Valspar paint

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

neond7

Sky Pirate
TRF Supporter
Joined
Feb 15, 2012
Messages
1,334
Reaction score
142
My wife found some "fun" colors on the Valspar rack at Lowes the other day. Gave it a try today on my pair of LOC IV's.

I found the funky twist top cap to have a little splatter issue when the can ran low. Other than that, i was very pleased. The paint sprays very forgivingly. One drawback is, it seems to have a very long cure time. I wet sanded the red one this morning after drying all night and shot a second coat.

I would use Valspar again in the future, they do have some fun colors!!

image-2915608742.jpg
 
Valspar is some good paint... although you're right-- the new caps SUCK!!! WHY they have to go and ruin perfectly good paint with some stupid new gimmicky paint caps/cans/nozzles is beyond me... pure marketing, nothing more...

IF you have a Tractor Supply Co. (TSC) farm store nearby, you can get Valspar there in the OLD STYLE "normal" nozzle cans in many colors... that's some good stuff...

Later and good luck! OL JR :)
 
Valspar is some good paint... although you're right-- the new caps SUCK!!! WHY they have to go and ruin perfectly good paint with some stupid new gimmicky paint caps/cans/nozzles is beyond me... pure marketing, nothing more...

IF you have a Tractor Supply Co. (TSC) farm store nearby, you can get Valspar there in the OLD STYLE "normal" nozzle cans in many colors... that's some good stuff...

Later and good luck! OL JR :)

How well does it handle clear coating? Rustoleum crystal clear in particular.....
 
I don't know the answer about clear coating because I never tried that but I did buy some Valspar at a Lowes a few years ago. I was quite happy with its application and the resulting durability. I has been my intention to buy some more as soon as I can afford to get back into rocketry in a big way.
 
How well does it handle clear coating? Rustoleum crystal clear in particular.....

Jeff,

Can't recall 100%, but I *THINK* I had issues applying the Rusto clear over the Valspar. Or was it Valspar clear over Rusto? Either way, check on a test sample before ya pull the trigger...

At one point, we were gonna do a matrix of what was and was not compatible and make it a sticky...
 
How well does it handle clear coating? Rustoleum crystal clear in particular.....

I don't usually clearcoat so I can't tell ya... the best advice is to do a paint test under your conditions and follow the can directions explicitly...

Good luck! OL JR :)
 
Jeff,

Can't recall 100%, but I *THINK* I had issues applying the Rusto clear over the Valspar. Or was it Valspar clear over Rusto? Either way, check on a test sample before ya pull the trigger...

At one point, we were gonna do a matrix of what was and was not compatible and make it a sticky...

I had forgot - I had bought some Valspar clear when I bought the other Valspar paint. It was hiding in the mess on my workbench. This morning I gave it a try, a few light coats at first, waited a few minutes, and then a few heavier coats until it had built up enough to get a little flow and leveled itself smooth. No runs, like the Valspar paint it seems very forgiving.

Wish I could say the same thing about the nosecones. The blue rocket got white paint on its nose cone. The red rocket got black on its nosecone. Both colors were Krylon brand. I used the Rustoleum Crystal Clear Enamel on both of them after letting them cure overnight (as I have many times on the past) after first coating them with Krylon clear acrylic. The black paint did have a different "smell" to it, so it seems like it is has a much different formulation than the other colors. As soon as the clear hit it, it crazed like mad. I hate painting.............
 
I had forgot - I had bought some Valspar clear when I bought the other Valspar paint. It was hiding in the mess on my workbench. This morning I gave it a try, a few light coats at first, waited a few minutes, and then a few heavier coats until it had built up enough to get a little flow and leveled itself smooth. No runs, like the Valspar paint it seems very forgiving.

Wish I could say the same thing about the nosecones. The blue rocket got white paint on its nose cone. The red rocket got black on its nosecone. Both colors were Krylon brand. I used the Rustoleum Crystal Clear Enamel on both of them after letting them cure overnight (as I have many times on the past) after first coating them with Krylon clear acrylic. The black paint did have a different "smell" to it, so it seems like it is has a much different formulation than the other colors. As soon as the clear hit it, it crazed like mad. I hate painting.............

