Randy Charles
Professional Painter

Randy Charles is the owner of PaintCentric.com, a website dedicated to providing information, tips, tricks, and news about all things paint. With over 10 years...Read more

Randy Charles
Professional Painter

Randy Charles is the owner of PaintCentric.com, a website dedicated to providing information, tips, tricks, and news about all things paint. With over 10 years...Read more

How to Fix Wrinkled Spray Paint?

Randy Charles
Professional Painter

Randy Charles is the owner of PaintCentric.com, a website dedicated to providing information, tips, tricks, and news about all things paint. With over 10 years...Read more

Perfect spray paintwork can be attributed to applying thin coats of paints and patience. Spray painting is the easiest way of using paint and the shortest route of sending you back to square one. Spray paint mistakes such as run and drips, smudging, wrinkling and many others could occur if the proper care isnt taken. The question is should you run into one of these mistakes, how do you fix them. Hence, this article will be the cause and ways how to fix a wrinkled spray paint.

Spray Paint Wrinkling Causes and Why?

Spray paint wrinkling is a rough, dry skin like pattern that appears on an uncured painted surface. This could result from impatience and applying too many coatings on a particular spot. This, however, is one of the few causes of spray paint wrinkling. The rest are going to be fully explored below.

Spray Paint Wrinkling Causes And Why

The Thickness of the Coating

In every painting work, the thickness of your coatings is critical. This is what will determine the outcome of every paint job most significantly, if it is too thick could lead to painting mistakes.

Wrinkling as a painting mistake can also affected by the thickness of the painting. When a thick coat is applied on a surface, the outer parts gets dry, and the inner surface remains wet. In this process, the dry layer anchors on nothing and as such, as it expands, it begins to create a dry skin like pattern

Dry Time

One of the most significant factors of spray painting is time. To avoid spray painting mistakes like wrinkling, it is essential that you give time between your coatings. When the appropriate dry time isnt given, especially after your first coating, wrinkling is bound to occur. In this case, the second coating will dry adequately, and the dried surface will make it difficult for the first coating to dry, thereby making your surface shrink and wrinkle.

Dry Time

Giving yourself time in between coatings is essential. This is because not all paint will dry completely within a short period. Paint brand differs, so it is better to seek advice from your paint supplier on the drying time of their product before proceeding with the use.

Top Heat

Temperature is another crucial factor in spray painting. It is, in fact, one of the biggest causes of paint wrinkling. This is because, during high heat, the exterior painting is likely to dry quicker than the inner surface. Painting outdoors in high heat would make your paint form a dry skin like pattern even before the entire painting is done.

Humidity Is High

As earlier stated in every painting work, the temperature is critical. Exposing your paintwork to high humidity or rain shortly after the job has dried can also cause Paint wrinkling. This is because every painting work requires sufficient time to dry off. And if, in the process of drying, the paint is exposed to high humidity, moisture can return to the painting, making it shrink.

This, however, is common only to water-based painting as oil-based paint are not susceptible to moisture

Primer Uncured

Primer is a coating meant to prepare the surface for work in view. However, if the first layer of paint coating is added without allowing the primer to cure fully, wrinkles are bound to occur. The situation is quite similar to putting too much coating on a surface. The new layer will dry fast, leaving no room for the primer to dry well.

Contamination of the Surface

Wrinkling could also be caused by painting directly on a contaminated surface. These contaminants, which include oils, grease, waxes, and dirt, can cause the paint to react and hinder the drying process of the color, inadvertently causing it to shrink.

Hence before painting, it is advised to wash the intended surface for your work with soap and water to remove dirt. It would be best if you also used oil dirt based [like wax and grease] removers to remove oily contaminants. Finally, it would help if you used isopropyl alcohol to get rid of extra pollutants.

Incompatibility of Materials

 Incompatibility Of Materials

Painting materials such as primers, thinners, additives etc., are sometimes of different brands. When these products are incompatible with each other then, it can lead to wrinkles on paintings. Hence, before you apply paints and primers to your surface, you should make sure that the material you intend to use are compatible

How to Fix Wrinkled Spray Paint?

Wrinkled paintwork can spoil a whole masterpiece. If you have been in this situation, ultimately, the question in your mind would be how do you fix a wrinkled spray paint. This section below would provide a simplified step to that venture.

How To Fix Wrinkled Spray Paint

  • Collect Your Essential Items and Prepare Yourself: Getting ready to fix your wrinkled spray paint, you need to plan meticulously. It would be best if you also made ready your supplies and items which you would need to fix your paint mistake. These pieces of equipment include drop cloth, sandpaper, sanding block, spray gun, new paint and others which you may include.
  • Use Sandpaper to Remove to Wrinkled Surface: The best way to remove a wrinkled surface is to scrub it using sandpaper. However, before scrubbing it, you should ensure that the surface is cured or mess it up the rest of the surface. You should also sand carefully to avoid touching the area not affected by the shrinkage.
  • Remove Loose Dust from the Surface: Once the affected area has been thoroughly scrubbed off, you should dust off the loose dirt from the surface. This is to avoid you painting on the stained soil surface, which may cause you to repeat the same mistake .your drop cloth is made essentially for this purpose, so you should make a great deal of use of it.
  • Prime the Surface with Latex Primer: After dusting off the surface with your drop cloth, the next step is to prime the surface. Just as you have done before the shrinkage, you should apply your latex primer. However, this time, you should allow for ample time for the primer to cure and dry thoroughly before proceeding to the next stage.
  • Spray the First Layer of Spray Paint: At this stage, you should proceed to apply your first coating. In this process, you should ensure that you do not use too much coating on a surface. Your speed should be at a consistent rate with your spraying machine. You should also allow for a considerable time for proper drying before applying the second coating.
  • Apply the Final Layer of Paint: At this stage, you should ensure that the first coating is appropriately dried before applying the final layer. You should also maintain a consistent speed rate, not slow nor fast, to avoid making a mess out of the whole work. Conclusively, you should allow for time for it to dry. It would be best to consider all the factors highlighted in this article to ensure a smooth finishing.

Final thoughts

Wrinkling on painted surfaces could pose a big headache. However, when suitable materials are used and highlighted, factors and causes are dully followed. The next time the question of how to fix a wrinkled spray paint pops up, it wouldnt be so much of a headache but rather guide you towards achieving a perfect finishing.

Randy CharlesProfessional Painter

Randy Charles is the owner of PaintCentric.com, a website dedicated to providing information, tips, tricks, and news about all things paint. With over 10 years of experience in the painting industry, Randy has become an expert in the field and is passionate about helping others learn more about painting. He has written numerous articles on the subject and is committed to providing accurate and up-to-date information to his readers.

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