Fluro Paints

I recently sprayed a board with a Fluro yellow waterbase paint on the foam, It seemed to react with the catalyst when i laminated it by going a brown colour, anyone had this problem?? 

One of the many reasons why Flourecents suck as a surfboard paint.

Hey gorillaMC,

Fluoro paints are tough, as atomized mentioned. Even if it is a waterbase they aren’t all the same. Our paints are proven so check them out;

http://shop.fiberglasshawaii.com/colorants/paint/acrylic_paint/apfl-acrylic_paint

Good luck and let us know if you have any questions.

Whoops double post! See next comment.

Hi Gorilla-

One trick to using Fluoro paint is to add a little white to it.  Not too much that you dull the color but just to add a little extra base to the paint.  It’s also good to put on light coats of paint (2 or 3) and be sure to dry completely between coats.

I’ve defintely seen a lot of paint fading over the years but never seen it turn brown. 

Give that try and let us know.

Brad

Over catalysing (hot batching) will cause the browning. Not completely stirring the catalyst in the resin will give you brown streaks in the flourecent paint job.

Flourecent paint jobs on board exposed to heat will darken. For example leave a flouro yellow board laying out in the sun with a towel partially covering it and the areas exposed will darken except the area covered by the towel. I’ve seen this happen multiple times.

I only use flourecents when the idiot who ordered the custom insisted that the board be painted with them.

Here’s DayGlo’s (the company that invented Flourcent pigments and the main supplier of floro pigment in the world) fact sheet on their water based acrylic paint.

http://www.dayglo.com/fileshare/tech/SCRPaintTB-04.pdf

Go to the page about lightfastness and read about how well the stuff holds up out in the sun.

Fading is eminnent with Fluoros over time and accellerated big time by the sun.  Check out any vintage board from the Eighties and you will see the damage.  They look awesome for a bit tho…

Brad

The Nova Color ones work great,  our spray guy adds some extra gesso but other than that just shoot and go.  I have a flouro yellow board that sat in a shop exposed to sun for about 6 months and is still bright and flouro.

The Day Glo brand im not a fan of personally.

"Fluorescent paints …aka day glow paint, was never really intended for surfboards or prolonged outdoors use. The tips everyone have included here are from years of experience… adding a little white, etc. . Nova paints are excellent quality for surfboard use but I haven’t personally used the day glow ones.

The towel example is what we commonly refer to “tan line”… you get a nice new day glow painted board, stick it on your roofs racks, head to the beach, and voila… tan lines when you remove the straps noticing a color difference between where the straps shadowed the paint. The browning of fluoros happens as the resin cures thereby cooking the paint.

Resin doesn’t dry… it cures.

Curing means heat. 

The fluoros also seem to fade quickly when you get impact (ding) on them.

They look bitchen when professionally done, but they are, for the most part, another can of worms that I’d rather do without.

 

Yeah, Heat!

This was way back in the 80’s…glassing a deep six channel bottom that was painted solid Flo Yellow, the glasser opted to do a quick hot batch to stick down the glass to the channels, and then glass the rest of the bottom after the hot batch kicked.

The idea being - having the glass already stuck to the channels,  you avoided the glass getting pulled out of the channels when lapping the rails. 

Anyway, the hot batch really burned the Flo yellow under it, and it completely turned turd brown.

Adding white just makes Flo paints paler and opaquer, so it paints more uniformly. It doesn't improve lightfastness or protect it from discoloring in any way.
 

Yup.

It was an 80’s thing. Those Martin Potter boards and all the bitchen painting that the guy out near Haliewa did for T&C and other people. I remember going by his painting shack and he had about 80 pix on a bulletin board with a number on each pic with the price. They were really super good graphics.

Does anyone remember his name. He had it wired.

I think you’re talking about Mark Townsend. He’s now here in Southern California. Sprays for Rusty and T. Patterson.

 

 

 

 

Yes! Exactly.

He was absolutely THE MAN back then. His look really made Town & Country have an almost iconic look of their own because of his talent.

That says a LOT when an airbrusher can generate sales for a company versus just the shaper.