Thread: Thinking of painting your Land Rover

I recently 'discovered' LIC40 polyurethane paint, and from what I've read, it is very good.

Read on to find out more.
As quoted by a member of Patrol4X4 Forum:

http://www.patrol4x4.com/forum/body-paint-56/repainting-bullbar-84344/


“LIC 40 is a 2 pack which can be brushed, rolled or sprayed and is harder then any other
2 pack or powder coat I've ever seen. Its really cheap also. Anyone who sells Valspar paints will
have it.
It's that hard that the test samples we painted where smashed with a sledge hammer and we
couldn't chip the paint.”

“I've actually done all the testing in a training centre over 2 days. We compared a couple of
different types of powder coat, several different types of automotive paint and the LIC 40 left
them all for dead. Anyone who says Powder coat is stronger then LIC40 has never used it or
used it incorrectly. Actually even used incorrectly it was still better then powder coat. We even
had a couple of Reps from 3M asking what the paint was we where using as they had never
seen paint adhere so well either.

I wanted a paint that could withstand not just your standard stone chips but a paint that could
withstand tools getting thrown in a tool box thats painted, horses kicking the crap out of it, high
pressure water blasting etc. We are using this paint on horse floats that range from basic up
until top of the range 5th wheelers where money is no object.

Powder coat didn't come close to this. It seems John Deer and Caterpillar agreed with me as
they are now using the same products on all there machinery instead of Powder coat. ARB are
now using it on there differential guards too.

Also it's still only about the same price of acrylic.

For the record until I actually got to use this product and test it to it's limits I would have said
powder coat would be the strongest paint out there, and believe me it took a fair bit of
convincing as I didn't want to be responsible for all our horse floats delaminating.

The only thing you have to remember with this product is if it's bare metal it has to be finished
off with 80 grit and no finer or a sandblasted finish is also fine and if it's an already painted
surface then I finish it off with 180 or 240 at the finest.”

“As mentioned it's 4 parts paint to 1 part hardener plus 15 to 20% reducer if spraying but it can
be rolled or brushed. I haven't rolled or brushed it yet but from what I've been told it levels out
really well.

Another thing worth mentioning is the drying times between coats. Being an automotive painter
by trade this took a little getting used too.

Your first coat is like a normal guide coat and you have to wait until it's touch dry. This can take
10 minutes. Then the second coat is a normal wet coat which will require about 20 minutes
flash off before you put on the last coat. When I mean touch dry I mean so you can run your
hand over the paint without marking it at all. With the Valspar Hardener in it, it's designed to
stay really wet for a long time to illimiate dry edges when doing large objects or machinery. As
there is only one type of hardener the trade secret to making it dry a little quicker between
coats is to use an acrylic thinner in it instead of the Valspar.

It still takes a little while to dry between coats but don't ever get inpatient and say thats dry
enough as it will run everywhere because it's 45 microns per coat. Your average automotive
paint is about 15 microns so this is where it gets it hiding & filling power from. Also never try
and put more then just the tack coat plus 2 wet coats on otherwise it will run and possibly boil.

Yes there are a few colors in it but there limited to just solid colors at the moment. There is
also one other big plus for this product. You can use the binder as a clear on it's own with
hardener and reducer and clear straight over bare metal so you if have some flash welds you
want to show off then now you can. I haven't tried this yet but I'm keen to do a few tests and
see how it's looks.”

“You can paint straight over bog without needing to prime it. I just finish it off with 180 and
only fill big pin holes as the small ones just fill up with paint. I know of a couple of comp truck
that will be getting paint in this when there finished.

I will post couple of close up pictures of a piece of metal we belted the crap out of with a
hammer tomorrow. It has hail size dents in 2.5mm pipe and it hasn't even marked the paint.
This metal wasn't even prepped it was painted straight over a Zinc alum without cleaning or
rubbing.

We had to do this test for 3M so we could get a warranty on a double sided tape we are using to
stick the sides on our floats. It's the same tape that holds the external panels on the buildings
in Dubai. They where concerned that the tape would pull our paint off over a period of time but
when there lab rats saw the results they where more then happy to warrant it on the condition
we told them what type of paint we where using for there own person use.”

High Quality Industrial Coatings | LIC Industrial Finishes


High Quality Industrial Coatings | LIC Industrial Finishes


"LIC43 (semi gloss version) - damn tough stuff and beauty is, LICdoes not need ANY primer.

"They"reckon it is 4 times harder than powder coat once fully cured. Ive just done my front bar
and roof rack and after 2 days its almost impossible to scratch.


It's easily 4 times stronger then powder coat. When I did all the training on it we painted a
panel and the next day after it was baked we where belting the panels with a sledge hammer
and couldn't chip it.

The other thing is now it's available in every color, metallic, pearls etc. It does need a primer
when doing it this way and you use the LIC binder as a clear over the Valspar base systems
which gives you the toughness of the LIC only in different colors."


We bought a 3.78L tin of LIC40 (binder) gloss black + 1L of LK40 (activator), for about $150 at a paint supply shop in Nerang.

I will be using some of it in a couple of days, on about about two-dozen parts for our Land Rovers and Triton.

Cheers,
Harry Jnr

If it is the same as Cat use, then it is bloody tough and easy to apply. I know where there is 4L of Cat yellow and was sorely tempted to repaint the County in it!