Whitish haze after spray painting?

Hi all,

I finished spray painting the fins of one of my rockets red yesterday. The paint has been drying for about 22 hours now. There is a strange whitish-grey haze on a good portion of the surface of the fins (and nosecone which I painted as well). It is fairly light, but it is definitely there. The haze can be buffed off with a paper towel. (Unfortunately, it doesn't photograph well.)

I painted the fins by laying down a very, very light coat -- basically just two quick passes -- over the primer then let it dry for ten minutes, then repeated that, let that dry for ten minutes, then did a final coat a little slower/thicker and let that dry overnight.

The particular paint I'm using the Krylon red gloss. The only other color I've used thus far on my rockets has been white, and if the whitish haze is there, I probably can't see it.

Any idea what this is?

Sometimes moisture, as in high humidity, can do this.

Hmmm..... I am in Houston (read: swamp) and the rockets did dry overnight in the garage.

Paint blushing-- humidity condensing in/on the paint due to evaporation (which cools things down) and causing moisture to condense.

Try painting when the humidity isn't so high and the temperature is a little warmer (near Houston myself, so I know that finding lower humidity (especially this time of year) around here is a challenge, though the temps aren't as much of an issue.

Lower dew points help (the closer the temp is to the dew point, the easier it is for the paint to blush.

Later and good luck! OL JR

It's called blush. It is caused by spraying in high humidity (and Houston qualifies as high humidity).

Only way eliminate it is to spray when the condition is drier, or use something known as a "blush eraser" that basically melts the paint and cause it to reflow, releasing trapped moisture. However if you are using enamel this MAY cause wrinkling!

You can if using a spray gun add retarder to the finish to prevent blushing when spraying in perpetual high humidity area, however the finish will also take longer to dry.

Cool, so it's normal. I am trying an experiment. I spray painted some other parts indoors (shhhh! Don't tell my wife!) where both the humidity and temperature are distinctly lower. (Well, the humidity at least, it's actually quite nice temperature-wise outside today.)

One of these will work for removing blush but DO NOT spray on enamels... no idea how they will react to hot coating...

https://www.stewmac.com/Materials_a...nd_Solvents/Blush_Eraser_13_oz_spray_can.html

Alternatively you can get some retarder, lacquer thinner, and lacquer clear coats and make your own to spray from a preval unit. Thin clear coats until it's very thin and add retarder.

Blush, also known as "milking" is very annoying. It's one of the reasons I switched to acrylics I spray indoors (with a respirator) so that I don't have to worry about it...

Living in Florida, I get that too from humidity. I notice after the paint fully dries, I can rub the haze out with either 0000 steel wool or even a soft cloth. I switched from Krylon to Rustoleum 2X and have noticed it's not as noticable anymore with the different paint. Painting early in the morning helps reduce haze too!

I had the same issues. Yes dew points are important. You could also just lightly wet sand the area and shoot it with clear. That should take care of the problem

Be careful painting with clear...it does the same thing. I found this out much to my dismay clear coating a Black Brant....grrr...

FC

FastCargo said:

Be careful painting with clear...it does the same thing. I found this out much to my dismay clear coating a Black Brant....grrr...

FC

Click to expand...

I use Duplicolor and had the clear finish haze on me, but after about 15 minutes it disappeared.

this happens almost every time I try to use Krylon. I have given up on it and only use Rustoleum with no issues, even painting in the garage with the door open while its raining. the rockets that blushed, I sanded a little with very fine paper and hit it with one coat of rustoleum for a beautiful finish.