# anybody ever work with bondplex aluminum?



## epicpaint (Apr 3, 2019)

I am doing some smooth overhead aluminum panels using Sherwin Williams Bond Plex aluminum. This coating is like a silver metallic coating. Each panel is consists of six smaller panels. Each one is about 4' x 8'. Because of the size, I decided it would be best to spray the panels. 

I first started out with a .517 tip because the limited documentation recommends a .17-.19 size tip. This first coated resulted in a really blotchy finish. I was getting some lighter silver areas and some darker sections resembling like a black stainless finish. Before starting the second coat, I called my rep and he told me based on his experience, he recommended using a smaller tip, like a .312 fflp. I took his advice and switched. I got a slightly better appearance with the second coat but still had a lot of tiger striping between the lighter silver and the much darker. The entire time we were using a standard spray pattern, running the gun slowly and overlapping 50%. The only limited success we had was when got further back from the surface and used a faster sweep which was more of a fog coat. It was improved but still not acceptable.

The store claimed not to be able to shake the coating because of its volatility, so I mixed it with a drill. It still seems like the coating is not coming out of the gun uniform. Was the drill mixing a mistake, or is my 60 mesh gun filter blocking some if the aluminum particulates.

Has anyone here sprayed this coating before with any success? If so, I would really appreciate any advice on tip size, spray pattern, etc... 

Thanks in advance.


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## MikeCalifornia (Aug 26, 2012)

Sorry, man. Those SW employees are idiots!! "volatitility"!! Its freakin water based. A 17-19 is waaaay to big. If I remember, this stuff is fairly thin like any enamel would be. I would spray it like any nice door enamel, use FFLP 310, 311, or similar. Light coats will be better with metallics, but alot of SW PI coatings can be lightly fog coated, let set for 10-15 then run a full coat over the top.


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## finishesbykevyn (Apr 14, 2010)

Was this bare aluminum or preprimed/painted.? I would think you should prime it before that product. Is there actually aluminum particals in there? Although it's kind of funny that
someone would paint an aluminum colour over something that is already aluminum?? Maybe try backrolling it to even out the finish.
I could be totally wrong. Never used it.


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## MikeCalifornia (Aug 26, 2012)

So I sprayed some today, just extra white. This exterior repaint is totally weird. The contractor, purchased by the HO, had to install these sash pella type windows, four different outside colors. He asked me to paint them white.
We took the sash window out, scuff sand, mask glass and insides. I used a 208FF from Titan at about 2200psi. It sprayed nice, dries really fast, I don't think the finish is as nice as a real enamel paint, more like multi-purpose. We scored the edges, frog tape, and it was starting to pull the finish, so we stopped. Hopefully it is a lot more cured next week to pull the tape and mask them.


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