Rant warning. As a guy who does high $ paint here are my thoughts.

[BananasCentral]

Solas's flat black appears to be nothing more durable than hi-fill primer capable of being damaged by a thumbnail or plain old water.

Now I'm not stupid, neither are you.
We all know why they do this.

Being able to tell if a prop has been used is more important to Solas than durability or fitness of use.
There I said it.
SHAME ON YOU SOLAS for using the LOWEST POSSIBLE GRADE OF PAINT!

What ever happened to taking pride in your work or turning out a quality product?
Maybe you think I'm mad because I damaged something I wanted to return? Nope.
Couldn't care less about returning things.

I'm mad because I wouldn't use that as a finish coat on my work if you paid me, and believe me people pay DEARLY for the work we do!
Disgusting.

Disgusting that the first thing you have to do nowadays is repaint brand new items or they'll look 100 years old in a couple months.
Would it KILL someone to spray Imron, PPG, or another decent product?
REALLY?
YES!
REALLY DISGUSTING!

Maybe prop makers should publish some ACTUAL data on prop characteristics instead of trying to sell you 6 different poorly painted props!
Too much to ask? APPARENTLY YES!

Rant off.
I'm tired of prop thrashing, thought I'd found it in Solas Rubex but their paint has really ticked me off.

I'm going to go strip this prop, Alodine, zinc chromate, spray it in some ruby red flake Imron, then return it with a snooty letter and $400 invoice....... SOOOOOOO hard to find good help these days........

 

[oldjeep]

Who cares about paint on a prop?

 

[BananasCentral]

I'm totally OCD about paint, how I got into it in the first place.
Some of our work.

 

[82rude]

Paint on a prop is like lipstick on a pig.

 

[GA_Boater]

Stainless props doesn't need painting. That should suit your OCDness.

 

[Sea Rider]

Non SS props should be painted with good quality paint to hold longer onto prop, if mentioned props are manufactured in PRCH will only add cents cost to better final product.

Happy Boating

 

[BananasCentral]

YES!

Problem is that the Chinese use horrible paint with low UV resistance pigments and no real ability to prevent corrosion on their contaminated (insert any type of metal)
Even US manufacturers think it below them to brush the slag off welds and PRIME before painting.

We've all seen it, weld splatter and paint starting to corrode!
Paint falling off in SHEETS due to porosity and poor prep allowing corrosion!

People like to point at politics (true there has been a major push away from VOC) but the FACT is that it's all just shoddy work!

Dang, who flipped the rant switch back on?

One of my favorites ever, love the red/black candy look!
Wish it came through in better resolution! (I'm going to look at the photo tutorial again and see how to make it work better)

 

[82rude]

Tank looks great.I was just out in the garage a looked at my 6 year old solas amita and the paint has held up pretty darn good with the exception of where I sand blasted it on a sand bar.No paint would hold up to that for long.

 

[82rude]

My Michigan wheel has some tuff glossy stuff on her.Powdercoating?

 

[BananasCentral]

I should throw out the disclaimer that I can't do that sort of airbrush artwork and all the credit goes to Migy for that.

If it were left to me that'd be a stick dragon! XD
Ok that's not fair to me..... I can spray well enough and make stuff come out slick. You might not believe the amount of work behind the scenes.... initial sanding, repairs, prime, base, clear, flake, clear, candy, clear, THEN the final artwork.
Yeah he's a hero with the airbrush.


There is no reason these hub-less props couldn't be powder coated.
That stuff is stupid simple (no offense meant to anyone) and quite durable.
Paint bonds well with a good scuffing with 400 or 600, even the sponge.

EDIT 82rude I'll look closely at a TP I have to see if that's powder (it is glossy but I can't tell if the orange peel is paint or casting under the paint)
I can say with 100% certainty that the Solas Rubex is a paint, satin and high marking, AKA easy to put marks on.


LET ME RE-FRAME THIS ISSUE.
How would you feel if you bought a new car/truck and while driving it home a butterfly left a big #%* mark in the paint?
You'd probably feel like the manufacturer has used the incorrect coating.

That is what I meant.
No I shouldn't have to buy a stainless car.

 

[Bondo]

LET ME RE-FRAME THIS ISSUE.
How would you feel if you bought a new car/truck and while driving it home a butterfly left a big #%* mark in the paint?
You'd probably feel like the manufacturer has used the incorrect coating.

Ayuh,.... Those are pretty bike paint jobs,....

How 'bout ya paint the tires on the bike, 'n see how that holds up,....

It's a much better comparison, than the tanks vs: a prop,....

 

[jbcurt00]

Wring every single penny out of the overhead on Migy's work, then make him (guessing its a guy....) paint a hundred tanks an hour, 20+hrs per day, 365days a year, for the bare minimum he's willing to do the work and post some of his work he's turning out in 6months.

Not a valid comparison.

Just like asking why production boat builders fab stringers, decks and transoms the way they do. Its PRODUCTION work, not 1 off customs.

Plus, many boaters will buy the same prop from 1 vendor they've never used before over a vendor they have bought thousands of dollars worth of boat gear from, simply to save $5.

To put a final nail to it, producers produce what we as consumers buy, for what they think they can charge, sell lots of them and make a profit. Its a numbers game. For goods made here or abroad.

Pride in ones work? Yeah, Migy should be plenty proud. The rest and butterfiles, well............ thats simply an invalid comparison.

 

[BananasCentral]

Firstly I didn't say he does all the work, I said he does the airbrush. I can spray the slickness but the airbrush isn't my gig. A man's got to know his limitations! (patience LOL!)

Second..... oh...... motorcycle paint touches the pavement more than I like to think about....... oh no OH NO! X(
Oh yeah....... sigh....... amazing how much people pay just to dump it.....

Third, there are valid points made about the abuse props are subject to, and market forces. Fair enough.
Water is not asphalt and our lakes are muck bottom (and I run the kicker anywhere near the weedline since I got some dummy's trotline in the trolling motor RIGHT AT the boat launch)

If the concrete man mixes too much water in the pour it'll change the durability of the surface. You'll see powdery and easily eroded concrete.

Like any good (bad hardheaded) boy I've learned by making a LOT of mistakes LOL!
This paint was
#1 thinned excessively (degrades the polymerization of the paint itself)
#2 unevenly applied (some wear through already on one tip after 20-30 mins in the water ever)
#3 sprayed from too far away (heavily thinned paints will dry in mid air and fall in a grainy texture)
#4 IMHO it's not even paint it's primer ( from observing it's behavior while being "fixed")
#5 sprayed in a very hot enviroment (bubbles from the evaporating solvent)
Basically the cheapest and worst possible job resulting in a chalky and non durable finish equivalent to moth wings.

Many people aren't clear on the function of primer. Primer is not paint, and it does not seal anything. Primer is porous and provides something for the actual paint to grip.
Metal left in primer will corrode underneath and eventually flake off revealing corrosion. (zinc chromate being one of a few exceptions)

Whatever it is, it's not properly bonded. Inside the hub bore is all tore up, nuttin but rubber in there. No reason for flaking, and the TP prop still looks new inside with 10X the time on it.
Maybe Solas usually does a better job, I don't know. Maybe they do this sort of work exactly because people are so accepting of poor craftsmanship.
The handling characteristics are excellent, but with the finish I'm thoroughly unimpressed.

With that I'm going to leave this thread, thanks for participating and helping to bring my expectations in line with reality.
The reality is that I shouldn't have any expectations!

 

[southkogs]

Nice paint work.

At the request of the OP ... gonna' close this one and call it done.