Making tape leaving marks on the paint...

[Chris D]

Hi everyone,

I could use some advice here. I painted the car dark blue two weeks ago with Tamiya Acrylic paint. Today, I masked it off so I could paint the white top. As soon as the white paint was dry to the touch I removed the Tamiya masking tape and could see that the blue paint was really messed up.

It looks like the tape glue left a nasty residue but it doesn't feel sticky or anything. It just looks awful and I am not sure what went wrong or how to fix it.

Has anyone else had this problem and if so, how did you fix it?

Here is what the paint used to look like..

Thanks for any and all help or comments.

Chris D

Edited November 9, 2014 by Chris D

[cobraman]

I'm guessing that if you polish it when the paint is dry that will fix it. Someone may be along with better advise. Something like Goof Off may work but you would need to be careful you don't remove the paint. I don't think I would try that however.

[StevenGuthmiller]

The only time I've had this sort of problem is if I try to "force dry" by setting the body in front of a heat source of some kind. I'm not sure if the heat softens the paint enough to leave marks from the tape in the paint or what. I never use garden variety masking tape on my builds any more. Way too many issues can come about with that stuff. I use almost exclusively Tamiya masking tape & blue painters tape, as well as masking paper. The less tape touching your paint the better. steve

[935k3]

Tamiya's Acrylics(gloss) just don't dry hard anymore. They were reformulated and missing for awhile in the early nineties. They have not been the same since. I personally would never use them on a body that needs masked or decalled.

[High octane]

I've always used the 3M "garden variety" tape with no problems what so ever.

[StevenGuthmiller]

I've always used the 3M "garden variety" tape with no problems what so ever.

I've had lots of problems over the years with regular masking tape. I was a drywall taper/painter for 25 years & have probably gone through 10,000 rolls of it in that time. It can be fine in most circumstances, but occasionally it can be a real problem. I've had many issues with it leaving behind adhesive for a variety of reasons. Moisture, heat, etc. As far as models go I've had it do everything from leaving behind adhesive that's impossible to remove, to actually ripping paint right off of a body. I guess everybody has their own experiences with a particular item, but personally, regular masking tape never touches my builds directly on paint. Steve

[JunkPile]

Hey Chris, I feel your pain. Same has happened to me a couple of times. Tamiya rattle can, Tamiya tape. The adhesive on the tape seemed to be like acid on the paint finish, and it would do it with just a momentary touch and remove test. Damaged finish beyond repair. Anyone else?

[ZTony8]

Your color coat may not have been fully dry or the tape adhesive was old.

I've run into this problem when I used Tamiya lacquers(but not the acrylics).The lacquer is just hot enough to soften the tape adhesive if left on too long or a heavy,wet coat is applied.

[Art Anderson]

For starters, Chris stated that the tape did not leave any stickiness behind, so I think we can rule out old tape with deteriorating adhesive. With water-borne acrylic enamels, a lot depends on humidity I would think. If it's been significantly humid, any water-borne paint can take a lot longer to dry, cure out, correct?

As for using heat to force-dry paints, I can't see where that would be a problem even with Tamiya's acrylics. After all, the warmer it is, the faster water (and the industrial alcohols used as solvents) evaporate. I've used Tamiya's acrylics in recent months (newly purchased bottles), and dried those parts in my food dehydrator while it was still warm, humid weather, and the stuff dried "click hard".

Art

[StevenGuthmiller]

For starters, Chris stated that the tape did not leave any stickiness behind, so I think we can rule out old tape with deteriorating adhesive. With water-borne acrylic enamels, a lot depends on humidity I would think. If it's been significantly humid, any water-borne paint can take a lot longer to dry, cure out, correct?

As for using heat to force-dry paints, I can't see where that would be a problem even with Tamiya's acrylics. After all, the warmer it is, the faster water (and the industrial alcohols used as solvents) evaporate. I've used Tamiya's acrylics in recent months (newly purchased bottles), and dried those parts in my food dehydrator while it was still warm, humid weather, and the stuff dried "click hard".

