Paint curing

I really like the information provided on these forums. I'm making my second run on laptop painting. Hopefully I've learned much from my first attempt which considering did not turn out bad at all. I have bondo'd over my dell logo and was much more patient this time using much smaller coats. I have not had any shrinkage as I did last time. This time I also left the logo in place leaving much less to fill. Anyhow this time instead of using krylon plastic paint I'm going with auto paint and primer hopefully with much more success. Anyhow to my question I have applied 4 light coats of primer after letting my bondo job cure for 2 weeks. According to the primer instructions the primer is "cured" after 30 min. I do not believe this is the fact, I say this because I can still smell the primer. I believe as long as I can smell the fumes the primer can not possibly be cured. I'm sure it is fine to work with but I don't believe it is cured. I've been looking at some of the automotive sites and keep running across curing done by infrared lights. I know I've seen a few folks on here that seem to indicate they do automotive painting. I guess to make a long speal longer 1. if I smell fumes is the paint cured? 2. could I purchase any infra red light to assist in getting the paint fully cured?

I have read some of the articles here about baking the parts in an oven but after reading some of the automotive painting sites I don't see how just heat will do what is needed.

Thank you

 

Well I dont have experience using auto paint on a computer, but I did repaint the fin on my mustang a couple months back. My experience with primer was that it does indeed seem to dry faster. A lot of drying times depend on the temperature they are drying under. So if your doing this in your garage this time of year, I would say the primer could be done in 45 min to a hour. It should be dry to the touch, doesn't matter if you can smell fumes "could be just a small working space"
As for using a infrared light to cure the paint, that seems kind of excessive to me for a computer paint job. The primer does indeed cure faster than the actual paint does. Depending on what paint you use for the color say flat colors will dry the fastest and as gloss level increases curing times will increase. I think you might be looking at least at a couple of days for the final color coats to properly cure, but probably after 1 day of drying it becomes workable. "fyi Lacker seems to take the longest to dry and doesn't 100% cure so I wouldn't use that for a computer project if you ever think about it"

 

the fumes follow the piece painted, I brought the lid in to work to show a coworker and you can definatly still smell the piece. It is very dry I had no issues sanding it or having figure prints or anything show up from handling. The directions on the can say fully cured in 30minutes. I've been giving it an hour before handling and about 90min before I do any sanding. I'm just very concerned that it is still emmitting fumes. Makes me think that everything that needs to evaporate for full curing has not taken place.