didn’t prep it properly

 

Good Luck with you're problem ... I don't that even Earl Scheib could have done a job that poorly.

 

Any professional painter, by "professional" I mean "not the one who painted your bags", can tell you how to remove the paint and how they should have been prepped.

Or, since you're obviously going to have them repainted, don't try to strip them yourself, just take the bags to the guy who knows what he's doing and have the stripping done safely and correctly as part of the repaint.

Oh, and on the way to the new painter, take your bags to the old painter, show him what's happening, and demand a full refund.

 

That would be my call...probably will not change the price much...but you screwing up and adding more work for the next painter will.

 

I've been painting at a professional level for many years, so some of the information given is pretty good, some isn't so good. I agree that the reason the paint is bad is in part because it's WAY too thick! The other part is that adhesion is not good. I'm not so sure I'd use an adhesion agent on ABS, as it has been my experience that it's not necessary for ABS or fiberglass. What I WOULD do is wet sand the bare bags with 220/240/280 grit paper, apply a polyester or epoxy primer, and block that with 320 initially, final with 400 grit. I don't know if the paint you provided was single or two stage paint...the latter requiring clear coat...I've NEVER used alcohol as a cleaner, not certain where folks got that idea...I would use a purpose-specific final clean...tack...I like using a non-sanding sealer, prevents sand scratch swelling and aids adhesion. Let it flash, then apply either a couple or three base coats, let those flash, apply a couple or three clear coats. Or if single stage, a couple or three coats of paint. No more. When you build too much paint, it creates problems, but generally not right away.


You'll notice I didn't use Scotchbrite...I use a lot of it in my work, but not in this case. Why? It won't give the paint enough tooth. It's very flexible stuff, very useful, but does NOT replace sandpaper as an effective way to impart tooth or leveling to the old finish.


To strip the old paint off, I'd use fiberglass stripper by Klean Strip. Should be available at your local auto body supply store. As you have seen by my narrative, there really is no such thing as an easy or quick way to a good paint job, which is why I'd avoid anybody who's giving you a 'deal'. If it's too good to be true, it is. There's a lot of work to body and paint work, and not too many effective short cuts. AVOID baking those bags, either before, during, or after the paint job!!! Good paint works best if it's allowed to dry naturally...that's an important part of the process. That's where the paint flows out, and you don't want it to dry too quickly.


Another thing to avoid is rattle can paint. Period. Yeah. I've heard how wonderful jobs have come out...yada yada yada. If you personally don't have the equipment, knowledge, skill, or confidence to do the job right, definitely have a pro do it. I'd be REAL hesitant to follow the advice of several of the respondents in this thread.


What I think happened in your case, OP, is that you took the bags to a busy shop who knew they weren't really gonna have enough time to do this small job. The small jobs are always a problem for a busy shop, and if that was the case, they should have turned you down. I think that to get the job out, they simply scuffed the surface of the paint quick like, slapped a LOT of paint ion them, hoped for the best. You can look for yourself to see if there were some substrates present that would indicate use of primer, and you can clearly see if the ABS surface has tooth.


There's no quick and easy way to this work. That's why it costs so much. And there's no way that one gains the knowledge to do this work well in a matter of a few weeks, months or years...it takes decades to get it right! And the target is constantly moving with new materials that have been necessitated by environmental requirements. I will opine that today's materials are equal to, in most cases superior to, the iconic materials of the past. But the cost of the materials have gone thru the roof, but as in the case of the labor and skill of the body man, you do get what you pay for.

 

This is probably the best advice I've seen on this thread. Right on! OP, you took it to the guy in the first place because you knew that it was not your thing! Same thing with the stripping. You're gonna foul things up big time if you use the wrong material to strip the bags! Have the pro do the whole thing, and yes...you are due a complete refund from the idiot who did the job in the first place. If you paid something like fifty to a hundred bux for the job, that should have been a red warning flag to you.

 

guy did 0 prep