Art

I use heat to force dry paint all the time, just not when there's masking tape involved. The heat will make the adhesive on the tape soft & you'll wind up with more adhesive on your paint than the tape. I've also had reactions with the paint that look exactly like what happened to Chris with heat & masking tape. It can do some funny things when you get moisture &-or heat involved. Let's just say it's a good thing to avoid. Steve

[Art Anderson]

I use heat to force dry paint all the time, just not when there's masking tape involved. The heat will make the adhesive on the tape soft & you'll wind up with more adhesive on your paint than the tape. I've also had reactions with the paint that look exactly like what happened to Chris with heat & masking tape. It can do some funny things when you get moisture &-or heat involved. Let's just say it's a good thing to avoid. Steve

Solution, and one I follow always: Remove any masking tape BEFORE the body shell goes into a food dehydrator or under any heat source. That's how I've done it since I ruined a body shell by using 100-watt lightbulbs to force the paint dry without removing the masking tape beforehand.

Art

[Harry P.]

Even cheap masking tape doesn't leave marks like that. My guess is that the blue paint was not fully dry.

[bobthehobbyguy]

Did you paint it with the tamiya rattle cans or airbrush the bottled. The bottled can take a while to drive

[StevenGuthmiller]

Even cheap masking tape doesn't leave marks like that. My guess is that the blue paint was not fully dry.

I agree. There was obviously something going on with the paint too. Sometimes it's hard to come up with a reason for these things. Could have been a combination of things. Steve

Solution, and one I follow always: Remove any masking tape BEFORE the body shell goes into a food dehydrator or under any heat source. That's how I've done it since I ruined a body shell by using 100-watt lightbulbs to force the paint dry without removing the masking tape beforehand.

Art

In the winter, I set a lot of parts in front of the fireplace in my family room to dry paint or glue faster. That's how I found out that heat & masking tape don't mix. Steve

[booboo60]

Oops, goo gone will remove paint I know! Buff it out! I use pro Nexus, but, regular tooth paste works great, just keep cup water by you, drip water on it, put tooth paste on finger, about sizero of a pill,bare finger, rub lill round circles, then dab water, rub rub rub, then use cloth, now, do each part door, Qtr panel, trunk etc, then buff with car wax, should look great, in future, use foil, and cover body, taping under inside edge! Good luck

[StevenGuthmiller]

Oops, goo gone will remove paint I know! Buff it out! I use pro Nexus, but, regular tooth paste works great, just keep cup water by you, drip water on it, put tooth paste on finger, about sizero of a pill,bare finger, rub lill round circles, then dab water, rub rub rub, then use cloth, now, do each part door, Qtr panel, trunk etc, then buff with car wax, should look great, in future, use foil, and cover body, taping under inside edge! Good luck

Another good practice would be to paint your roof first, then when you mask, all you have to cover is a small area. I paint the roof first then cover it with masking paper & a minimal amount of Tamiya tape between the colors. You can get a roll of masking paper at any home improvement store for 6-8 bucks. Enough to last you forever. I think you would probably have good luck polishing out the damage. As long as your paint is "deep" enough to take it, & there's no issues with the paint that caused the problem in the first place. Steve

[DeeCee]

This is the main reason i refuse to use tamiya paint altogether, it seems to create problems. Just my opinion though, some people love it.

[Chris D]

Update...

To further clarify, the color coat was shot about 2 weeks prior, and the clear coat (tamiya clear) was shot about 1 week prior to the "masking tape" event. Bother were bottle paints and airbrushed. Both were thinned with the Tamiya thinner for acrylic paints. Just air dried at room temperature in a fairly dry atmosphere - fall in Illinois is generally dry air time.

Here is the crazy part, I just went out to the garage to study this problem further and it wasn't there! The car was there but the problem is mostly gone!!!! Some elves must have got in the shop and polished the car up pretty good.

Upon careful inspection, there are still some small marks here and there, but all the nasty stuff that showed up in the photo is gone. I can almost see where the ends of the tape pieces were but that is about it.

I suspect the adhesive did something to the clear finish (which must not be fully cured yet). After sitting for the past day and a half, the clear cured more and the chemical reaction went away in that curing process. Just grasping at straws for an explanation, in either case I am glad it seems to be getting better. Maybe by next weekend it will be completely cured!

Thanks to everyone for all their comments, ideas, and suggestions.

Chris D.

[StevenGuthmiller]

Boy! You can't get a better resolution than that! Too bad all of our paint issues don't just resolve themselves! Steve

[bobthehobbyguy]

Sounds like a reasonable explanation of what happened. Good thing you hadn't decided to strip the paint. Its great it has mostly resolved itself.