Blotchy Paint

[Gir]

I was going to wait until I had this speaker finished, but I've run into a bit of a problem. I was using spray paint that was laying around the house, and it's that H20 latex glossy black. The problem is that the paint is coming out blotchy, it's not spraying very evenly. I have to spray a thick coat for it to spray on with out bumpy spots, but then it starts dripping. Does most latex spray paint do this, or should I try and switch to the regular kind? And on that note, will other paints adhere to the latex? I've attached a few pics, but they're taken with my camera and hard to see The last pic shows what happens if I don't spray a heavy enough coat on; it comes out rough and crappy. It's like the Heisenberg uncertainty principle 8O

[---k---]

It is always best to use several light coats and build up. It won't look good until you've done a couple coats to even things out. More expensive spray paint may spray more uniformly. I like the Rustolum Professional stuff, in the big silver cans. I've also found that the $4 handles that you can buy to attach to the spray can to give you a pistol grip helps. That said, I suck at spray painting, I'm using a foam roller right now.

[Gir]

Yeah, I'm not very good at spray painting myself, but this can is definitely spraying a lot worse than any other's I've used. I can actually hear it spritzing out of the can. Should I just buy a different can of the same stuff and hope it sprays better?

[Dennis H]

Has it ever been frozen? Did you shake it up really well? Latex paint is water based and it curdles and separates like sour milk if it ever gets below freezing -- time to throw it away.

As an aside, I've never heard of latex paint in a rattle can. Regular old house paint is way too thick to ever apply that way -- either a brush/roller or a big-horsepower airless sprayer.

[Silversmoky]

I think I would try a different product for the next run at it Are you painting directly onto that pvc? Painting pvc will turn out better if it is primed with something fairly aggressive like Zinser. It takes away the smooth shine of pvc and allows the finish coat paint to grip on better and not run off. Especially glossy paints like the one you used will be a little tricky even when priming. Maybe you did all this and this is irrelevant.

[Gir]

Has it ever been frozen? Did you shake it up really well? Latex paint is water based and it curdles and separates like sour milk if it ever gets below freezing -- time to throw it away.

Bingo. Grabbed it out of my garage, which definitely would have frozen it several times. I'll get a new can when I'm at Walmart today. Should I just get the same thing or should I get a regular can? I've heard that other paints to stick to latex all that well.

I think I would try a different product for the next run at it Are you painting directly onto that pvc? Painting pvc will turn out better if it is primed with something fairly aggressive like Zinser. It takes away the smooth shine of pvc and allows the finish coat paint to grip on better and not run off. Especially glossy paints like the one you used will be a little tricky even when priming. Maybe you did all this and this is irrelevant.

No, I didn't prime it at all. I've had good success with other PVC painting without priming, so since I'm trying to do this on the cheap I thought I would be okay.

Perhaps what I need to do is get a good primer, paint over the current paint (after sanding), then use a regular can of spray paint to finish it. Sound good?

[bonehead848]

I think you will have the best luck starting from scratch. I would go with sand, prime, reg spray can. This way, you know for sure it will come out the exact way you want it to be.

[Silversmoky]

No, I didn't prime it at all. I've had good success with other PVC painting without priming, so since I'm trying to do this on the cheap I thought I would be okay.

Perhaps what I need to do is get a good primer, paint over the current paint (after sanding), then use a regular can of spray paint to finish it. Sound good?[/QUOTE]

That should do it. Sand'er down really good. For primer I am pretty sure they sell Zinser in spray cans. That stuff will stick to just about anything! Several light coats of a good quality paint should do it. :T

[Bill Schneider]

Perhaps it was due to age or other factors, but the spray can of Zinsser primer I used sputtered like crazy.

I'm now a foam-roller kind of guy for non-smooth finishes.

Be sure to test any spray can on a sample first.