Bad Repaint Jobs...

[belford]

If you have an old light and consider repainting it: please DON'T.

I bought some lights off flea-bay, and it turned some they were "re-painted".
With black spray can acrylic paint......

Gimme a break... PLEASE! GUYS! This is _ridiculous_. Why would anyone with half a brain spray a 2k fresnel or a 750W 360Q with normal black acrylic paint that will, of course, melt away a few seconds after you switch it on? I though this was a single occurance, but now I got a second light which has just the same problem. And people actually think that this will "go away over time". PUHH-LEASE!

Have you encountered similar stuff? If you see anyone doing this to a light please kick them in the buttocks real hard. I'd prefer a light with very very very bad original painting any time over those amateurish paint jobs - because it's a pain to strip it all away, and you have to catch ALL of it, otherwise the thing will keep on smoking and smelling...!

Other things I've seen: lights painted with high temp. paint that hasn't been properly burned in: will get soft to the touch when you switch on the light...

Ok rant off...
What kinds of paint to you use when you properly (!) re-paint a light? How do you apply it? How do you burn it in, in case required.

belford.

[Footer]

Do a search... this has been beaten to death before.

There is nothing wrong with painting fixtures, I have done is numerous times.... you just have to do it right.

[Les]

What kinds of paint to you use when you properly (!) re-paint a light? How do you apply it? How do you burn it in, in case required.

belford.

Any time I paint a light I completely disassemble the unit and lightly sand off any rust, chipping or peeling paint, etc. Then I only paint the parts that were originally painted by the manufacturer and tape off or remove any parts that are to be left unpainted. If there are remnants of the original paint job left, I find it OK to paint over as long as it is a stable and clean surface. This is given the fact that it is in fact the original manufacturer's paint. If not, it must be stripped off.
The paint I use is Duplicolor 1200 degree black engine paint. It has worked extremely well in the past.
For burn-in I usually run the light in a well-ventilated area at about 25% for around 15 minutes, then I bump it up to 50% for about 10 minutes and finally 100% for about another 10-15 minutes. I haven't had any problems with this procedure so far, and I've painted alot of lights.

Yes I have come across the problem of buying lights on ebay with really bad end-user paint jobs before. Usually for me, this is high temp paint, but it is the really cheap kind that is very flat and chalky. It is a pain none-the-less. I have tried many ways of removing paint, some with more success than others. Usually it is not finding a solvent or tool to remove the paint, but the accessibility. Behind the yoke discs and on the heat-sink like rear housing on a 360Q come to mind first as some of the hardest areas to remove paint from. Aircraft remover, wire wheels/brushes, sand paper, etc all work great but none can do perfect in these areas. My next venture is to try a bead blaster, which is like a sand blaster but uses small glass or plastic beads in lieu of sand. I haven't gotten around to that yet, but I do have some half-stripped 360Q cases in storage that will need this attention as it is the only thing stopping them from being workable inventory. Yes, they had non-high temp paint applied over the original factory paint.

I find that rental shops are the most likely candidates for touching up or repainting fixtures so as to keep them looking new. Some are better than others at the application and type of paint used.

[ship]

Heck, I bought a 30's box spot off E-Bay that was a sort of pinspot upgrade kit all in one - transformer included. Why anyone would want to do so is a wonder but it was what it was and I got what I expected. The fixture I wanted and for its price what I expected in need of work.

On the other hand for paint, I have at times done a rust deforming paint as a base coat when not sending the fixture to the sand blaster, than above that painting a second coat with high temp. This beyond, ok sometimes a supplier will make it look nice with minimum effort, dependant on where it is such paint could be fine. What bubbles up or smokes or cracks than is easy to chip and re-paint.

Wouldn't be upset about such a thing in that by way of used fixture, if the paint is the most of your worries you have it made. Be nice if such gear were "ready for use" but on the other hand hopefully you got a good deal, much less if a Fresnel such paint will be sufficient once burned in. Often it is.

Obviously your review of this seller will reflect what after a few hours of use this fixture quality was for you in buying it as per the price it was liste for. Honest enough - if sold for say fourteen bucks and even if you won the bid at like fourty bucks, the seller was only asking X amount for the fixture and you just bid higher than that. Did in raw materials you get your money's worth is all the question than after that. Or even if non-bid, are these raw materials after the materials and time worth that of a new one? Love of the fixture in your time and possibly.

[belford]

Had them bead-blasted, worked fine. Hand sanding is really out of question with fresnels (it's Rand Strands) because you won't be able to reach all the nooks and corners... if you know the Strands you know what I mean...

I was bringing up this subject also because leaving the lamp burning for some time will _not_ always be sufficient to burn in the paint. Some paint needs to be burned in for 1 hour at 220 degrees celsius (about 430 degrees fahrenheit). You will reach this temperature at some parts of the case, but not at others. This will mean that when running the fixture for a longer time some day the paint will get soft there again. Not good. Of course there is temperature resistant paint that will burn in at lower temperatures. But I've just been bitten by this, so I wanted to mention that this is NOT always sufficient.

belford

P.S.: No horse is too dead to beat.