I've about weeded out all of my Krylon now that Rusto has the Ultra Cover 2x: https://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=400. Not quite as glossy as the regular Rusto and clear, but hard to run and a decent number of nice colors.
When I can, I still use the little Testor's cans as nothing seems to glisten and sparkle like that stuff does...especially wit the Wet Look Clear. But you have to make lots of trips to Hobby Lobby with the 40% off coupons to afford it :grin:

I really wanna try some of this: https://www.stevensonspaint.com/servlet/the-House-of-Kolor-Spray-Cans/Categories
Also expensive, but House of Kolor's reputation is pretty substantial...
 
Wish I could say the same thing about the nosecones. The blue rocket got white paint on its nose cone. The red rocket got black on its nosecone. Both colors were Krylon brand. I used the Rustoleum Crystal Clear Enamel on both of them after letting them cure overnight (as I have many times on the past) after first coating them with Krylon clear acrylic. The black paint did have a different "smell" to it, so it seems like it is has a much different formulation than the other colors. As soon as the clear hit it, it crazed like mad. I hate painting.............

I feel your pain, brother.
 
I really like Valspar, but I've had to go back to using Rustoleum because of so many bad experiences with the new nozzles spitting.
 
I really like Valspar, but I've had to go back to using Rustoleum because of so many bad experiences with the new nozzles spitting.

Yeah, the new nozzles TOTALLY suck... I don't know WHAT they were thinking doing that... following Krylon's lead with their crappy nozzles I guess... marketing... idiots...

you have a TSC store nearby, you can get Valspar there in a LOT of different colors with the OLD STYLE (works good) nozzles... Those nozzles might even fit on the new cans... I know you CAN take the new nozzles off, or rather the entire silly "twist lock" cap...

Later and good luck! OL JR :)
 
Yeah, the new nozzles TOTALLY suck... I don't know WHAT they were thinking doing that... following Krylon's lead with their crappy nozzles I guess... marketing... idiots...

you have a TSC store nearby, you can get Valspar there in a LOT of different colors with the OLD STYLE (works good) nozzles... Those nozzles might even fit on the new cans... I know you CAN take the new nozzles off, or rather the entire silly "twist lock" cap...

Later and good luck! OL JR :)

Thanks for the tip. I did find a couple of stores that are fairly close.

I've got some empty Valspar cans with the old nozzles lying around and some half-full cans with the new nozzle that I dare not use. It's worth a try putting on an old nozzle.
 
Update on the longevity of this paint - I had applied 2x coats of paint, allowed several days to cure. Then coated with Valspar clear gloss. After a week of cure time, I coated with Future/Simple Green.

I'm having problems with the paint "wrinkling". It didn't like getting hot at the field and got fairly "gooey". Since then I've noticed it wrinkling around the vinlyl graphics and a few other spots.

I'm worried about how this paint will last in the long term. So far the blue seems to be holding up better than the red. But I've never had a paint get these weird defects this far past it curing. With Krylon, once cured, you have what you have. It cures and that's it. This stuff never seems to have fully cured. Weird. I don't intend to use Valspar again in the future with these issues I'm having.
 
Sounds like the kind of paint problems I'd have. I was thinking about trying Valspar, but now now.
 
I've only bought 1 can of Valspar so far and it was this awesome purple that I used on my Arapahoe E. It did have the fonky nozzle on it but it worked pretty well for me. No clear coat but it did well with a Future/Simple Green bath.

As I was browsing our new Tractor Supply today I didn't see ANY Valspar. Just some limited Rusto colors and a bunch of their own brand. Looked to me as if they only wanted to stock what the farmers might actually buy around here.

Arapahoe E 1.jpg
 
Update on the longevity of this paint - I had applied 2x coats of paint, allowed several days to cure. Then coated with Valspar clear gloss. After a week of cure time, I coated with Future/Simple Green.

I'm having problems with the paint "wrinkling". It didn't like getting hot at the field and got fairly "gooey". Since then I've noticed it wrinkling around the vinlyl graphics and a few other spots.

