primer to paint polyethylene

Kylon has paint and primer that is made just for plastic, it's advertised as the paint to use when painting those plastic mouseka patio chairs.

Rattle can 'Fusion' (made by Krylon) seems to work quite well for almost anything. No primer. Drys very fast. We use this a lot and have had good results.

If doing a large prodject where you are mixing and spraying paint I have learned it to be best to work with the paint suppier.

I tried that Krylon product on a polyethylene gas tank. It blistered and peeled in less than a month. There was no fuel spillage that I could see. If I were to try it again, I'd sandblast first.

Thanks for all the help I'll ck with the paint suppler and see what he comes up with

Originally written by reddragon774 on 10/20/2007 3:52 PM

Thanks for all the help I'll ck with the paint suppler and see what he comes up with

That is the best policy.
As far as painting poly tanks go you HAVE to skuff them up first. I remeber one guy who came to Florida to run a sprint car one year . He had a beautiful high dollar paint job on the car. The ploy tail tank was fine until they took it to the car wash after the races...Paint came off in pieces.

Thanks for the rely...I have a old Vetter tour box I want to paint to match the bike and I'm gettin ready to paint the car to match too...it's fiberglass....so looks like lots of sanding and filling this winter....LOL...

Polyethylene is a cross linked wax, paint normally won't stick to it.

However, the surface can be oxidized with an oxidizing flame. Be careful, don't burn it up.

There are also more sophisticated methods, involving high voltage corona discharge that produces a thin oxide film for the coating to stick to. It's really a sort of high tech primer.

Here is a site with some good ideas:

http://www.polyprocessing.com/pdf/technical/PaintingPEStorageTanks.pdf

Dave

Originally written by reddragon774 on 10/20/2007 6:10 PM

Thanks for the rely...I have a old Vetter tour box I want to paint to match the bike and I'm gettin ready to paint the car to match too...it's fiberglass....so looks like lots of sanding and filling this winter....LOL...

Vetter gear was made of ABS plastic. Scuff and use primer and paint will stick to that fairly well.

I was under the impression that no kind of paint would stick to poly regardless of prep. I've sanded, used primers, different kinds of paint and degreasers to prep the surfaces. Nothing I've ever done will make polystyrene take paint and keep it.

Thanks Tom ..I sent you a email

the new primers are alot better, the thing I have learned is that no matter what you do to the surface you must primer right away, like same hour. Scuff or flame it does not matter. Prime immeadiatly. I helped set up the plant for coroplast the coregated plastic company. we used a corona discharge to etch the surface of the polypropalene so it would take ink. All three etching methods work just fine.

Thanks for the info...the stuff I got said to paint in an hour.....Steve