Preliminary review of Klass-Kote Epoxy Paint

As some of you may know, I had another little incident and have to repair the Infinity again. No problem, it's back together and flies just fine. But it does need some repainting. The original model is painted with K&B Superpoxy and HobbyPoxy, with DAU 75 car clear. I am just abotu out of white, so I ordered up some Klass-Kote paint http://www.klasskote.com on speculation. The reports were all good, and the test by Dave Platt was encouraging (he's the good kind of R/Cer - someone who *actually* knows something rather than simply assumign he knows everything).

I tried some the other night on a test article, and as near as I can tell, it's darn near identical to K&B Superpoxy as far handling qualities and curing goes. I sprayed it and it set up quickly. I was able to sand it about 4 hours later in reasonable room temperatures. It was soft, but it didn't immediately clog the paper. 24 hours later, it's glass hard just like K&B. It's NOT like Hobbypoxy - different colors of Hobbypoxy cure differently, but they tend to cure into a soft, rubbery consistency. Not Klass-Kote - like glass.

I can also report the service to be excellent, too. My can of catalyst has gotten dented and cracked in shipping. It was packed in a plastic bag anbd double boxed, so no mess outside. But boy howdy, what a mess INSIDE! It got darn near everywhere. half of a half pint can, distributed over every internal surface, huge smelly mess. I called at 8:30 California time (10:30 Minnesota time, I think), and talked to the guy, and he sent me a new can 2-nd day air, right then, no arguments, just great service.

This is all preliminary, since I have a few months at least before I need to do a whole airplane, but it sure looks like good news for those of us who liked epoxy paints.

I think the K&B superepoxy was a bit before my time. Was it a better finishing system than dope? How did one go about finishing with it?

Steve

PS please forgive my ignorance on this one. Just never heard of this sort of finish.

>I think the K&B superepoxy was a bit before my time. Was it
>a better finishing system than dope? How did one go about
>finishing with it?

I think it's generally better than dope, and its unequivocally more durable. Pour 100% nitro right on it, no problem.

The total finishing process is a bit beyond the scope of a product review. But basically, finish the airplane to the clear dope stage with nitrate, then use K&B primer (heavy but sands and fills suberbly, and you don't leave much on. Then base color, trim, and car clear (K&B clear was nice enough but turns yellow over time). It's a 2-part 1:1 mix paint, so you mix it about 1:1:1 color:catalyst:thinner, then squirt on. Covers much better than dope.

A typical finish was around 6 oz. Both Infinities were painted with K&B and mostly turned out OK, at least as far quantity of paint goes (only real problem was the sizing in the graphite, but more paint doesn't solve that) but heres a breakdown:

1.5 oz - graphite+dope
1.2 oz primer
1.4 oz white paint
maroon paint unmeasureable
blue paint unmeasureable
DAU 75 Car Clear - 1.25 oz.

Total 5.35 oz.

Brett,
Great info. 5.35 oz....what airplane did you say this was on?

>Brett,
>Great info. 5.35 oz....what airplane did you say this was
>on?

Current Infinity. I prefer to put my weight into structure rather than paint, but there's nothing wrong with the paint job aside from the pinholes (which I now know how to fix, and more importantly, avoid in the first place). More paint wouldn't have helped.

Most of the "epoxy paint is heavy" is the result of treating it like dope. The pigment per unit volume of paint is VASTLY HIGHER. If you tried to put that much pigment in dope, it would dissolve the into a mess on the next coat. If you put on a quart of white dope, most of it evaporates, and it covers reasonably well. If you put on a quart of white epoxy, it looks fantastic, and you won't be able to pick it up without rupturing something. I sprayed roughly 3/4 of a pint of total liquid volume (1/4 pint white, 1/4 pint catalyst, and ~1/4 pint thinner) with a regular spray gun, not HVLP. I would guess that maybe 25% of that actually made it onto the airplane (as opposed to creates an apparent snowstorm in David's garage. That isn't much paint. It's a little thin in spots, but that's more a function of bad technique.

A little goes a long way, and unless you realize that and act accordingly, it will be very, very heavy.

Brett,
Amazing. As always thanks. That is a very light finish!

Brett,
Were the pin holes due to the particular ACP CF matte from a few years ago (probably ~>5 years come to think about it)? I had some of that and I couldn't rid myself of the pin holes to save my life. Sort of spooked me on the CF matte. I just recently (last year) bought some of the new stuff from ACP, and I assume it works as advertised. Certainly will try a small test swatch at first.

>Brett,
>Were the pin holes due to the particular ACP CF matte from a
>few years ago (probably ~>5 years come to think about it)? I
>had some of that and I couldn't rid myself of the pin holes
>to save my life. Sort of spooked me on the CF matte. I just
>recently (last year) bought some of the new stuff from ACP,
>and I assume it works as advertised. Certainly will try a
>small test swatch at first.

Pinholes were from the sizing in the graphite. The bad kind looks very stiff and uniform. The good kind is kind of fuzzy and uneven. Aerospace Composites lists the bad kind as "hard" and the good kind as "soft".

The solution, if you get them, is to clean the surface, then screed on some polyester-based filler like Bondo or Hobbypoxt PFC, then sand it down. Better to just avoid it in the first place, though.

Brett,

Thanks for taking the time to describe what it was and how it works. If this new stuff works well on full finishes, I'm definetely intrigued. I can deal with durable finishes that don't take a zillion coats.....