Painting equipment in public places

East of Eden · **Joined:** Thu Jan 26, 2012 2:04 pm **Posts:** 68

In many States (and even local municipalities), it is illegal to spray paint an artifact unless it is fully contained. The same holds true with scraping known lead paint.

Bottom line: Check your regulations before embarking on an outdoor restoration project.

arjay3 · **Joined:** Fri Jul 22, 2005 9:50 pm **Posts:** 162

Hot Metal wrote:

I know the newer water based coatings are supposed to be pretty good, but I have had enough bad experiences with them in the past to where I will not use them for any metal painting project.

Most of the time it is due to poor surface prep, but a solvent based coating will withstand a wider range of surface prep. Many times with equipment outside and not in a paint shop you aren't going to get to what they recommend. I've pulled sheets of water based coatings off of castings, and right next to it the solvent based coating continues to stick like crazy.

The bad contractor applied paint job currently peeling on the Big Boy at Steamtown is an example.

Industrial Imron (what NS paints with at Juniata) can be applied with brush or roller. This is not the normal Automotive Imron. Stay away from hardware store enamels, machinery paint and Rust O'leum - they will all fade quickly in the sun.

robertmacdowell · **Posted:** Thu May 14, 2015 5:04 am

Hot Metal wrote:

The question is, is the Imron coating system better or worse than Awlgrip from a long term performance standpoint?

Depends, classic Imron is gone and the brand has been attached to several lines of new products. I believe classic Imron was an aromatic* acrylic urethane. New Imron (aircraft/marine) is a linear aliphatic* acrylic urethane. Awlgrip G/H is a linear aliphatic polyester urethane. Aliphatics are much better. Polyester is a tick better than acrylic.

* Aromatic means it has a "benzene ring". Aliphatic means it doesn't.

Quote:

Awlgrip's primer, Max Cor CF is $272 per gallon, and at their reccommended coverage of 1000 s.f. That is enough to do a 40' boxcar.

Their polyester urethane topcoats are $225 per gallon. Looks like for brush/roller application the coverage is 250 square feet per gallon. For every gallon of top coat you would need 1/2 gallon of converter at $178. And reducer is $70 per gallon.

Yowch, those sound like Jamestown prices. You'll do much better at your local distributor, especially if you say you're a nonprofit and give em the big eyes.

Max-Cor CF is their rust preventive undercoat for bare metal, is spray-only and still must be primed, e.g. with 545. (or Awlquik but why follow a spray-only paint with a brush-only paint?)

Since you're overcoating relatively good paint, I'd go straight to 545 or Awlquik only to the degree necessary to be a barrier coat (1 good coat if spraying, 2 light ones if brushing). 545 claims 500sf per coat in brush. We pay $80 ($105 in Jamestown dollars for comparison). I'd get 4 gallons (you have to buy it in 2s), the extra won't go to waste. It's wonderful stuff.

For topcoat, that coverage number is way low. The GMDH-3 has barely 2 quarts (of base) on it. With brush, 1 gallon base yields almost 2 gallons mixed, which Awlgrip calls 700sf/gal and I'd call 1200 per gallon of base. You'd need 2 coats, maybe 3 (red/yellow pigments cover poorly because Awlgrip opted for the durable pigment rather than the well-covering one.) We pay $170-250 depending on pigments, $130ish for the brush converter.

Quote:

So, for a single color caboose such as the Milwaukee Road car, 1 gallon of primer, 2 gallons of topcoat, 1 gallon of converter and 2 gallons of reducer is my guess.

About $1,200 in paint, to prime and then put an awlgrip topcoat on that caboose. Not including any trim or undercarriage paint.

Factoring for Jamestown, that sounds right. I'd sub the 545 primer (4 gals @ $80). For brush, I'd get 1 gallon of topcoat and play it by ear. Halfway through the job you'll know if you need 1 or 2 more quarts or a second gallon.

Of course it's most economical when you paint things regularly and so have the "basics" in stock - the primers, converter, reducer, deglosser, cure accelerators etc.

Quote:

If it works as well as advertised and the surface is properly prepared, that may be the only paint job you'll ever have to do on that car.

Not for a long time anyway, which will let you do other stuff.

Rick Rowlands · **Posted:** Thu May 14, 2015 9:00 am

Thanks for the clarification. Yes my prices were from Jamestown.