I'm worried about how this paint will last in the long term. So far the blue seems to be holding up better than the red. But I've never had a paint get these weird defects this far past it curing. With Krylon, once cured, you have what you have. It cures and that's it. This stuff never seems to have fully cured. Weird. I don't intend to use Valspar again in the future with these issues I'm having.

Strange... I've not had any such problems with Valspar...

Curious about all the topcoats and clear and future/simple green stuff... my question is, why bother?? seems like an AWFUL lot of work to go to for little purpose...

It's hard to blame it on the paint when you're doing such a strange combination of things... and without knowing exactly how you applied it, over what, under what conditions, etc...

FWIW, Valspar is generally acknowledged to be one of the better paint brands out there...

Still, I suppose it's possible you either got a bad batch, or they changed the formulation, or just got your batch wrong, or that it was old paint or out of date or something like that...

IMHO, from my experience, choose either to go with a clearcoat or go with the Future/simple green (and I'm NOT sold on the mixing simple green into it, either... just complicates things IMHO... the more stuff you mix, the more chances there is for something to go wrong...)

Maybe try again following the instructions a little more closely and without all the extra chemistry experiments going on, and see what happens??

I dunno... it's very strange... Good luck to you! OL JR :)
 
Sounds like the kind of paint problems I'd have. I was thinking about trying Valspar, but now now.

I've used Valspar with absolutely NO problems... so don't take one "incident" at face value, especially with such a peculiar methodology as applying all that clear and Future/simple green mixed up stuff...

Success usually starts with reading and following the instructions...

Not particularly crazy about the stupid twist-lock caps on the Valspar now, but there's ways around that (like getting the Valspar at TSC which still uses the old style caps on their paint, at least for now). Valspar does have a very good chemistry, it seems... the paint flows out smoothly and dries beautifully. No complaints at all with the product, only the container...

Later and good luck! OL JR :)
 
I've only bought 1 can of Valspar so far and it was this awesome purple that I used on my Arapahoe E. It did have the fonky nozzle on it but it worked pretty well for me. No clear coat but it did well with a Future/Simple Green bath.

As I was browsing our new Tractor Supply today I didn't see ANY Valspar. Just some limited Rusto colors and a bunch of their own brand. Looked to me as if they only wanted to stock what the farmers might actually buy around here.

TSC's tractor paint IS Valspar... look around on the cans and you'll find the Valspar name somewhere... Their name isn't prominent on the can, but the paint is made by Valspar... and it's good paint too...

There's quite a few colors available in their ag-equipment paint lineup... I love Allis Chalmers Orange and Massey Ferguson Red, and Kubota Orange isn't bad either... TSC carries two lines of Valspar equipment paint-- a green label can for "regular" equipment painting, and a silver-label paint for "restoration" equipment paiting... IE the sorta "foot deep gloss shine" you'd expect at car shows, only for old farm equipment being restored, for show tractors or parades or such... which has become a pretty big hobby in itself. Of course to get the deep shine, you have to do IMMACULATE surface prep work and basically wet sand and buff out the paint with polishing compound, but when it's done right, you can make a '38 John Deere B shine like the fanciest show car...

Later and good luck! OL JR :)
 
Update on the longevity of this paint - I had applied 2x coats of paint, allowed several days to cure. Then coated with Valspar clear gloss. After a week of cure time, I coated with Future/Simple Green.

I'm having problems with the paint "wrinkling". It didn't like getting hot at the field and got fairly "gooey". Since then I've noticed it wrinkling around the vinlyl graphics and a few other spots.

I'm worried about how this paint will last in the long term. So far the blue seems to be holding up better than the red. But I've never had a paint get these weird defects this far past it curing. With Krylon, once cured, you have what you have. It cures and that's it. This stuff never seems to have fully cured. Weird. I don't intend to use Valspar again in the future with these issues I'm having.

Did those (the LOC IV's in the pic earlier) fly on the 15th? I don't remember seeing them at the field.
As for Valspar paint, the only experience I've had with it was a light gray that bubbles all over the rocket no matter what, and had to be repeatedly sanded off until I quit and got some other paint.

BTW; Gary Byrum, nice Arapahoe E! I'm building a clone right now, and I'm considering purple.
 
