This is how the paint looks this morning. Smooth and glossy. And it's just the first coat!
The test yesterday was to see if the Majic paint (without hardener) would "craze" or otherwise react with the Rustoleum primer. And the paint worked perfectly! No rough areas anywhere and didn't react in any negative way with the primer.
I'm a happy camper! :joyous:
Yes indeed, I still have much to learn about gun settings and painting techniques. And only experience can give me the good eye that I sorely need.
Although the paint is smooth and glossy, it does have some minor orange peel. It's not terrible and if it was on a garden trailer, I'd leave it alone.
But the KF is a training ground for me so that I'll be more prepared when the time comes to work on the Chieftain.
I'll probably sand it out some with 1500 - 2000 grit paper later today before applying the second coat. From what I've read, waiting too long to sand and recoat is just as bad as not waiting long enough. I did go out a few minutes ago to check and the paint seems dry but it
is soft. I tested in an inconspicuous spot with my fingernail and it easily scraped off. I remember when I did the roll paint test with the hardener that my fingernail couldn't dent the paint. Sigh.
I did some more reading this morning and a few things likely contributed to having the orange peel show up. All of them operator error on my part.
- Air pressure too low in the spray gun. I had it set at 18-19PSI with the trigger pulled. I'll increase next time.
- Spray gun too far from the work sometimes.
- Possible insufficient reducer in the mix. For the life of me, I can't remember if I put in 1 or 2 tablespoons to the 8 ounces of paint. I do remember adding 1 and I also remember carefully cleaning the measuring spoon though. And I was thinking that it didn't look "thin" enough.
- Not enough pattern testing. I find that I become impatient when testing and apparently don't examine the pattern closely enough or make enough adjustments. Something I'll have to overcome. Maybe by dedicating a half cup of paint for testing only. Better to get the droplets small enough and patterned correctly on the test material than to quickly apply the wrong settings and paint the boat parts.
All that being said, the first coat is definitely glossy!
