Laying candy directly over graphite panel weave.

[Juicegoose]

So I had a customer ask me to paint up a fishing rod. He wants the rod to be tinted green. Problem is he also wants to keep the wicked looking graphite fiber weave pattern that shows on the blank. Normally I would throw down some kd3000 epoxy primer and then some color and clear. In this case though I have a nice matte finish smooth surface. If I want to keep the look will I still get good adhesion if I scuff up the blank and lay down some KBC organic green and then finish up with some clear?

 

[markjthomson]

Certainly a scuff up will help, that may be enough. Perhaps an intercoat clear but I don't know specifically. The nice thing about the carbon rod is it will be a cured epoxy so a mechanical bond should suffice.

 

[Juicegoose]

Thanks Mark I was gunna run a test on blank before trying it on his but I wasn't sure if there was any tips or trick i should be looking into. My concern was painting this blank and relying on the mechanical adhesion and then they put it in a bend on a fish and the candy and clear crack off.

 

[Squishy]

Its the flexability I would be concerned with. Usually for flexible surfaces such as plastics you would want a specific primer to help avoid cracking. Which is not an option I this case. I think do a test and put it under a fair bit of stress. You might want to give it some time and repeat over some weeks to see if any effects occur later on, or finish impairs with repeated use.

 

[Juicegoose]

Thanks Squish. I've got a test blank that i painted a while back. I used kd3000 and then some purple with marbling. I used a different clear though
Cerakote air cure clear. hard stuff but hell to spray(1 shot at it). It hasn't cracked yet

I'll run an adhesion test tonight too