IMHO, from my experience, choose either to go with a clearcoat or go with the Future/simple green (and I'm NOT sold on the mixing simple green into it, either... just complicates things IMHO... the more stuff you mix, the more chances there is for something to go wrong...))

Honestly, I tried using the Future w/o the simple green and it drew up / beaded sort of. Some areas were left uncoated and some were. I think the Simple Green relaxes the Future so this doesn't happen. I have had great results with this combo and it's less complicated than the friggin clear coats I've been paying too much for with crappy results.

Thanks Rocketbuilder, I thought purple was a nice choice for mine. It was the only purple job in the Arapahoe E Gallery.
 
Did those (the LOC IV's in the pic earlier) fly on the 15th? I don't remember seeing them at the field.
As for Valspar paint, the only experience I've had with it was a light gray that bubbles all over the rocket no matter what, and had to be repeatedly sanded off until I quit and got some other paint.

BTW; Gary Byrum, nice Arapahoe E! I'm building a clone right now, and I'm considering purple.

Yes, both the LOC IV's flew on the 15th. Along with my Phoenix (went in the swamp) and my big LOC Bruiser (Sky Pirate). If you stayed for the raffle, my wife was the one with the double fist full of tickets...... she won a bunch of stuff. Including a nice "J" green tornado gorilla reload for me. :) Now I just have to get a motor case for it.
 
Honestly, I tried using the Future w/o the simple green and it drew up / beaded sort of. Some areas were left uncoated and some were. I think the Simple Green relaxes the Future so this doesn't happen. I have had great results with this combo and it's less complicated than the friggin clear coats I've been paying too much for with crappy results.

Thanks Rocketbuilder, I thought purple was a nice choice for mine. It was the only purple job in the Arapahoe E Gallery.

Thanks... that's good to know...

I'd suspect that the Simple Green is acting, like most detergents, as a wetting agent, lowering the surface tension of the Future so it flows out easier without beading up... we used to add regular dish soap to our cotton picker spindle water tanks for the same reason-- make the water "wetter" so it did a better job...

I dunno... might be one of those things... Hate you had problems with the Valspar because that's not typical... if anything KRYLON will be the one to give you fits... rather unusual...

Thanks for sharing your technique... I'm not a huge fan of clearcoats anyway... I bought some Future but haven't used it... it rests on top of the refrigerator... :)

I know plastic modelers have sworn by the stuff for years... :)

Later! OL JR :)
 
I shot some pictures so you could see what I was talking about. This started happening a month after it was originally painted. Its like the paint never fully cured. The blue rocket doesn't have this problem, just the red one.

I suspect it got hot at the field and it accelerated the paint issue. Its wrinkling all around the lettering and in a few spots on the airframe. I've never had this happen with Krylon.... Krylon only screws up as you are spraying it. ;-)

I've used Future/Simple Green on many rockets without issue. I've used it over both paint (Krylon, Rustoleum, etc) with and without clear coat for that deep, rich shine.

paint2.jpg

paint1.jpg
 
Now that's just freaky. The one near the black paint I can see as some sort of differential shrinkage or expansion, but the one that's over by itself is just plain strange.

Good reminders to me as to why I avoid enamel paints for the most part.

Marc
 
I won't speak to any of the problems in this thread--just my exp. --Valspar clear over Rusto colors---outstanding--word to the wise--rusto dries very hard---sooooooo, if your gonna clear with Valspar--a quick moist sand with 600 or above is suggested---just does not stick otherwise--tends to chip easy and tape will pull it right off---sand first then spray-----I think it's like rule 122 in the Book of Hornet
 
Ive seen something similar to this wiith several paints and epoxies... usually it is from not mixing correctly or enough... or in this case shaking the can enough... paints and epoxi are essentily the same thing when broken down to ths most basic of how they work. Base tint hardener... the way it cures is the big difference... one is chemical reactant and is oxygen reactant. But any time you dont have a mixture correct or not mixed well enough you get "soft spot" which is basically where it never fully cures due to hardener or base "floating" ive used valspar krylon and rusto on my rockets. I ALWAYS use the same brand primer paint and clear coat together though. I havnt had problems with any of them thother then typical flight scars

This could also be uv boil. If you live in a place like i do where it is dry thin air then leaving anything with a clear coat out in the sun it can cause the clear coat to "boil" but that typically leaves bubbles. But it is possible to leav runs on something like a refently launched rocket...

