Is this the Place?

[Tagger]

Originally Posted by Back Beach

I'm also looking at the $2000 needlefish(my first almost completed plug) hanging in my basement with paint peeling off and wondering wtf I got myself into here.

Hey Mike ... maybe your going to smooth at the sanding stage . You have to leave some "tooth" .. My first plugs I did my last stage of sanding with glass . (baby food jar,seals pores like making baseball bats) .. I could peel the plug like a banana.. Not sure if this is it .. But you don't need more than 100 grit so paint can bite .. I had trouble with soft primers too .. Can you see what layer its seperating at ? Then figure out why .. Thats a very frustrating place to be .. I wouldn't paint 50 of something while at the stage .. Maybe do that cross hatch test (never did it myself).. Do your paint layers on a board ,,how ever you do it .. sealer,primer,paint,rattlecan?,waterbase?,protecti ve coat , epoxy or final coat .. Let dry .. Take a exacto knife and cut thru your finish criss,cross 1/4" squares,, Take a piece of duct tape and stick it down over that .. Now rip it off like a bandaid ,.. Where did it seperate ? There's your problem .. If nothing comes up you win .. ofcourse epoxy can can fail later in the water and negate all of the above .. At least then you know its your epoxy and where you stand ..

[BigFish]

I am betting his adhesion problem is between the primer and the paint. I use 220 grit paper for final sanding....never a problem.

[Tagger]

Originally Posted by BigFish

I am betting his adhesion problem is between the primer and the paint. I use 220 grit paper for final sanding....never a problem.

I use 220 myself but ran out of it and haven't made it out to buy more ,, probably won't ... may be overkill .. I've been using 100 final .. and 100 wears out pretty fast so its actually even smoother .

[Back Beach]

Originally Posted by Tagger

Hey Mike ... maybe your going to smooth at the sanding stage . You have to leave some "tooth" .. My first plugs I did my last stage of sanding with glass . (baby food jar,seals pores like making baseball bats) .. I could peel the plug like a banana.. Not sure if this is it .. But you don't need more than 100 grit so paint can bite .. I had trouble with soft primers too .. Can you see what layer its seperating at ? Then figure out why .. Thats a very frustrating place to be .. I wouldn't paint 50 of something while at the stage .. Maybe do that cross hatch test (never did it myself).. Do your paint layers on a board ,,how ever you do it .. sealer,primer,paint,rattlecan?,waterbase?,protecti ve coat , epoxy or final coat .. Let dry .. Take a exacto knife and cut thru your finish criss,cross 1/4" squares,, Take a piece of duct tape and stick it down over that .. Now rip it off like a bandaid ,.. Where did it seperate ? There's your problem .. If nothing comes up you win .. ofcourse epoxy can can fail later in the water and negate all of the above .. At least then you know its your epoxy and where you stand ..

You know, the paint peeled right off the bottom of the plug but not the top. I did read in a recent post you shouldn't combine gloss and semi gloss paint. I did the top of the plug in gloss yellow, did the bottom in semi gloss white...stuff on the bottom half of the plug peeled off, including the primer, and the yellow is fine. Maybe combining gloss and semi gloss was the problem?

I only did one plug just in case there were issues...damage control is very important to me...