Friends, been a while since I posted here, have we figured out what airbrush is the best yet....LOL? Okay, on to the question! I’ve been having some issues with paint and I’m beginning to think it might be due to the thinner I use. I paint base coat/clear coat system using automotive acrylic lacquers, which I thin with PPG DTL 105 lacquer thinner. I’ve been told this is a slow drying thinner and thus better for paint application. One of the biggest problems I’m having is painting metallics, as I have to apply very, very light coats at a good distance from the subject. If I attempt to apply moderate to heavy coats, you can see the brush pattern in the paint. It almost looks like stripes in the paint. This occurs with application of both the basecoat and the clear coat, which I thin with the DTL 105.
Another issue I’ve I noted are things appearing in the paint, which did not come from the environment or out of my brush. Yesterday, I clear coated two cars but my mix was different for the two. The first car I clear coated came out fine but I felt that the clear could use a little thinning to save me some work in the polishing and thus, I thinned it for application to the second car. Upon initial application of the clear to the second car, I noted a slight change in color. Upon close inspection, the paint looked as if it had little black dots in it, almost as if I had gotten black overspray on the body. I sanded the body and attempted to re-apply the base coat, as there were some areas of visible primer. With application of the base coat, I noted the same little black dots in my paint and I’m thinking now that the thinner has gotten below my primer and causing things to surface.
All that said, I’ve searched the net for information on lacquer thinners and have come up empty. I’m posting here in hopes that some kind person can advise on a quality lacquer thinner that I can use to thin my paint with, negating all these problems. Sorry for the long read and thanks in advance!
John