# First Crankbait no paint



## dgfidler (Sep 22, 2014)

I’m going to start painting crankbaits. I’ve read that many struggle with the clear coating so decided to start there. It seems that glossy perfectly smooth clear coat everyone wants is achieved with a lure turner, so I built one using a bbq rotisserie and clear coated some existing lures with etex with satisfactory results. I’d almost argue it’d be worth putting a nice epoxy coating on your existing lures just to make them last longer. 

I was playing around testing the feasibility of sanding the finish off some ugly reef runners in my box and discovered it can be done pretty quickly with an oscillating belt sander and a dremel wire brush. 1000 grit sandpaper brings it to a matte clear and a coat of etex was like using one of those headlight cover restoration kits. The stock ‘bare naked’ reef runner has internal blue reflective tape, so this one is ‘truly bare naked’. I liked it so much, I couldn’t bring myself to mess it up with paint











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## K gonefishin (May 4, 2004)

If you are going to repaint just use a soft scrub pad the clean with acetone or denatured alcohol.


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## Drm50 (Dec 26, 2014)

I wouldn’t use acetone. It will soften the plastic. You can glue, fuse plug bodies together with acetone. I don’t know where guys come up with this stuff. There are a couple plugs I use that are obsolete or not made anymore. They are plastic. I buy them any color, they were made in black but I usually find yellow or fire tiger or other bright colors. I drag them with utility knife blade to remove bulk of paint then fine grit paper before spraying Black or White, they clear coats. Nothing fancy one tone and eye balls. Use to be most popular plugs came in Black and White/ red head. To many fancy realistic finishes today to make something so plain.


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## dgfidler (Sep 22, 2014)

I tried acetone and it was melting the lure body and was especially hard on the lip. A dremel with wire brush gave matte finish that was easily sanded and then the envirotex filled the scratches leaving almost crystal clear body. So crystal clear I couldn’t bring myself to paint over it with my primitive skills. 

Speaking of clear coat, it it possible to make it too smooth? The reason I ask is I took some reef runner clones and painted them up real pretty with a bunch of incompatible paints. If I tried to brush epoxy, it all came apart. I poured envirotex on them and it encapsulated that mess but ended up with a fairly thick clear that is smooth as glass. These lures pull so hard I keep thinking I’m dragging a small fish and it’s just the lure. I’m thinking they’re so smooth they have extra drag in the water. Is that even possible?They’re tuned and run straight and wobble properly. When you reel in without a fish, it feels like it has a fish on. I don’t like them for that reason. This was transparent createx paints over a shaker can metallic silver. 











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## dgfidler (Sep 22, 2014)

This is what would happen if I tried to brush anything on. Oops











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## Drm50 (Dec 26, 2014)

On wooden plugs I use thinner that local body shop gave me. It’s for enamel. I have lacquer thinner and it will work but not as well as the right stuff. When I started heavy into making jigs in late 60s I had guys bringing me all kinds of paint. Lots of car paints. So worked well and some didn’t. I was mostly because I didn’t know at time you needed the right thinner. My first wooden plugs were balsa and I used clear auto lacquer cut 50% thinner for sealer, about 3 coats. 

I use a lot of DO-IT vinyl paint on jigs, spinner baits, ect. The thinner is acetone based. I was buying quarts of acetone cheaper than little Do-It bottles. Anyway this paint has to be thinned just right to brush paint. I was doing some Wiggle Warts in Pearl. This required white base coat. I didn’t have paint thinned enough and a few hours later the Warts had dimples in bodies that acetone had causes to soften and sink. That was my first rodeo with DO-It vinyl on plastic lure bodies. All plastic isn’t the same either.


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