Re: Critical Safety :Re: Subject: Painting a Scout

[Tom Harais <tjhemh@domain.elided>]

Owen, Alan, David, Others:

Actually, I did mention "off digest" to Alan via a question, the safety
issue. But, due to your responses, I'll go even further.

Alan says he was using a carbon charcoal canister filter, which is good.
My concern was the isocynates that are usually present in enamel
accelerators or catalysts. (does Bhopal, India ring a bell with anyone.)
I know from my own experience, that you can walk into any auto body
paint shop and pick out an enamel and a catalyst that contains
isocyanate and they won't say a word. I was told by a friend in the body
repair business, that it is illegal for them to be selling this "over
the counter" to the public like that. Remember, I live in Kalifornia
where they banned oil based enamel paint from the house paint lines by
restricting VOC levels (this didn't apply to "industrial paints"
though). Now, people who are absolutely sure that oil based enamel must
be better for their house than any latex acrylic (wrong) will go all the
way to Reno to purchase the contraband. (Sometimes I swear if you banned
margarine, people would spend their every waking moment to get it
instead of just using butter.)

In any case, I also found that I could not find a respirator that was
rated for isocyanates. What my body shop painter friend told me was that
the only approved respirator for isocyanates was a the positive
displacement type like he uses (space suit with an air hose). Later
research told me that charcoal canister filters will work on isocynates
but since they are odorless, you will have no way of knowing when the
filter has lost it's effectiveness and you are being exposed to the
isocynates.

Owen is also right about it being illegal to paint a car in your garage.
I have been told that around here too. But more importantly, I painted a
refrigerator in my garage with an enamel from the local hardware store
and my airless. It worked well, but the over spray covered everything,
even though I covered everything with plastic. If you are "Landryesque"
about your other car in the garage or your tools, you will need to
completely empty your garage and staple plastic sheets to the ceiling
and all the walls. You'll need the space to walk around and spray the
Scout anyway and the sheets will keep the dust and insects off your new
paint job.

Here, if someone calls the authorities, it won't be the EPA. It will be
the California Air Resources Board and they will get you with big fines
and everything.

So, how about some positive alternatives.

Well, for one, I see paint booths for sale all the time. They aren't
cheap but you could buy one, use it and resell it easily. You could also
charge some of your buddies a few for it's use to help offset your own
cost.

You can also use lacquer instead of catalyzed enamel. A lot of show cars
still use it as nothing beats the depth and clarity of ten or more coats
of lacquer. It is less volatile and more forgiving than enamel. I'm sure
it is not as durable though. Plus, lacquer has now been beat for depth
and clarity and smoothness. Have you seen some of the new cars with
their factory, computer applied two part paint jobs? They are amazing.

Another option. There are a lot of body shops around here that will rent
time in their paint booths, especially on the weekends because they
don't work on weekends. You get a professional set up, lack of dust and
bugs with professional lights to bake the finish. All for a hundred or
two dollars per day. You can usually get some professional help and
advice if your kind to the overseer as well. I would prime and sand my
Scout at home until I had it just right, then go this route.

A friend of mine wanted a show car quality paint job on his '69 Trans Am
- one of only 489 made! He had painted it once himself and it was O.K.
But, to get it show ready, he befriended a body shop owner. They guy did
some straightening of the sheet metal and some adjusting of the front
fender alignment for my friend. Did a great job for only a few bucks. My
friend took the Trans Am down to the shop at night and did all the
sanding, grinding and priming with the body shop owner overseeing him.
Finally, when it was all perfectly straight, every seam properly filled,
the body shop owner rolled it in the booth and shot it with Polar White
and Blue stripes - a show car quality job for $1,000. That is a lot but
to have had a body shop do a show car quality job with the special paint
they used would have run $2,500 easily if my friend hadn't done all the
prep work himself. That is what takes the time and energy. The car was
painted and finished in half of a Saturday or so.

These are just some thoughts I post here. Owen reminded me about the
safety issues. And, I used to work in a factory with a lot of macho guys
who thought all the safety and environmental stuff was just a bunch of
bull. Knowing what I know now, I realize what fools those turkeys were
and I'm pretty conscientious about safety issues of this sort. Painting
a car at home with catalyzed enamel requires that you understand the
risks of isocynates. They are very unforgiving. Just ask the 900 dead in
Bhopal.

I'm from the school that says you should explain the risks to people and
then let them do what they want. I live in a state where they try to
sheild you from the risks in the first place. If people are going to act
the way those guys I worked with in the factory did, then the state is
right.

Tom H.