# Industrial Railcar Painter (interior linings and exterior paint)



## JBoutin

Thanks: 0Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts*My Photoshi. like I said ok relatively new at this so my bad. My name is Jason. I'm 24 and started working for my company two years ago. the company's name is Transco Railway products. we salvage, refurbish wrecked rail cars. we're located in Oelwein, iowa a town of about 8500 people. I am a painter Now but started off as a painter's helper and worked my way up to painter within a year. the fastest in the company ever. I make$17 an hour and work at least 45-50 hours a week. which end up being about $43k a year. I also specialize in applying food grade linings inside of the railcars. for companies like conagra and general mills. I also inspect and touch up my own paint jobs. I was wondering what kind of jobs I could do with my experience


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## richmondpainting

I'm not totally sure on what your doing but don't let these guys discourage you....you can paint whatever you want.....


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## JBoutin

I psint the inside of rail cars to haul cornstarch, flour, food products
and a car takes me about 2 hours of paint


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## JBoutin

I paint through a Graco plural system with a two-part paint. it's called carboline 992. on exteriors I shoot a lot of strathmore, hemple, and Williams hayward


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## PatsPainting

JBoutin said:


> I psint the inside of rail cars to haul cornstarch, flour, food products
> and a car takes me about 2 hours of paint


What kind of paint do you use for that stuff?

Pat


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## Schmidt & Co.

So you don't use Behr? :whistling2::jester:


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## JBoutin

PatsPainting said:


> What kind of paint do you use for that stuff?
> 
> Pat


Carboline-992.


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## JBoutin

I've never even heard of behr


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## JBoutin

looking at the posts on here I feel like an alien


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## Schmidt & Co.

JBoutin said:


> I've never even heard of behr


I like you. You should stick around kid. :thumbup:


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## Schmidt & Co.

JBoutin said:


> looking at the posts on here I feel like an alien


We are all primarily residential house painters here, but I'm sure there's still allot of similarities within our respective specialities.


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## JBoutin

I've been thinking about investing in a pump to spray houses on the side. otherwise would it upset members if I still stay and post my pictures


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## Schmidt & Co.

JBoutin said:


> I've been thinking about investing in a pump to spray houses on the side. otherwise would it upset members if I still stay and post my pictures


Not at all! Your in the trade and have every right to be here. It's also pretty cool to hear about some heavy duty industrial coatings and jobs.


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## JBoutin

The mils on my paint are 10-12 but varies during condition. After I paint the car I do an interior inspection for light spots, pin holes, defects, trash, and patch her up to new


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## Jmayspaint

I've never heard of any of the paints you mentioned. What is a plural system?

I sprayed some two part polyurethane recently with an airless and wasn't happy with the results


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## JBoutin

Also alot of blowing off sandblast grit, scraping out missed paint left behind by blasters. Setting up my platforms inside off the cars.


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## JBoutin

joshmays1976 said:


> I've never heard of any of the paints you mentioned. What is a plural system?
> 
> I sprayed some two part polyurethane recently with an airless and wasn't happy with the results


It is a pump that mixes two part epoxy.heats it up to about 130 degrees Fahrenheit, sends It to a block where it mixes through my static mixer. Also mixing paints at various ratios


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## kdpaint

I agree with Schmidt, stick around. I am interested in industrial application.


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## mustangmike3789

JBoutin said:


> I've never even heard of behr


 the behr industrial line just hasnt caught on yet:whistling2:


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## JBoutin

Carboguard 992Description:Carboguard 992 is a solventless, epoxy lining for dry bulk cargoes that is applied by heated, airless plural component spray, as a one coat lining for hopper cars carrying plastic pellets, food and grain, or other dry cargoes. It is acceptable for direct contact with dry bulk food products


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## premierpainter

Nice work man!


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## CApainter

Welcome JB.

What type of Graco plural spray rig are you using, and do you have any idea of the cost? Also, do you have a man monitoring the ratios at the rig while you spray. Nice coating job BTW!


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## JBoutin

premierpainter said:


> Nice work man
> 
> Thanks a lot! I put alot of man hours on those. At least 13+ prep hours alone for one person. it takes alot of work to make sure they come out food grade quality. The painting is the most enjoyable. I get a very good feeling of acomplishment with the finished product!