I am going to go with not mixed well enough paint though...

edit: BTW im talking about epoxi coatings and not bonding... even though you can have the same thing happen with bonding
 
Last edited:
Hrrrm....

I've used only a few Valspar paints, and have had good to great results with all of them. Their Oil-Rubbed Bronze is my go-to metallic black. Sprays well, lays well, covers well, and once clearcoated or Future polished? POP! Definitely dig it.


Later!

--Coop
 
I shot some pictures so you could see what I was talking about. This started happening a month after it was originally painted. Its like the paint never fully cured. The blue rocket doesn't have this problem, just the red one.

I suspect it got hot at the field and it accelerated the paint issue. Its wrinkling all around the lettering and in a few spots on the airframe. I've never had this happen with Krylon.... Krylon only screws up as you are spraying it. ;-)

I've used Future/Simple Green on many rockets without issue. I've used it over both paint (Krylon, Rustoleum, etc) with and without clear coat for that deep, rich shine.

Okay I see what you're talking about now... that is what I call "paint creep"... it's sort of a shrinkage effect from paint that is put on too thick and doesn't really cure "hard"...

The paint will be "dry", but it never really gets "hard". I have only had it once on rockets-- an Atlas painted with Krylon "Chrome in a can"... (which chrome in a can is a notorious paint to work with, basically no matter what the brand...). The stuff went on like it was coming out of a garden hose, and I was spraying fast and light like I always do... just seemed the stuff wanted to run all over the place... basically I put a light coat on and had to keep the rocket turning and invert it every so often for about ten minutes after I sprayed the coat to get it to finally 'tack up' enough to stay put without running...

Basically, the paint "never hardened"... it was still sticky a day or so later... so I moved the rocket, still on it's paint stick installed in its motor mount, into the very hot pickup, which was sitting in the hot Texas mid-summer sun at the time, so I figured "what the heck-- use it for a drying oven!"... WRONG! I went back after ten minutes to check on the paint and found it forming a couple large bubbles on the fairings... So I brought it back inside, carefully pierced the bubbles with a pin, then gently massaged them back down onto the surface of the fairings with the flat side of a hobby knife blade and burnished them down extremely gently to rebond them to the surface...

After a few days the paint had "dried" enough to touch without leaving fingerprints... IF you were careful... I was still doing a few building steps and had to hold the rocket a bit firmly and end up leaving a fingerprint on it and had to very carefully massage it out by polishing the rocket with an old pair of underwear... the small ribbed texture of the cloth helps to smooth the paint back out... but the area was a bit darker, so I had to basically buff the entire rocket out to get it all to match again... (gotta be a joke in there somewhere... LOL:))

Anyway, the rocket has, over the past year or two, gotten this same sort of "wrinkling" in some spots on it... the paint FINALLY seemed to harden up considerably over a couple months, but it's STILL not anywhere near as hard or durable as any other paint job I've done.

I think it was a combination of the material and being applied rather thick... like I said, I usually manage to get the paint sprayed on pretty well, without run, drip or sag issues... but this chrome in a can stuff just never seemed to harden up really.... sort of like what you're describing...

Lacquer paints tend to form quite hard layers, they dry quickly and hard... but due to VOC regulations most lacquers are gone from the marketplace. The lacquer finish, while hard, is also rather brittle and easily chipped or, if the substrate to which it is applies flexes, it can crack or "spiderweb"...

Enamel, on the other hand, takes a lot longer to dry... the solvents are weaker and take longer to evaporate... and the finished paint layer is usually considerably "softer" than a lacquer finish... this is both good and bad, because the softer finish can flex a bit more with the underlying surface without cracking or spiderwebbing, and impacts don't usually chip it so easily... but it's a bit less resistant to scuffing damage from glancing blows than a lacquer finish would be... but then again, usually lacquer will chip with a hard enough glancing blow to scuff or scratch enamel anyway...

