Only Cub Cadets - Cold weather painting tips.

Well gentlemen, its that time of year again. Here in western PA, we've been in the low 70's during the day and getting down into the 50's at night. So, I thought I would post up some tips on cold weather painting.

1. Metal Temp

Metal temp is often overlooked when it comes to painting in cold weather. Cold metal will greatly retard flash and dry times will increase the chance for runs. The ideal metal temp is above 70 degrees, but anything below 65 is where you'll really start to run into issues. It takes metal several hours to warm up especially if its over an 1/8" thick. I recommend using a Raytech gun to check metal temp.

2. Reducer Temp

This one is pretty self explanatory, when painting in cold weather you want a faster reducer to speed up flash and dry times. Using a higher temp reducer, because its what you have may lead to a do over, which will be more costly in the long run.

3. Flash Time

Just about every paint has a recommended flash time between coats, but that info is useless in both hot or cold weather painting. The fact is, those flash times came from painting in a climate controlled environment, and wont be helpful to a do it yourself or painting in a garage with limited air flow. The best way to tell if your ready for the next coat is by feel, touching the paint in a spot that wont be noticeable. When its done, it will tell you everything you need to know. If the paint feels wet and you can smear it around with your finger its still too wet. Ideally you want it to feel like your touching the sticky side of masking tape.

4. Lighter Coats

When painting in cold weather, your much better off with 4 light coats than 3 heavy coats. Heavy coats take longer to flash and increase the chance of runs. If you normally paint with the gun 8" from the metal try moving to 10" to lighten the coats.

5. Shop Set Up

The ideal set up will be to have your heat source in one corner and the exhaust fan in the opposite corner. This will force the hot air to travel over the painted parts and it will also draw the fumes away from the heat source. I've been in plenty of shops over the years that have the exhaust fan right next to the furnace which is wasteful and dangerous. Not only does it pull the heat away from the paint, but it draws the flammable fumes into a combustion source.

That's all I can really think of right now, but if I think of anything else, I will add it.