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## JBoutin

CApainter said:


> Welcome JB.
> 
> What type of Graco plural spray rig are you using, and do you have any idea of the cost? Also, do you have a man monitoring the ratios at the rig while you spray. Nice coating job BTW!


 it's a Graco hydracat. With two fifteen gallon basins so I can spray up to 30 gallons without refilling and reheating. the paint goes out of the pump, through my in-line heated hose bundle (that is 50 ft long I believe) to our block that controls our recirc valves and thinner valves for flushing out. and where my static mixer is located. I honestly do not know what the cost is. and yes I have a helper always monitoring paint levels, temp and pressure ( which I spray at around 2800 p.s.I.). The nice thing is if my pump goes off ratio it pops off and shuts my pump down.


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## CApainter

That kill switch is a great idea. I've seen several jobs that have failed due to off ratio application. I would like to spray 100% solids plural component coatings but I'm limited to high solid epoxies where abrasive blasting is restricted and a surface tolerant coating is the only other option.

I think with your experience, you'd have no trouble finding employment in the industrial coatings field. Whether it's as owner of your own company, coatings applicator, or inspector. There are so many avenues in this industry, and the field is advancing rapidly. Third party inspection companies, like KTA, also offer good opportunities for those who have acquired training through NACE and SSPC. You may want to take a look at furthering your education in the event you want to retire the spray gun.

Your skills could easily take you out of the small community you live in and place you anywhere in the world if you wanted. And the potential for high earnings is attainable.

Good luck to you!


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## kdpaint

CApainter has some great advice. Especially the part about furthering your education. You are young enough to do some more coating stuff, but don't let the increasing wages totally blind you to the future- one where you can supervise or inspect other people's work, for even better, easier money. Good luck!


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## JBoutin

Pictures of my paint pump.


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## JBoutin

Prep work I did today, plus painted today too...


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## Jmayspaint

Is that a completely airless system? 

Seeing things that look like pressure relief, and moisture collector 
Cool machine


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## Jmayspaint

I've been having a problem lately trying to spray two part polyurethane with a regular airless.
Is this machine good for all two part stuff? Would have to have 0 sweat in time I guess.


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## JBoutin

joshmays1976 said:


> Is that a completely airless system?
> 
> Seeing things that look like pressure relief, and moisture collector
> Cool machine


Yea it is.and its really reliable. Just a machine. And my company actually fabricated the stand and put everything together.and its mobile capable too


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## JBoutin

joshmays1976 said:


> I've been having a problem lately trying to spray two part polyurethane with a regular airless.
> Is this machine good for all two part stuff? Would have to have 0 sweat in time I guess.



Yea I do believe so. My company actually took on a project having to do with the two part polyurethane and we decided to side project that because our pumps are tied up with other paint projects now.


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## JBoutin

This is our other pump. The needs is not from me just the guy that weekend under me.


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## JBoutin

*mess


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## CApainter

Crazy rig! Nice! 

looks like a King pump. It's amazing how sophisticated a machine has to be just to apply a coating.


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## JBoutin

Rail Car exterior before paint


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## JBoutin

Rail Car exterior after I painted it


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## JBoutin

More random. Plus a good reference to size of a person compared to what I paint inside and out


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## mustangmike3789

JBoutin said:


> Rail Car exterior after I painted it


Nice work J. How many hours does it take you to achieve an SP 10 blast on one of those and what type of blast media do you use? Looks like a lot of hard to reach areas to deal with.


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## JBoutin

mustangmike3789 said:


> Nice work J. How many hours does it take you to achieve an SP 10 blast on one of those and what type of blast media do you use? Looks like a lot of hard to reach areas to deal with.


Are you talking about painting the inside or outside


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## JBoutin

I'm gonna brush up on the specs on the blasting for you on Monday.


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## mustangmike3789

JBoutin said:


> Are you talking about painting the inside or outside


SSPC-SP 10. Near white metal blast. Just curious about the time involved in abrasive blasting and the type of blast media used to prep one of those for paint. I have often wondered who painted and the time involved in painting one of those. I have a cousin that is a paint inspector also and he was offered a job over seeing paint opperations for a railroad.


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## CApainter

Very nice work J!

I can see the need to spray the interiors of the rail cars with a material that requires a plural rig, but the exterior shouldn't need anything more then an epoxy base with a polyurethane finish shot out of a conventional or airless rig. Is this correct?

