Paint woes,
I know you guys sware by this paint, but I'm slightly hesitant. I decided to paint some sample pieces to see how it works. This part can't be seen when on the truck, so I'm not worried about how it looks. I sprayed this un thinned on a hot day in full sun.
I know flat looks the most military, but it doesn't wash off easy. I was told "satin" is a bit smoother and is easier to keep clean. Since this is not a exact replica, easy sounds good. The color is fine, but the finish was really rough. You can't see it here, but it is like I painted over sand paper. So I thinned it with about 1-1 with water and I sprayed in the shade. It spayed out much nicer.
It also was much easier to make runs.
The run didn't bother me as it won't show, but I wanted to see if I can fix it if I make the same mistake on a more important part.
It was easy to sand off the run. But what I noticed was the paint will scratch really easy. You can see some scratches I put in the top here. I made them with just my fingernail. I didn't "bare down" on it. I just flicked my nail. You can see I got right down to the aluminum at the beginning of the scratch. All I did for prep was scotch brite the aluminum. I thought maybe it has to have primer, so I did another part, but first I primed it with zinc cromate. I don't have a pic of that, but I can still scratch it easy. The primer does seem to keep from scratching it right down to the aluminum, but still scratches way to easy.
At this point I'm letting it dry a few days to see if it hardens up. The guys on SS say it wares like iron, so I must be doing something wrong.