next day don't let any water spots dry on the surface there's my tip for you my tip for me is crack open adult beverages and and wait wait for Science and nature to happen so we'll hit this again tomorrow and see see if I can make it shiny okay so I didn't leave it sit overnight I left it sit for three days because I had other stuff come up and I wanted to walk away and I wanted to make sure it was dry enough to to polish and so far the good news is is that the wrinkling didn't come back I don't see any wrinkling so I'm going to give it a quick water wipe and we're going to go with the super fine pad and the finishing sealant from Grio and then I'm going to uh I'm going to cross my fingers and hope so this is just a quick wipe with water let's get the dust off the top and I am ready cross your fingers for me or with me toes too [Music] oh yeah there we go all right that's coming up nice that's coming up nice all right I feel so much better I feel so much better all right now I know the recipe and I'm going to come back in with a finishing polish a paint safe polish after that and it's going to look money I like it [Music] so what do we know kind of pulled a rabbit out of the Hat because I was able to sand the catastrophic failure out of it sand it flat with ultrafines and save it saved it sand it with 2,000 3,000 and then 5,000 and then came back let it sit and get hard on the top and it did exactly what I hoped it would do so I think this looks really good it looks very smooth and shiny my little defect are gone is it perfect no it's not perfect we got a super nice paint job out of an $8 rattle can there's the upside you're looking at the upside so here's the downside here's the reality of this I've got a day into paint and prep on this thing by the time we got it sanded and painted between coats waiting legitimate flash times and then waiting the long flash time only to have it wrinkle up on me so I waited 3 days on it took up my shop space for 3 days and maybe took an hour and a half two hours to get this shined back up again from the sanded state so it's relative what's your time worth here's the other downside this paint film is weak it doesn't have a hardener in it it's not going to stand up to gasoline it's not going to stand up to Road impact and it's not going to stand up to UV to sunlight that degrades single stage paint like this partly because I've sanded some of the strength off but partly because it's an $8 rattle can so it looks good now but it's not going to last it's a weak film and that's just what it is so it was a kind of a cool experiment yes we can get show quality paint but for me it's not worth the investment of time to spend less on materials so you take what you want out of it and of course you know know you can turbo can if you want a turbo can or rustolium or if you want a rustolium but for me a decent Quality Paint with a hardener and a reducer that I can pick my temperature range that's going to win for me every time and uh sophisticated base clear system that's typically what I reach for when I'm doing paint but I got to say this looks really good so thanks for following along I didn't know what it was going to turn out like so um I appreciate you watching this if you haven't already please subscribe cribe and tell your friends that we're doing some fun stuff like this and if you want really good Technical Training go to paint ucation University go to the paint uc.com website we've got Classic paint ucation DVDs streaming versions of that a lot of different streaming programs on as well as the formal trade school styled programs and uh training sessions training programs on the PID ucation website thank you guys for watching I'm hoping we can do a whole lot more stuff like this let me know what you want us to do here at ucation see you [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Paintucation By Kevin Tetz

Views: 453,637

Keywords: DIY paintjob, Paint your own car, How To, rebuild, restore, save money, save time, Musclecar, Truck Paint, Muscle Car, Kevin Tetz, Tetz, Kevin from Trucks, Paint, bodywork, autobody, Fabrication, blocking, customize, Show Car Polish, Show car, spray can, how to paint, rattle can paint job, aerosol spray (invention), how to paint info, rattle can paint job motorcycle, best spray can paint job, best spray can paint for motorcycle, rattle can, cheap paint, hack paintjob

Id: XQWd_BtESwU

Length: 53min 11sec (3191 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 26 2024