I have a small jib crane I'm scheduling to paint, and I am going to use PPG's Polysiloxane as a finish over Devoe 235. Have you considered using the polysiloxane coatings for a durable non isocyanate UV resistant finish?

Again, great looking finish product! Thanks for posting the pics.


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## wje

You are a vey well educated painter. It is evident you take extreme pride in the work you do for a very young guy. Good work man, and stick around the site, keep sharing pics


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## Schmidt & Co.

wje said:


> You are a vey well educated painter. It is evident you take extreme pride in the work you do for a very young guy. Good work man, and stick around the site, keep sharing pics



Well said wje, and I couldn't have said it better myself. :thumbsup:


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## Paradigmzz

I have so many questions for you. What is the dry time before placing stickers on the cars? What kind of tape do you use to tape off the inside? I am glad you shared. I have always wondered about who does this kind of work and how it is done. 

How many people work for your company and how many cars do you service in a given year? What other job roles are there in your company? Do you have a dedicated operator for the media blasting?. It is all really interesting.


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## kdpaint

I agree with all the above statements; I find your work very interesting, and you seem like a hard worker with very good skills.


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## modernfinish

Agreed , you take great pride in what you do , the rail cars look great! You do a lot of confined space work ? I've used that pump , it's a graco King pump. It's a beast of a pump , never dies... I've sprayed mastic through it . Thicker than mud , it sprayed 2 lines at same time .. Haha . You'll do fine in anything you do , painting latex is all easy breezy after what you are doing now bro.


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## JBoutin

CApainter said:


> Very nice work J!
> 
> I can see the need to spray the interiors of the rail cars with a material that requires a plural rig, but the exterior shouldn't need anything more then an epoxy base with a polyurethane finish shot out of a conventional or airless rig. Is this correct?
> 
> I have a small jib crane I'm scheduling to paint, and I am going to use PPG's Polysiloxane as a finish over Devoe 235. Have you considered using the polysiloxane coatings for a durable non isocyanate UV resistant finish?
> 
> Again, great looking finish product! Thanks for posting the pics.


Yes it's conventional airless. And most exteriors are shot with two part epoxy (like strathmore is our most used exterior paint, and hemple. Ill give more specs tomorrow on the kinds of paint we use and/I have sprayed. We also use water base, mastic, and alkali paints. We do not coat with polyurethane overcoat except one time when i was painting an aluminum Railcar(interior lining) which was scheduled to carry a feed for animals or fertilizer. And the second part of your paragraph no we have not thought of that. I only apply what the customer wants


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## JBoutin

Paradigmzz said:


> I have so many questions for you. What is the dry time before placing stickers on the cars? What kind of tape do you use to tape off the inside? I am glad you shared. I have always wondered about who does this kind of work and how it is done.
> 
> How many people work for your company and how many cars do you service in a given year? What other job roles are there in your
> company? Do you have a dedicated operator for the media blasting?. It is all really interesting.


Usually we paint the car one day and the next day we decal. Sometimes depending on the paint if we shoot in the morning it will be decaled before our 10 hr workshift is over.

To tape the inside of the car we use 3m automotive masking tape. And cheap ass 3m our Sherwin Williams making tape.

Right now we have almost a hundred hourly employees. Our company reservices the car all the way from simply nuts and bolt replacements to totally cutting the car down to frame and rebuilding it up. and full blast and paint inside and out sometimes. So it is hard to give you estimates but we could very well do thousand(s). 

Other job roles are inbound/outbound inspection, welders, painters, power washers to wash exteriors, and rinse exteriors.to janitorial, and blasters. Plus "helpers" underneath painters, blasters, and Carman. (Welding, wheelman who strictly work on the trucks, wheels and air pressure.

What do you mean by dedicated media operator?


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## JBoutin

I take extreme pride in my work.and gives me an extreme sense of accomplishment and well-being to see my finished product. Edpecially since a company can look up who paints their cars and if they don't like the work we do and can be **** canned for it. And also especially since it affects your food quality. My company took me from wrenching nuts and bolts and washing out to throwing me into painting in which I had to mcguyver ways to teach myself how to apply the paint.in which my mil guage taught me how to paint( along with msds sheets etc.) .......so I would like to thank all of you for your constructive criticism and poditive comments! I love what I do but hate management at my job


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## JBoutin

modernfinish said:


> Agreed , you take great pride in what you do , the rail cars look great! You do a lot of confined space work ? I've used that pump , it's a graco King pump. It's a beast of a pump , never dies... I've sprayed mastic through it . Thicker than mud , it sprayed 2 lines at same time .. Haha . You'll do fine in anything you do , painting latex is all easy breezy after what you are doing now bro.


