Thread: Masking issue

Sprayed a test panel for a new project I'm working on and had something happen I haven't seen in my limited experience. The paint drew away from the 3M blue plastic tape. Pic is attached. I need to get this done, so any help would be appreciated!

Hard to tell what the problem is without some more info. What kind of paint did you use? Did you spray it in layers or kinda thick? I guess, just some more info on what you did before the problem occured.
TABG

Airpower Art Studio

It's TCP Global's Kustom Shop brand. I used their epoxy primer followed by white base coat. The green was sprayed in 3 medium wet coats: no runs. The paint was actually working against gravity to move away from the tape.

It seemed as if it was repelled from the tape and the only thing that even remotely crosses my mind is static.

Static, yea could be, I seen this with some of my old lettering tape. I was also thinking about a pre wipe, kleensol... if it was sprayed right after?

Call in the CSI we have a mystery.

Did the problem happen in just one area, or everywhere along the taped lines? And since you shot 3 coats of paint, did you notice it when you were done or did it start as you were spraying the coats?
TABG

oil from fingers laying the tape? did you use any wax/grease remover

After laying down the tape, I washed it down, let it dry, and then used HoK KC10 wax and grease remover, wiped off with a clean rag. The tape was a brand new roll of 3M.

The issue started from the very first coat. This is actually the second time it happened. The first time, I stopped spraying and started from scratch, thinking I just did something wrong at the start. This time I kept spraying the subsequent coats to see if they covered it.

Does the paint give any warnings against the use of any tapes or adhesives?
If your hands and the surface were clean, then you are kind of running out of options, either the surface is contaminated, there is something in that tape specifically, in the paint itself, or in the application of the paint.

You might try some variations on a piece of test material first, maybe doing a light dusting first, let it flash, then do the wet layers. Sometimes dusting layers don't have the same kind of reactions as the wet ones, and can give you a steady footing for the layers to follow.

You might try some other tapes too, and see if they all get the same kind of reaction, if they do, then maybe it's time to use a different paint.

Are you sure it's the paint moving away from the tape, and not the other way around? If the solvents in the paint break down the tape or it's adhesive, it may be the tape retracting from the paint. When you say "plastic" tape, do you mean the blue painter's tape? It is a paper like tape rather than a syntetic or "plastic" tape.

The big question is.... Did you SEAL your primer. This happens to me with Kustom Shop when I tape a base coat over raw primer. The primer sucks the paint up away from the tape.

Originally Posted by Bahamut

The big question is.... Did you SEAL your primer. This happens to me with Kustom Shop when I tape a base coat over raw primer. The primer sucks the paint up away from the tape.

Hmmm....we may have a winner with this one. I'm testing again, this time with primer, white base coat, intercoat clear, and THEN tape and the green. The clear is on, so I'll spray the green later this evening.