[66NovaMike]

Has anyone on this site personally used Autoair colors paint system on one of your cars? It seems really appealing to use, considering it is a water based paint and is safe to spray without having to worry about isocyanate's. Especially for garage paint projects. If no one has heard of it, you can check it out at www.autoaircolors.com

I am a little skeptical I'm sure like everyone else when you hear water base paint. However, it is a base coat/clear coat paint system. The base is what is water base paint. The clear coat is "normal" like on every other bc/cc paint system right??. If someone has used it, please tell me about durability, ease of painting etc.

Thanks Mike

[beemdubya]

some people love it.. some people hate it.. to my understanding u need to bake it under infared lights or heat lamps. but dont hold me to that as i am not positive.... nice colors though.

[Dragon J]

Never used on a car yet but many of my students have used it on guitars. They do graphics here at school and I clear at home shop- (with catalyst isocyanates the school gets a little twitchy...) All jobs seem durable enough but I have concerns over the 'delicate' nature of the base before clear. You just wipe it off with a damp rag.... after clear it seems as tough as the clear you use. No you do not have to heat it but that dries it quicker in humid and cool conditions. I cannot vouch for the durability in constant sun, sorry.

[Malevolent_Frog]

WOW something I actually know in the body area!! I use Auto Air paints on a daily basis. I would recommend always heat setting between coats. Otherwise this paint takes forever to fully cure!! I do custom airbrushing with Auto Air and absolutely LOVE it. However it does have some draw backs until you get used to it. And I dont think I would ever use it to paint an entire car. Here are the things I have noticed from using it.

1) If you are airbrushing you need to thin it more than what they tell you to in order to get it to lay down smooth. I use the reducer binder and like that, my buddy hates the binder and uses straight reducer. personal preference
there I guess.

2) Always shoot your color onto their basecoat.

3) Always work in very thin coats

4) Heat set after every coat. This can be a pain but it is worth it for durability. plus when you put your last coat of color on you can tape right onto to the paint with no wait.

5)This paint is only as good as your clear. Use a good quality clear.

6) When clearing do a light tack coat followed by another tack coat before you go to your wet coats.

[paintworks inc.]

I have used auto air many times.One of the cars we did was in Hot Rod for the UTI Quaker State Challenge.The other shops used it also and from what I hear they all looked excellent.The biggest thing to be aware of,is you must have a uniform base and I mean totally uniform.The air cap and air pressure is very important also. The easiest thing to tell you is FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS to the letter and you'll be pleased with the results.
There are directions on there web site which here again are very helpful.Just do not spray it like a regular urethane and keep in mind the finish product when done has a rougher texture than other paints.If you sand the clear and reclear the final deal is awesome.
Good Luck

[66NovaMike]

Thanks to everyone for the replies. I will keep investigating the autoair colors. I really like the sound of the John Deere Blitz Black paint too. I have stripped my car to base metal, and primered with PPG DP 90 two part black epoxy. I am currently spraying on K2 primer surfacer and block sanding my 66 Nova. I am about 75% done (still have the hood, trunk, and one fender/door to do. I hate doing body work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mike

[Crap Rod]

This was done using autoair Paints







Dont let the water base thing fool you ...
You Still need a high quailty urethane clear or it's equal

If I had to paint this scoop over again I would'nt use AutoAir

[66NovaMike]

Thanks, I have decided to not use Autoair colors to paint my car.

[Crap Rod]

I hope it's not due to the poor paint job I did on that hood scoop

I'm sure if you want to you could do alot better than that
Just that it's a new ball game compared to what your used to ...

You have to give in to what they call a learning curve
with a little trial and error you'll be fine

Just try it on something that is not important Like an old door or hood first

[66NovaMike]

No, it wasn't you scoop. It looked pretty cool. I have decided to go with either the original color "Marina Blue" or the ever popular John Deere Blitz Black.

Thanks again for the info.

[fish56]

C Rod,
That scoop looks great! Is that sparklescent mango towards the front of it?

[Crap Rod]

It is Mango ..
But I put another metal flake over top of the whole flame pattern
and very lightly into the Black

A friend of mine had it and ask if I wanted to try it ..
A Product called Ice , Comes in a clear jar, I dont know too much about it

Hard to see in the pictures but has that 60's & 70's Hot Rod
Metal flake look to it

Then Striped with One Shot

Hey Glad you like it ...

Almost makes me feel like I didnt waste my time with AutoAir ,
If you use it you know theres extra time involved layer after layer of very thin
coats ..then if you mask it ,
It peels up without special steps taken

Too much like work for me .

[Steve0]

I know it's too late to convince you since you are going with a different type of paint, but I figure I would post my results in case anyone else reads this thread in hopes of finding actual user-info for Autoair Colors.

I recently painted my '69 Bronco with Autoairs Midnight Blue Metallic and let me say WOW! I am thoroughly impressed with the paint and how it laid so nicely. I say "wow" because this was my first attempt at painting and being a metallic I was a little skeptical because I thought I would screw it up but it turned out beautiful. No so-called tiger stripes, no dark or light spots, runs, etc. It flowed out perfectly and looked like I had done this many times before.

I painted my Bronco outside under a carport, wind and all in about 90* weather and got hardly any debris in the paint. I used SPI for the epoxy, primer, and clear. The SPI products went on like a dream and made it that much easier to shoot the Autoair metallic. No fish eyes, runs or anything. I cannot vouch quite yet for the durability of the paint yet since it's still sitting under the carport, but the paint seems to hold up well since nothing has chipped off while reassembling the truck.

I'm hoping to do a full write up on my experience with SPI and Autoair, but for now I just wanted to say that I am very very happy with both SPI and Autoair and will be painting my next car the same way.

P.S., I managed this feat using a 15 gallon, 5hp. compressor.

[fish56]

SteveO,
What gun did you use to spray the AA color? Any pics you could post of your results?

Bill

[Steve0]

Bill-

I used the Harbor Freight "purple" gun (with a 1.5 tip I believe) for the SPI Epoxy/2k Primer and a Devilbiss Finish Line (1.4 tip) for the Autoair Color and SPI Clear.

Haven't loaded any pics from my camera yet (not at personal comp.), but I will when I can get around to doing my write up. You will not be dissapointed if you go with SPI and AutoAir. All I did was follow the directions to a "T" and used BarryK's "Perfect Paint Job" article he has on the SPI site. I didn't however, follow the psi recommendations on the AutoAir tech sheets, I just went off of BarryK's "Gun Adjustment" article, again, available on his site, and just kept adjusting the gun/spray pattern to what I thought would be a good mix. I think I might have used slightly more pressure since I was using a smaller compressor. If I was using my 60gal. 2-stage, I'm sure I would have used the advertised psi. #'s.

I also want to add that I painted, "panels off." I took off the windshield frame, front fenders, grill, tailgate, and hood and had no problems whatsoever.

If you have any more questions, please feel free to email me.

Hope this helps.
Steve0