Tape lifting paint??!

[jfendley]

Painting a trailer. Using Truck, Van & SUV base coat black (for trailer box) and flame red (for one stripe on both sides, front and back horizontally) with a coat of Effex clear glitter over read stripe.

Sanded bare metal with 220 then 600. Applied two coats Self Etching Primer sanded between coats and final coat with 600. Applied three coats of base coat black color wet sanding each coat with 1500. Let cure 24 hours.

Taped and masked off areas for applying flame red stripe on sides front and back. Applied three coats of flame red one coat of Effex Clear glitter. Looked great.

Issue: After about an hour I go to remove masking paper and tape from around the striped areas. Front, Back and right side no problems, looks great. Then I get to the last piece of horizontal tape on the left side and the black base coat under the tape peels off with tape. What the heck? Should I have waited longer before removing tape? What would the cured black base coat stick to tape and peel off with it? Thought I would be spraying clear coat this evening. But, now looks like I'll be spending a ton of time fixing this peeled area before I can finish this job. Anyone else experience this peeling of base coat when removing tape from masked areas? Anyone know the cause so I can avoid it in the future? This really ticked me off. I had hoped to finish this project this weekend so I could move on to another.

[Dupli-Color-Specialist]

Thanks for your post and sorry to hear about your issues. I have a couple questions for you to help avoid this in the future. As you know, prep is the most important part of any paint job.

1. After sanding to bare metal and any time after you sanded between coats. Did you whipe the areas down with Prep Spray or any type of grease and wax remover? This would clean the surface of any oils and dust left behind from your hands. Paint will not stick to any oils or dust/dirt. I don't see anything mentioned about degreasing the surface prior to paint.

2. What type of masking tape did you use? Always use a low-tack tape when masking over fresh paint to avoid what just happened.

Let me know.

Thanks

[chriss68]

I had the same issue once with taping. I changed the type of tape i was using and then had no problems. Do not use any cheap masking tape. 3M tape is the best to use.

[jfendley]

<Did you whipe the areas down with Prep Spray or any type of grease and wax remover?>

Yes I use Klean-Strip Prep-All Wax & Grease Remover (http://www.autobodytoolmart.com/pc-14855-609-klean-strip-prep-all-wax-grease-remover-gsw362.aspx)

<What type of masking tape did you use?>

3M blue painters tape - low to medium tack. However, after looking at the 3M website for this product, it indicates that none of their blue painters tapes are lacquer friendly.

I'm going to try to find some low tack, lacquer friendly, masking tape before attempting to mask off the area for striping again. This will be the third attempt.

[chriss68]

just curious, but what is the temperature in your area? I also had issues when it was really stinkin' hot outside.

[jfendley]

Well, interesting you should ask that. Long story short: When I first attempted to paint this trailer I used the tail gate as the guinea pig, if you will, for initial experimentation. Not realizing temp and humidity issues I attempted to spray initial base coat (after sanding, cleaning, priming, sanding, cleaning and tack ragging) while it was 95 degrees and 84% humidity. Lets just say, don't try this boys and girls you wont like the results. So I stripped the tail gate back down to bare metal. Did a bit of research on issues associate with acrylic lacquer and found out that I should wait 'til temps were more in a range of 70 to 85 degrees with relative humidity less than 60% and a dew point temperature that was at minimum 20 degrees below real temp. So since I found that out I have only been painting on this project when the temps and humidity have been in those acceptable ranges. As I live in VA, those ranges don't normally come around during the month of August very much. However, the weather has been uncharacteristically mild during most of the month of August this year. Especially all of last week. Temps were in the high 70s to low 80s, relative humidity was 50% or lower, and dew points were more than 20 degrees lower than actual temps all during that period ('cept for early in the morning 'til about 9 am). So, basically, weather conditions during my paint peeling with tape incidents have been during what I would consider to be optimal for painting with the Dupli-Color Acrylic Lacquer product line. Right?

[chriss68]

Thanks for the weather forecast there! Glad to hear you are having a nice summer. oh yeah, back on the subject.......ummmm, im clueless now! Maybe try waiting a few days before applying any tape in areas, and then waiting a few more days to remove. Thats the only guess i have now.

[Dupli-Color-Specialist]

It does sound like you have had nice weather for painting with Paint Shop or any paint products. I would suggest waiting at least 24 hours before pulling any take off fresch paint as Chris suggested. Personally we did have one issues with paint lifting from taping when I painted with Paint Shop. The reason was that the original paint underneith was not scuffed properly so the Paint Shop didn't bond.

[WilleyGHD]

Here's another "take" on tape removal.............

According to the "Pros" (Jon Kosmoski of House of Color and Mallard Teal - and yes, that's his real name) pull the tape at the absolutely earliest you can!
They use 3M's plastic tape as it can be stretched and bent without wrinkling. Then they'll pull it right after the second coat is sprayed to avoid pulling paint with it!

My reference is the paperback "How To paint Your Harley-Davidson" compiled by Timothy Remus.

Hope that helps!
WilleyGHD