Painting Fishing Lures

Q. My company has been manufacturing fishing lures for 11 years, and I am preparing to buy painting facilities to finish them in-house. What are the best undercoat and finish coat to use on stainless steel? F.M.

A. I don’t know all the performance requirements of fishing lure coatings, but I would expect the most important one is their ability to withstand immersion in fresh and sea water. I also would expect that exposure to UV radiation is not a problem. Therefore, an epoxy coating system that includes a polyamide-cured epoxy primer and polyamide-cured epoxy topcoat should provide protection to stainless steel fishing lures. You can even consider a finish system using an epoxy primer topcoated with a polyvinyl chloride enamel. One-coat enamels based on polyamide-epoxy resins may also provide sufficient protection. For maximum adhesion, it is important to remember that the stainless steel parts should be pretreated by a light sand blasting or by light mechanical abrading.
Since your painting was previously outsourced and the finish system was suitable, ask your former contractor what finishing system he used.