Need advise, Sikkens autobase
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I have been spraying sikkens now for three years and having problems with color blends. I use an iwata LPH with orange cap and also have purple cap. I’ve tried all the reducers, added blending additive, different settings, every technique besides spraying upside down. My coworker has been spraying sikkens for 20 years and I can see his blends also. Anyway I called the rep and he said he would help me out. He shows up with some hotshot sikkens painter with satas,teckna, so we had three cars ready and they sprayed them and everyone had a slight halo on the blend edge. They made their normal excuses so we drove over to one of our other dealerships and looked at their blends and you could see all of their blends also. So the rep doesn’t know what to do. I know we are getting away with it with the customers but it bothers me. I haven’t had these problems with other paint( god I miss spraying Glasurit). Anyway any help would be helpfull because this is not acceptable.
Are you using a wetbed?What speed of high performance reducers are you using? What size tip are you using?
When I used autobase plus I used a sata nr2000 or sata rp with a 1.4.I used slow reducer or extra slow when it was hot,medium and fast just didn’t work and the flash time was the same.I would spray a coat of the blending additive(used for wetbed) on the blend panel,spray 2 coats to get coverage,and finally spray my third and do my blend at a slightly lower pressure.I never had a halo problem and my belnds turned out very well.Sometimes depending on a tough color I would add a little bit more reducer for the blend.Not sure if this helps but it worked for me.sprayed autobase plus for a few years also and had trouble with blending as well. seemed to cover too good and made blending really hard on difficult colors. i would try to spray down the blend panel with blend add and let it flash and then put a coat of paint down and blend it out. that and mixing rts base 50/50 with blend add and trying to blend it then. i guess you could get a halo from that but worth a shot. one other painter said he would blend add the panel and blend into it with base while the blend add was wet. that was with a sata rp 2 w/ 1.3 tip. i would also think slower reducer and lowering pressure on the blend coat might help too
Is it possible that maybe your scale isn’t calibrated or something, and your colors are so far off, that no matter what technique you use, it’s causing a halo?
I currently use Lesonal SB, which is a similar system. The only time i’ve ever had blending issues is if the color is just that far off.
Are you making spray out panels? checking the color? Or just pretty much mixing and squirting?
Also, what color deck do you have? Because if you’re using the computer generated printed one, it sucks, and chances are, if you’re checking color chips, you’re not getting the actual color that shows on the chip.
Good luckP.S. I agree with Jay as well, that adding a little extra reducer for the blend can help. Also, how are you preparing the panel? What are you wetsanding the blend panel with?
I sprayed auto base and autobase plus for a good few years, the old 1:1 mix autobase blended easier in my opinion. Definitely try the basefix wet bed but don’t take it out onto the repaired area , then base up your repaired area and let it blend into the wet bed while the wet bed is still wet.
For some tricky silver’s I used to use a slower reducer and a little bit more of it, reduce the pressure at the blend and if there is still a halo drop the pressure way down to about 0.8-1bar and try a drop coat over the blend. Sometimes adding blending additive to really light counter high metallics can also cause a colour discrepancy and poor metallic lay down.Thank you guys for the input, today started with a used car off our lot (toyota 1c8) which is a terrible color to blend. I had some of this color at home ( Matrix brand) so I thought I would give it a try. Did my normal routine, 800 dry,scotchbrite edges,blending add,stepped out color,drop coat,clear.Turned out perfect. Next car was Toyota 1D4, repair was on edge of hood, had to blend fender and paint front cover. Decided to try to blend color into the blending add while it was still wet, basically the opposite of what I would do normally. You have to do your blending with your first coat and pull the base coat toward your repair. Let this flash and cleared, looked great, no mottling, halo. Next car was Toyota 1G3 which is another PIA. New deck lid,blend both qtrs, masked qtrs,sealed deck lid, with one gun sprayed blending add and next gun blended color on qtrs while blend add was still wet, finished base on deck lid and clear. Turned out great. I keep trying this and keep you updated. I don’t know why this paint is sooooo expensive, it’s nothing special. Thanks again for the ideas.
I always use blend additive and alot of it on blend panels. And i allways cover my blend panels up with paper till the paint panels are covered. Then work the blends never had trouble doing it like that. I have did this b4 on silvers or just hard to blend colors, work the blend if it still looks funny take some 065 and extra slow reducer mix 1/2 n 1/2 add lil color to it then work it again. proably not recomended but it has worked for me in the past hope this helps
i always had good luck using 065 reduced 2:1 with slow or extra slow and then add your color to it at a 2:1 mix and it keeps the viscosity the same so this way it wont mess with the color any like over reducing will
Most of the time I have had issues with the blend with Sikkens abp is when I am rushing it and using fast reducers or cutting my flash times down. If it is still fighting you then it’s normally the wrong variant. With silvers and golds try to keep your spray out cards so you can see what your spray gun will produce. Also have a second set of eyes when using your pro cards , I have a hard time seeing what the side tone looks like and with so many variants in most of the silvers that you spoke of its real easy to pick the wrong one .
Chuck
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