No my work is not "classified" as confined space but pretty Damn near. And I've sprayed some latex too. But im more of an epoxy kind of guy


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## Ole34

town of only 8,500 people huh? pull a Nancy kerrigan on your competition an the worlds your oyster !! lol ..........nice work man an with your drive you should be writin your own check soon


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## 1camper

Yep, you're picking up some valuable experience. Thanks for posting, very interesting!


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## painterdave71

mayb i missed it but r u looking for a different job?? with ur exp in plurals shouldnt b to hard to latch on somewhere. if ur talking overall different type i would say u could easily slide in2 a commercial or industrial spray company. we hav a company i used to work for in my neck of woods that travels the country doing industrial tank linings for wastewater, dairies & ethanol plants & are always looking for peeps who have exp with plurals & epoxy spray.(inbox me if u want ther info) got2 love carboline 2part tho, fricking like concrete when applied properly & ther factory is near wher i live so i used to use them alot.


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## Rcon

JBoutin said:


> I paint through a Graco plural system with a two-part paint. it's called carboline 992. on exteriors I shoot a lot of strathmore, hemple, and Williams hayward


If you can shoot with a plural component system and you know how to sandblast you could get yourself working on the pipelines. $100K/yr easy.


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## Scannell Painting

Great work:thumbup: 
You have never ending work, every car around here is either rusted or graffiti covered.


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## MGardner

Hi, I'm a new guy around here and it sounds like what you are doing is close to what I will be getting into shortly. Right now I paint at a finishing company that does mainly architectural aluminum and steel, but I am doing my own gig that differs from what I do now. 

I have about 30 potato bins (the big farm bins when the potatoes are picked) to be sand blasted and painted. All I know is the color, no paint has been specified yet. I do not think it needs to be food grade, as it is only the exterior of the bin. But it does need to hold up in weather and farm fields. Where would be a good place to start?


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## JBoutin

Hey guys! You all still around?


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## RH

JBoutin said:


> Hey guys! You all still around?


Some come - some go. And some return.


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## JBoutin

Haha just been so long didn't know if they were. Interested in sharimg more of my experience


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## finishesbykevyn

JBoutin said:


> Haha just been so long didn't know if they were. Interested in sharimg more of my experience


You get those potato bins painted after or wha.?! Only been 5 years.

Sent from my SM-T330NU using Tapatalk


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## Brushman4

Some of us are still here, dude!


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## akrause

Hey Jason, ...welcome to the forum and to the industry! For starters, you're definitely on the right "track" (pun intended) reaching out to other people in the industry and asking questions. *NO* question is a stupid question if you don't know the answer. 
It sounds like you have an interesting niche going there with the train cars. If I were you I would DEFINITELY want to learn as much about that particular market and the demand in your area for that service. If approached intelligently, that very well may keep you as busy as you want to be and even lead to other types of work. 
Relationships are *EVERYTHING*. Once you've proven yourself to a new customer and when the moment is right, ask them for their insight on how you might improve your company and for their ideas on how to grow. I've never had someone refuse that question, in fact just the opposite. I've gained powerful, extremely useful insight from customers by asking that question. Sometimes I say to them "If you became a partner in my company today, what would you want to do or change" ? That gets them talking every time.
Best of luck my friend. I look forward to seeing your updates here.

Adam


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## cmf6503

JBoutin said:


> I've never even heard of behr


 Behr is residential / commercial paint. For like houses and offices.


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## RH

cmf6503 said:


> Behr is residential / commercial paint. For like houses and offices.


Just a head’s up, you are replying to a post written in 2013. Likely the member who wrote it now knows about Behr. I know it can be easy to do so check the date of the post you are considering replying to to see if doing so makes sense or not.


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## akrause

😂 @ all the "love" for Behr here. We do strictly commercial projects and we absolutely cringe whenever we see that name in a material spec. I immediately campaign to the owner or GC to let us get it matched in Sherwin or PPG. *SUCH a pain goin to Home Depot for paint.


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