Paint question....

[Jax]

I was messing around with some pieces of aluminium and a rattle can of yellow paint...practicing my painting abilities..now I cleaned the aluminum with mineral spirits...then let it dry...put a coat of yellow...let it dry...put another coat of yellow...let that dry everything looked fine..they went to put a coat of clearcoat...like I said this was just a practice piece of metal so I can play with...the paint started to give the crackle effect...chemical reaction? not enough drying time? Just curious...

[AMorgan]

Can you better describe the damage? My no primer?

[Jax]

There is no damage but when I started to spray the piece with clear coat it made little cracks in the paint..like the crackle effect...and I did not use primer on it...maybe I'll try that next time..

[AMorgan]

Primer isn't a bad idea, what paints were you using. I know that acrylics and enamels will fight eachother similar to that.

[Black_peter]

Jax.
You have the classic "paint incompatability"
The clear is reacting with the yellow..
Remember Mojoe had a similar issue.

Did you buy the same brand/type?

[KSlawman]

Jax.
You have the classic "paint incompatability"
The clear is reacting with the yellow..
Remember Mojoe had a similar issue.

Did you buy the same brand/type?

Also, did it dry completely? Sometimes if it is not dried well it will react easier.

[carnut169]

Black Peter nailed it. Make sure you use paint designed to work togther. Best bet is to go to a shop that sells to paint shops... like Auto Color here in Atlanta.

[Jax]

I finally came back to this thread...it's been a while and so I wanted to finally respond...I bought the paint at Home Depot..Rustoleom Paint...the Clear Coat was also Rustoleom...now that I have the facts about paint compatibility...arcrylic vs enamels..I have to check my paints and clear coats...it happened again the other day to a few pieces so I need to check it again...thanks for the input...

[zique]

Since compatibility has already been mentioned...

I experience a similar problem when painting a helmet once. I thought it was compatibility, but after three different attempts w/ paint I 'knew' was compatible, I was still getting the same thing.
Come to find out, the surface was too hot. I would think that aluminum would pick up some pretty good heat if it sat for any length of time in the sun.
Primer would be pretty key for it as well. Since you're painting on bare metal, just paint doesn't bond real well and the combination of multiple layers could be what it takes. The paint is possibly bonding more to itself than the metal. Try some primer.

[Jhonyquest97]

You'll want to use self etching primer, than 2k surfacer when you really want it to come out nice.