Spray painting alloys & panels in the cold

[sgtBerbatov]

I had to take a few months off working on my Corolla, which meant the jobs of spray painting the alloy wheels and panels were put off. I now have time again to complete the jobs, but the weather has decided to cool things down a little bit!

The alloys are already off the car and free of tyres, so I need to key them and spray them. The two wings, bonnet, front of the car, bumpers, the passenger door and boot all need to be sprayed as they either have rust or chipped paint. I had always planned on taking them off the car and spraying them in the garage as I can't fit the car in to the garage as it's wider than the doors.

I was planning on placing the aerosol paints in buckets of warm water before applying them, while heating the panels with halogen heaters while I spray paint them. The only issues are that the garage doesn't know what insulation is, and can be drafty. It's effectively a shed to be honest.

What I'd like to know is whether heating the paint and surfaces like this are the best way for me to paint them without waiting for the one day of British summer we get midway through August?

[V8covin]

Get the panels and especially the wheels warm first would be your best bet rather than trying to heat the whole area or the paint....heating the paint will make it 'thinner'

[sgtBerbatov]

Thanks for that. Wouldn't the paint, if cold, come out too thick to stick to the panels even if they were heated though?

[7even]

All products are designed to be sprayed at booth temp, which will obviously include panel, product and equipment, so as close as you can to the product TDS for a stress free outcome.

[V8covin]

Leave the aerosols indoors til you're ready to paint

[sgtBerbatov]

Brilliant, thanks for that. I'll get on it now.

[steveo3002]

warming the cans helps alot ...it will dry faster being warm too

do all you can to keep the panels warm for a while

[paintman]

Too warm & the droplets won't coalesce & flow out properly leaving you with a nice orange peel effect.

[sidgolf]

I painted some bits and bobs outside a few weeks ago,after it had turned decidedly colder.The only precaution i took was to keep the spray-cans warmed up in a bucket of hottish water.The resulting finish was just the same as the bits that were done in high-summer.

Dampness in the atmosphere would be something to watch out for these days..