Freshly painted propane tank

[Hog Wild graphics]

I have a customer that wants me to letter 135 sqft on a freshly painted tank. They are wanting it ASAP but I'm wanting to make sure I give it enough time to out gas. How long do you normally wait?

 

[eahicks]

What kind of paint needs to outgas? I would say when the paint is dry, it's ready. Being outside in the summer, that should happen quickly.

 

[Gino]

There are many timeframes you hafta wait. It's based on the kinda paint used and how well the tank was prepped. Preparation is probably more important in this case than the kinda paint, though. You could be using the best kinda paint, if it was a terrible prep job, it will never be ready. Being outside, it's a crap shoot.

 

[HulkSmash]

What kind of paint needs to outgas? I would say when the paint is dry, it's ready. Being outside in the summer, that should happen quickly.

what? Yes paint needs to outgas.

 

[TXFB.INS]

all paint needs to cure, latex/acrylic is faster than oil but still need to cure before applying.
Also you need to know the type of paint as the VOC amount will be a factor

otherwise have them sign a wavier for the fast install

 

[James Burke]

We just did our new job board utilizing (tough-as-nails) farm implement white enamel. I put cast vinyl on it two days after we painted it. Looking back, I probably should have waited two or three more days.

While the paint was technically "dry", I believe the oil base hadn't settled down enough because some of the vinyl didn't want to stay down while removing the transfer tape. After a few days, I simply burnished over the vinyl with my thumb and it's staying put.


JB

 

[mark-s]

I was taught to wait at least 1 week after painting before applying vinyl.

mark-s

 

[equippaint]

Whether right or wrong, we usually install decals on machines & trucks we paint the day after. In a real time crunch weve installed over paint thats not fully cured, it will unfortunately leave tape marks and single part paints like synthetic enamels are worse since they air dry and take longer to cure. Its not by choice, its that these machines cost and earn alot of revenue so often times the owners would rather have the revenue than a perfect job (not that itd ever be perfect of course). Either way, we've never had any failures and paint about 200 machines a year. Solvents escape fast, a lot faster than what I think a lot of people realize especially with real thin film build like printing. General rule of thumb when painting is 20 mins between coats to let the solvents flash off. When you don't, or put on too thick of a coat the paint can harden on the surface and you end up with tiny air bubbles called solvent pop, look close at a run in a paint job and often times you see this. Point being, is PPG and DuPont give a 20 min window to outgas solvents between coats on a $400 gal of paint that would be ruined if solvents got trapped under it.
The main thing to worry about is leaving tape marks from it not being cured fully, just throw a piece on somewhere inconspicuous and pull it off in 20 mins and see. If nothing, you're good to go.

 

[T_K]

Its not by choice, its that these machines cost and earn alot of revenue so often times the owners would rather have the revenue than a perfect job (not that itd ever be perfect of course).

This is true on MOST jobs. On vehicle wraps, we tell our customers "For best results, we need XX amount of time to print/laminate before install." (Changes depending on size of vehicle i.e. # of sq.ft. needed). But they rarely want to wait the proper amount of time. So we're often pulling the vinyl right off the printer and straight into the laminator.

So far, no failures and no outgassing issues. We've actually had more issues with the install conditions, since we don't have a indoor bay.