Hi Guy's,

I'm new to this forum and to custom cranks. I've been airbrushing crankbaits for a couple of months now. I have been using laquer paints and top coating with laquer clear. I have had great success with this process, but the only problem I have is the limited availability of paint colors. I have been looking into water base paints. I see most of you guys are using water base with DT2 top coat. My question is; if you knock a chip out of the top coat does water get into the base coat and wash it off.

Thanks,

Mike

Paints are divided up in groups: Water born, laquer, catalyst, epoxy, and air dried. All of these are generally divided up by: Single stage, Dual stage, and Tri-stage. Laquer has been deemed un-safe by the E.P.A. for many years due to its V.O.C. rate. (volotile organic compounds). There for color selection has faded away for many years. Calalyst and Epoxy paints are the most popular and for this reason paint companies (PPG, Dupont, Valspar, Ect..) put all there technology for color match in these systems. They also meet all V.O.C. rates manditory by the EPA. If your looking for color match and color avalibility, I would concetrate on these as discribed. They are not dificult systems to use in fact they are very simple and user friendly. They dry rather rapidly due to being activated by a catyalist. I am not a Water born paint fan for many reasons and I am not sure if they would come off during use or not. Water born paint has been used for years in the residential and commercial construction. Most exterior paits on homes are water based and once cured, its does not run off during a rain. I am not sure what the differance is or if there is any on what your looking at for your crank's.

Hope this helps.

Thanks basscat!

I talked to a friend today who restores classic cars, and I didn't know he had a paint mixing system. He said I could bring some bottles and I could go through and pick what I wanted. So looks like I will be switching over to urethane base and clear. Again, thanks for the info.