Nearest car aerosol colours to Fender sonic blue and surf green?

[DiscoStu]

I'm not actually wrong, as any aerosol, bought over the counter at a car factors will not harden properly. Going to a re finisher and getting them to make up an aerosol or a can of paint is an entirely different matter. If you ask yor nitro that's what you will get. I repeat buying an aerosol can for Halfords, or any other 'Saturday morning' motor factor will lead to a sub standard job!

In my experience, you are wrong.
My first build is 6 years old, finished entirely in Halfords own brand off the shelf aerosol and kept in a case and doesn't have a mark on it.
The MGT sonic blue nitro refinish job took fabric imprint all over.
Whilst I accept that Halfords paint may be technically 'inferior' to other types of finish, if it is applied correctly it is absolutely fine. I think most people spray too thick a coat and apply the next coat too early so the previous coat hasn't - and then can't - fully cure.
Take your time and apply it in lots of mist coats with time in between, followed by a long hang afterwards and it should be just as hard as any other paint.

And anyway - don't Gibsons or Fenders (I forget which) have problems when sat on guitar stands? Doesn't their finish react with the foam? Just sayin'...

[DiscoStu]

Loving that colour stu, you're absolutely right about cellulose and acrylic, they'll both remain soft if you blow on too much at once. If you can get the body into the domestic oven, baking at a low temperature (say, 50-75 C) will speed the whole process up.

If you google image search the colour you'll see lighter/darker/bluer versions but that's due to the different cameras.
I didn't know the Fiat colour existed, but whilst researching sonic blue and finding the MGT colour, the original dupont colour and the sample on the ReRanch site, I just happened to walk past a 500 in a car park and had a eureka moment! It is unbelievably close in real life. My mate works for Fiat so I got him to get me the name of the colour then went to Halfords. At the time it was too new a colour for them to have it, but they may do it now. But you could probably get it made up somewhere for you.

[WezV]

In my experience, you are wrong.
My first build is 6 years old, finished entirely in Halfords own brand off the shelf aerosol and kept in a case and doesn't have a mark on it.
The MGT sonic blue nitro refinish job took fabric imprint all over.
Whilst I accept that Halfords paint may be technically 'inferior' to other types of finish, if it is applied correctly it is absolutely fine. I think most people spray too thick a coat and apply the next coat too early so the previous coat hasn't - and then can't - fully cure.
Take your time and apply it in lots of mist coats with time in between, followed by a long hang afterwards and it should be just as hard as any other paint.

i do agree - but the reason not to recommend halfords paints is because they take so much more effort to do right, and its harder to do a thin coat with the round spray pattern

I have done 2 or 3 'successful' finishes with halfords paints - 1 was a super thin 2 coat jobby. the others took a lot more work than other comparable finishes and the results where still quite amateur at best.

as for baking them in the oven - it does work. it also shouldn't be recommended as there is a bit of a health & safety risk there!! obviously an electric oven will be safer than a gas one - but ignoring the flammability a second you are still pumping paint fumes into your house!!! it can also cause issues with glue joins if you just a bit too hot but mostly it just makes them more apparent

[daveyh]

Thanks for the replies but I've had a lot of experience with acrylic aerosols. The key is to low bake them for a hour or so and drive off the solvent which will make it hard and durable - it also makes it petrol resistant

I've used Halfords in the past, and whilst I didn't have an oven I did have a hair drier, which did the job quite well although a bit time consuming.

[DiscoStu]

There is certainly a time factor to allow for with the aerosols. I was in no hurry as it was a personal build and my first full project. The whole build took me 9 months in my spare time and the spraying/hanging time was around 6 weeks in total.

I will add that the sonic blue nitro respray was not an amateur effort by me either - it was done by a professional sprayer recommended by WezV. When it arrived back to me fully finished it had taken the imprint of the protective wrapping it had been put in, some sort of fibrous paper/fabric/foam stuff. I had to then wet and dry it back and gently rebuff it. I wasn't overly impressed.

[WezV]

I will add that the sonic blue nitro respray was not an amateur effort by me either - it was done by a professional sprayer recommended by WezV. When it arrived back to me fully finished it had taken the imprint of the protective wrapping it had been put in, some sort of fibrous paper/fabric/foam stuff. I had to then wet and dry it back and gently rebuff it. I wasn't overly impressed.

Did you speak to him about it? I have had a couple of issues (over a large number of guitars where most have been above average) and mike has always gone the extra mile to put it right when the first go hasn't quite been to a standard I was happy with.

[Ageinggroover]

i do agree - but the reason not to recommend halfords paints is because they take so much more effort to do right, and its harder to do a thin coat with the round spray pattern

I have done 2 or 3 'successful' finishes with halfords paints - 1 was a super thin 2 coat jobby. the others took a lot more work than other comparable finishes and the results where still quite amateur at best.

as for baking them in the oven - it does work. it also shouldn't be recommended as there is a bit of a health & safety risk there!! obviously an electric oven will be safer than a gas one - but ignoring the flammability a second you are still pumping paint fumes into your house!!! it can also cause issues with glue joins if you just a bit too hot but mostly it just makes them more apparent

There's not really any H&S risk with the solvent in acrylic as it's acetone which is non-toxic. Probably other more unpleasant chemicals in there but I just do it on a day when there's nobody else around. I have to leave the oven door ajar (like when making meringues) as a strat body's just a little to big to fit.

In the past I've used an infra-red heat-lamp to cure acrylic - works very well, but have since dumped the lamp

[WezV]

In the past I've used an infra-red heat-lamp to cure acrylic - works very well, but have since dumped the lamp

yeah, i have used one of those before and it does work well and gone be done somewhere out of the house. but i am still cautious about the heat. did one multi-lam guitar and the joins became a lot more obvious as it heated up.


also, again ignoring the very real flammability risk:
http://toxipedia.org/display/toxipedia/Acetone

I will confess i have put pedal cases in the oven before to harden off

[TheGuitarWeasel]

Control of substances hazardous to health (COSHH) on acetone:
Forms explosive mixtures with air. Extremely flammable. May explode in a fire.
Vapour may travel considerable distance to source of ignition and flash back.

[Ageinggroover]

Control of substances hazardous to health (COSHH) on acetone:
Forms explosive mixtures with air. Extremely flammable. May explode in a fire.
Vapour may travel considerable distance to source of ignition and flash back.

You need to be sensible - a gas oven would not be recommended, but the concentrations you'll get out of paint that is already hard are going to be so small that you're unlikely to ignite anything

Take the point about glue joints though, could be an issue. I've also used a fan heater to cure paint - works a treat, but you do have to engage your brain when doing anything like this otherwise you'll set your gaff on fire