Zolatone

[fander]

We purchased a 61 Bambi last year to complement our 62 Chevy. The Bambi has been repaired and has two aluminum panels inside. My wife thinks we should paint them. I have done some car painting and have both standard and HVLP guns. Zolate seems pretty tricky to use. Any opinions?

[goransons]

Actually it's extremely forgiving if you use the right equipment.

1. Before you purchase, order from a company with a good return policy, the stuff goes bad in cans really fast, and on my last project I bought 3 orders and returned them before we got material that hadn't rusted inside the can. Shelf life is very limited.

2. Beyond any product I've ever used, this stuff is really strong chemically and the typical respirator for auto paint really isn't sufficient, even with good ventilation. Best option, borrow an air tank type mask, or get the best double canister respirator you can buy or rent.

3. You need a pressure pot gun with a 2.0 or 2.2 mm nozzle to get a nice color fleck. I found a used Devilbiss gun online and bought a new needle, nozzle and air cap online and did it all for about $250.


4. Be prepared to pull your masking tape before things dry, chemically it soaks into the masking tape (even automotive masking tape) and dries pretty hard. Let it flash an hour or so and pull it.

5. I had great success pulling all the window lifters, and latches, taping their slots, and inserting cardboard cut to fit within the weatherstrip and taping the windows shut. Gave me a clean inside edge, and was easy to remove from outside with no tape lines. some windows I removed the sashes and used home furnace filters (1 inch thick) and a box fan to help move air in and out. Which fans I used depended on which end of the trailer I was spraying in.


6. Paper your full floor, buy a disposable Tyvek suit, with booties built in and wear a safety glasses you don't mind tossing and rubber gloves. follow the directions on their website for gun pressures, and try it out on some scrap cardboard etc.


7. Use a good automotive epoxy sealer primer underneath, and realize the initial "fog coat" is somewhat translucent, so if for example you spray the Madusa Gray (closest to the original color in the early 60's) you'll get a brighter color if you use a white primer versus a gray primer. Plan on letting the interior flash out for a week or two as things cure.

8. Prep work and masking was 99% of the work and time, actually shooting a 24' tradewind was a 2-3 hour project including flash time and clean up.

9. It's an awesome product, and with just some basic practice on test boards and a few hundred in tools and you'll have a bulletproof finish that you'll love! Far superior to anything you can roll on. Let me know if you have any questions.

[goransons]

Phone cameras don’t photograph zolatone well. Too many colors and spots to focus on but here’s a decent shot or two.

[kidjedi]

Man... goransons wins the day for best response on the forums. Thorough and succint. Thanks!

[surfpod]

I am about to paint the interior of my 62 Safari and this is very timely. Thanks Goransons! May I ask where you purshased? I was given some Zolatone, but may be too old. It seemed they had a hard time getting it. I've painted a 1961 Bambi for a friend using the roll on Zolatone, but don't like and want the original version. I've stripped all of the interior panels and am ready to go. Thanks again for sharing your experience.

[goransons]

Thanks. I ordered 3 times from Aircraft Spruce who I’ve worked with in the past. Tri-City Paints in California (TCPGlobal online) will ship it but I got bad product there once years back. Both companies made good on refunds etc but it was a huge hassle and delayed things by nearly a month most recently.

I ordered it from a local paint supplier. I would get it from someone that orders it in, it’s a slow moving product and choose someone that will honor it if you open it and find it’s bad. Do that before you leave the store if you pick up in person.

Make sure you are looking at Zolatone 20 series paints. They all start with 20-## then the can size.

Here’s when you know you have a problem:

[InsideOut]

Scott's post is awesome...I concur with it 100%.

Here's a link to the start of our Zolatone documentation too. Also the list of materials/tools we used can be found in Post #285. Keep in mind, the prices have probably changed as we did our over 10 years ago - still LOVE it and it's holding up great! No regrets.

Or for "less words", here's the shorter pictorial version:
The Restoration of Birdy - Part 1
The Restoration of Birdy - Part 2

Shari

[TequilaAir]

Newbie here!

I have just recently purchased a 1971 sovereign. I do not know much about airstreams so I have been trying to read up.

The airstream was gutted by the previous owner so no cabinet or built ins remain.

The walls inside the airstream definitely need to be painted. In looking at this thread, was the zolatone sprayed on the aluminum OR could it possibly go on top of the existing wall coverings without having to take the existing walls down? The walls right now appear to be vinyl covering, slight texture to it.

[InsideOut]

First off, welcome to AirForums!

We sprayed our Zolatone directly on the aluminum as that's what it was originally in our 1956. However, I have seen a late-60's/early-70's trailer that they sprayed the Zolatone directly over the vinyl wallcovering - it looked GREAT! I really liked the look...the texture from the wallcovering added a little bit different texture to the finished Zolatone - it looked awesome! I've seen this trailer several times over the years - it's held up really well.

As long as you clean & rinse & prime the well-adhered vinyl, your results should be the same.

If you have any peeling or damaged vinyl wallcovering though,Zolatone is not going to fix that - it's only as solid as it's substrate. Peeling vinyl = peeling vinyl with Zolatone on it.

Good luck in whatever you decide to do!

Shari