Ghost lines on bodywork

[appleseed]

I read somewhere that you can seal in the bodywork to prevent ghost lines by giving a coat of Future over the primer (before the color coat). Has anyone ever tried this?

Thanks in advance!

a.

[mike@af]

Yes, any bodywork needs to be sealed before paint, especially work with putties. Use a sealer primer, like Zinser BIN, U-Pol, etc. I've never tried future.

[appleseed]

Thanks Mike. I've just been really lucky painting without sealing. I build up the paint slowly through the airbrush with no problems but sometimes it does happen that I get ghost lines. Its really annoying and I sometimes just leave it and forge ahead. This sounds like a quick and easy fix as I've never used two part sealers. Don't know how to use them and don't know where to get them.

a.

[mike@af]

Originally Posted by appleseed

Thanks Mike. I've just been really lucky painting without sealing. I build up the paint slowly through the airbrush with no problems but sometimes it does happen that I get ghost lines. Its really annoying and I sometimes just leave it and forge ahead. This sounds like a quick and easy fix as I've never used two part sealers. Don't know how to use them and don't know where to get them.

a.

The two sealers I mentioned are filler/sealer primers, one is an alcohol/lacquer based (Zinser BIN) and the other is a urethane (U-Pol). Both of them are in a rattle can. I've only used the Zinser. It goes on thick, dries quickly, and sands nicely. But it does clog the nozzle easily. You should be able to find this at a Home improvement store.

[D_LaMz]

not meaning to hijack your thread but what are ghost lines and why would you need a sealer over putty?

[SteveK2003]

Ghost lines means the area you worked on, such as a patch of putty, will show through the paint.

[ZoomZoomMX-5]

Originally Posted by D_LaMz

not meaning to hijack your thread but what are ghost lines and why would you need a sealer over putty?

Ghosting occurs in a couple of ways. It can happen when putty shrinks, and you can see where it shrank through the paint.

It also happens when you use putties/fillers that don't shrink when you spray w/"hot" paints like automotive lacquers. When the ghosting occurs it looks like it shrank, but that's not what happened. The hot paints tend to swell the plastic around the filled areas, and they also tend to find all the areas where the plastic was sanded-removing parting lines, for instance, because those areas leave the plastic w/o the shiny outer shell-what's under the surface is more porous and really soaks up the lacquer thinners thus swelling the plastic. Leave it long enough and those vapors will slooooooooooooowly evaporate out, but lacquers tend to cause the same reaction over and over; thus it's best to use some sort of barrier coat. BIN is a barrier coat that works AFTER you spray a bit of lacquer primer on the body first. Then apply BIN, then apply the other paints. If you use only hobby paints the ghosting rarely occurs.

[D_LaMz]

thanks guys and is guess tamiya lacquer applies as a "hobby paint".