Let's face it... no paint is "bulletproof"...

What I learned from my experience with this sort of thing is shoot for lighter applications, with more time between applications. I should have adapted my technique more for the different properties of the paint I was using, since it behaved so differently from the other paints that I had been using. I should put lighter coats on in the future, and give more time between coats, to allow the solvents to evaporate more before applying another coat over the previous one...

This isn't just a Valspar issue... this can happen with just about ANY paint... I've had it happen on farm equipment that I "overpainted" by shooting 3-4 heavy coats on it instead of going lighter... trying to build the paint up so that it wouldn't be so prone to wearing off... BUT, when you go too thick with too many coats, the overlying paint tends to keep the underlying paint rather "mushy" and never really lets it cure right, and this sort of thing happens, with the wrinkling and soft paint... heck I've got a stool I made in shop in 10th grade that I tried putting more and more and more layers of varnish on to get that "mile deep" varnish look... the stuff eventually wrinkled up from too many coats and layers, just softening up the underlying layers... it looks EXACTLY like those pics you posted...

Shoot for a lighter coat next time and see what happens is the best advice I can give...

Good luck on your next project! OL JR :)
 
Okay I see what you're talking about now... that is what I call "paint creep"... it's sort of a shrinkage effect from paint that is put on too thick and doesn't really cure "hard"...

The paint will be "dry", but it never really gets "hard". I have only had it once on rockets-- an Atlas painted with Krylon "Chrome in a can"... (which chrome in a can is a notorious paint to work with, basically no matter what the brand...). The stuff went on like it was coming out of a garden hose, and I was spraying fast and light like I always do... just seemed the stuff wanted to run all over the place... basically I put a light coat on and had to keep the rocket turning and invert it every so often for about ten minutes after I sprayed the coat to get it to finally 'tack up' enough to stay put without running...

Basically, the paint "never hardened"... it was still sticky a day or so later... so I moved the rocket, still on it's paint stick installed in its motor mount, into the very hot pickup, which was sitting in the hot Texas mid-summer sun at the time, so I figured "what the heck-- use it for a drying oven!"... WRONG! I went back after ten minutes to check on the paint and found it forming a couple large bubbles on the fairings... So I brought it back inside, carefully pierced the bubbles with a pin, then gently massaged them back down onto the surface of the fairings with the flat side of a hobby knife blade and burnished them down extremely gently to rebond them to the surface...

I will admit, the paint is a bit on the thick side. The original coat had come out well, and then when I touched up a spot on the back of the fin I oversprayed the body tube. I noticed the overspray the next day and ended up doing a high grit wet sand until is was REALLY smooth, and then resprayed the red. I wonder if it was so smooth it didn't bond well..... Or just the added thickness didn't let it cure. By the following day I noticed it was still getting fingerprints when I did a "test touch" on the edge of a fin. I left it out in direct sunlight for a few hours - this has always worked great with Krylon to "bake it out" a bit. It didn't help, it was still gooey after I brought it in and it sat overnight in the garage. Meanwhile, the blue rocket was doing ok and the paint hardened pretty well - not as well as Krylon, though.

As far as brands go, it was Valspar paint and Valspar clear, so compatibility shouldn't have been a problem. The only difference in technique between the blue and red rockets (besides the color) was the red rocket was wet sanded and recoated. They both got the Future/Simple Green treatment after a week. Both color cans were WELL shaken and left in the sun for a bit to heat up. It was a very hot humid day in Florida when they were painted.

I might go back and give lacquer another chance. Maybe. I know the one time I used lacquer in the past it was very brittle, but it might have been cheap paint. I'll think about trying some Dupli-Color lacquer, they sell it at the local auto parts store.

Painting sucks..... :-(
 
Neond7: you can't spell paint without "pain" and there are reasons for it :wink:. I rarely use enamels but like lacquers, except when it's too humid and the lacquer blushes. :mad:

I'm learning to airbrush with acrylic water based paints and loving it. So many colors, fewer fumes, and generally forgiving processes. Lower cost per rocket generally too. And no more worrying about the weather since I do it downstairs. Consider giving it a try!
 
Back
Top