Thread: Need help with AutoAir Colors paint

Hey everyone, I'm having a heck of a time getting my white sealer to spray. It's the 4001 sealer white. I have two air brushes. One is a Aztec A470 with several nozzles and an Aztec A220 that I was hoping to use to spray the sealer. I'm painting on a motorcycle helmet.

The problem I am having is when I spray the sealer, you would swear that I was spraying it with a spatter nozzle. It doesn't matter which air brush I use, or how much I thin the paint. It doesn't want to lay down when I heat set it with the heat gun either. It's really frustrating. If I spray it thick enough to lay flat and it looks wet, it runs, and when I heat set it, the paint cracks. I even tried thinning it with distilled water with the same results.

The thinning ratio is 10 - 25% by volume. I assume that means 4 to 1 paint to thinner for 25%. I'm using AutoAir Colors 4011 reducer. I remember reading a post of people using a household cleaner as a thinning agent. Maybe that's worth a try.

I've started over so many times, I almost can't stand to look at the helmet anymore. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your help.

TeaMan

well yea u could try using windex mixed with water or using rubbing alcohol with water. what u would want to do is make a 50-50 mix of your windex/alcohol with the water. this will let the paint lay out smoother and will dry faster. but your problem oculd just be that u should be using a spray gun to spray auto airs sealer and not an air brush.

What pressure are you spraying at? and what needle size are you using?
I would use a large needle when using the sealers, I use a Badger175 with the Large Head and Needle at 35-40psi to spray thicker materials, also spray some light coats first then try a medium wet coat to level it out. As you've seen heavy coats are not the way to go with AutoAir.
I hope this helps.

Thanks for the help everyone. I'll give the different reducers a try.

Civicwil, the two airbrushes I am using don't have needles per se. The A470 uses different nozzles, and the A220 in an external mix brush that uses air blowing over an orfice to pull the paint out of the bottle. The nozzle size on the A470 is the high flow acrylic nozzle. Air pressure for both guns is about 20psi. I've tried as high as 40psi and low as 15psi.

It almost seems like it is somewhat drying into droplets before it hits the surface. I also tried two light coats hoping it would fill in, and it just got rougher.

There has to be a solution to this....

Thanks
TeaMan

Try Fantastic added to it the wet agent in fantastic is what makes it flow better it might solve your problem
wish I had some sage advice for ya but thats the best I can do

Thanks again. About the fantastic or alcahol as a thinner. I'm seeing 50/50. Just to be clear, that means mix the fantastic or other agent 50/50 with water first, then mix it at 10 to 25% with the sealer, right? It doesn't mean 50/50 with the sealer???

TeaMan

I just finished a goalie mask using Auto Air, and I had similar problems as you with the primer. I almost gave up, it sucked so bad. I was using an iwata HP-C, and wound up reducing the primer with the flash reducer 4010 about 20%, and then I also added the 4003 Reducer-Binder to thin further but keep up on the binders.

It was still a bear, but it worked, but you'll see I just posted a thread about going mini spray gun on the next project to side step this issue!

Good Luck... again, this advice is from a total rookie first timer.

the 50-50 mix is only the fantastic/windex/alcohol to water mix not the mix to the autoair.

Wow, this is somewhat bizare. I am an absolute newb to airbrushing and ran across this sme problem yesterday when I used my airbrush for the first time. I am attempting to do a custom paintjob on a radio control helicopter canopy (body). I used the Autoair white sealer and it did the same thing you described. I ended up thinning it with several drops of water and cranking the air pressure up to about 55 lbs and that seemed to work. I am using a Paasche VL with a .5mm tip and needle. I am going to try it at a lower pressure with the sealer reduced with the 4010 Flash reducer at about 25%. I'll let you know.....