Brief Description: Prime Vertical Stabilizer Parts
I set up the booth and prepared the shop for part prep. I have two plastic bins I use as a wash and PreKote catch basin. This was my first time preparing parts for the Akzo prime so I did the research the night before.
It's pretty simple. First, wash the parts with water and dishwasher soap (I used Dawn) to get the grease and oils off. Then spritz it with PreKote and scuff with maroon ScotchBrite. Coat it again with PreKote, scuff a bit more then water wash before the PreKote dries. Wipe the part down with a lint free towel and now you have a 24 hour window in which to prime. If you go past that you must repeat the above steps.
Time to mix the Akzo in a 1:1 ratio. I got a bunch of paint cups from Home Depot with ratio marks on the side so it made it easy. Just fill each part to the line and mix. I also learned if you don't mix throughly enough you'll get clumps. The Akzo instructions call for a 30 minute induction time before you spray, so I set a timer and got my spray gun ready.
I used a filter to pour the Akzo mix into the gun hopper and had almost no clumps. Good omen that I'm doing something right. The gun I'm using is a HPLV gun from Lemetec and it's pretty high quality, but the instructions were lacking. A quick stop at the University of YouTube and I had the info on how to use the gun.
Spraying it was very easy and the results look fantastic. It's about 15 minutes to dry to the touch and about a four hour cure time. I'll let it cure overnight then rivet the whole assembly into a vertical stabilizer tomorrow.
First basin is dish soap and water. Second is used for PreKote scrub.
The booth works well. Those filters really pick up the Akzo overspray nicely.
