Sunshine Coast QLD / since 1989

Industrial Paints on the Sunshine Coast: Choosing the Coating at the Warana Counter

Supplied over the trade counter at 5 Main Drive, Warana, Monday to Friday 7:30am to 4:00pm. The industrial list at this counter runs across 2K polyurethane, 2K epoxy, baking, quick dry and rapid dry enamels, acrylic lacquers, vinyl paints, iso free 2K and the four BESA lines. Which one belongs on your asset comes down to three questions: the substrate, the exposure it has to live in, and how the film has to harden in a Sunshine Coast workshop. Queensland Paint Supplies supplies those coatings rather than applying them; spraying, blasting and preparation stay with you or your contractor.

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Open: Mon-Fri 7:30am to 4pm
Counter: 5 Main Drive, Warana
Since: 1989

Epoxy primer and industrial polyurethane finish on a bench in a steel fabrication shop

Local since 1989

Same Kawana site for over 35 years

Overview

Queensland Paint Supplies is a trade and retail counter with a sales van, not a coatings contractor. Fabricators, plant maintenance crews, marine operators and manufacturers use it the same way: arrive with a substrate and an exposure, and leave with a coating chosen against it. What follows is the selection logic behind that list, drawn from what the manufacturers publish.

The counter

Why Queensland Paint Supplies for industrial paints

Start with the substrate, because it rules out more of the list than anything else does. One published Concept 2K epoxy primer data sheet sets out its range plainly: mild steel and steel alloy, grade 316 stainless, aluminium, Zincalume, Zincanneal, galvanised steel and glass reinforced polyester. It also carries the instruction that catches people out, that lightly rusted surfaces are treated with a rust converter and the residue has to be removed completely before the primer goes on. The BESA 2K single coat acrylic enamels publish a different route again, direct adhesion with no primer coat under them. Galvanised and aluminium are where most coating arguments on this coast begin, so knowing which of those two routes the maker has actually tested on your metal is the first filter worth applying.

Exposure is the second filter, and specifiers already have a vocabulary for it. Atmospheric corrosivity categories run C1 to CX, and AS 4312 sets the category from location and environmental factors before the AS/NZS 2312 series guides coating selection for structural steel. What this page will not do is put a category on Warana, on Kawana, or on your yard. Only AS 4312 and a proper distance to shoreline assessment can settle that. What the counter can do is ask the question in the language your specification is already written in, then show you what each manufacturer publishes against it: substrate lists, salt spray hours, gloss levels and film build. That is the difference between choosing a coating and picking a tin.

Three cans of Ferguson's Knockout Rust KO-66 rust proofing, stocked at Warana, on a jetty at the water

Same corner since October 1989.

Commerce Ave, Warana

A 2K topcoat sprayed straight onto bare steel

Primers and topcoats sit on a product list as separate purchases, so a topcoat reads like a finished answer. The published Concept 2K solid system names primers, not bare metal, as its substrates. The primer carries the adhesion and the corrosion resistance, so without it the film lets go at edges, welds and fasteners first. The primer decides what the topcoat can hold onto, so the substrate is the first thing to settle: a published Concept 2K epoxy primer states suitability under all of that maker topcoats. Bring the substrate with the colour and both go on the one order.

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An epoxy left as the outermost coat outdoors

Epoxy binders degrade under ultraviolet light, showing as yellowing, chalking and gloss reduction, which is why both makers specify their epoxies as primers under a topcoat. The corrosion protection can still be working while the asset looks weathered, so a sound system gets replaced. Exterior work is ordered as a system: the epoxy underneath, a UV stable topcoat over it.

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Industrial coating drums and pails stacked on pallets

More two pack mixed than the crew can spray, or a hardener borrowed from another brand

Pot life and mix ratio are published per product, and they do not match across brands or across lines within a brand. Product past its pot life is waste that still has to be disposed of, and another system's hardener is not a substitute for the named one. The hardener goes on the order in the published ratio, and pack size is set to one session's spraying.

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A primer, basecoat and clear coat system set out with an application guide and coated steel sections

A standard 2K polyurethane specified into a workshop with no booth and no air fed respirator

Isocyanates are commonly found in two pack liquid spray paints, and exposure to isocyanates should be considered high risk. Ongoing work with isocyanates brings a health monitoring duty where there is significant risk to the worker's health, and sanding polyurethane paint that is not fully cured can generate dust containing unreacted isocyanates. Where booth and respirator capacity is the constraint, the iso free option set out below is the one to ask about, published as using non isocyanate curing agents. The label, the product safety data sheet and the Code of Practice are what govern the decision, not advice given across a counter.

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POR-15 rust preventive coatings, Queensland Paint Supplies is an authorised distributor

2K polyurethane coatings

Two pack acrylic urethane topcoats, mixed with a hardener before spraying. The published Concept 2K urethane topcoats split by job size, not by quality: a solid system mixed four to one with PU hardener, pot life two to three hours, and a high volume solids version for large work needing a longer open time. Both go over a primer, not bare metal.

Ask about a 2K system

2K epoxy and heavy industrial epoxy

Two pack epoxy primers: the corrosion and adhesion layer underneath an industrial finish. A published Concept 2K epoxy primer is a chromate free epoxy-polyamide primer surfacer with excellent adhesion to metal and very good anti-corrosive properties, applied at 40 to 50 micrometres dry film over two to three coats with a six hour pot life, and stated as suitable under all of that maker's topcoats.

Ask about epoxy priming

Baking enamels, quick dry and rapid dry enamels

Quick dry and rapid dry enamels: single pack topcoats for primed steel. The quick dry and rapid dry lines are 1K, which the old product list hid by sitting them beside the 2K epoxies. Concept publishes both as fast drying single pack enamels for low build protection of primed steel.

Ask about 1K enamels

Acrylic lacquers and vinyl paints

Acrylic lacquers and vinyl paints, two lines named on the industrial range. Volume solids tell this story better than any adjective could. A published nitrocellulose lacquer topcoat sits at 11.7 per cent volume solids, made for subframes, fixtures and other components, against up to about 70 per cent on a high solids 2K urethane tinter.

Ask about lacquers

Iso-free 2K paints

Two pack coatings formulated with non isocyanate curing agents. Concept publishes one iso free 2K acrylic clear, mixed four to one with its matching iso free hardener and with a four to five hour pot life. Check the label and the safety data sheet of the tin to determine isocyanate content, every time.

Ask about iso free 2K

BESA-GLASS, BESA-NATO, BESA-NATO/SAT and BESA-VAL Q/D

The Bernardo Ecenarro industrial topcoat lines, 2K direct to metal, 2K over primer and 1K. Four lines, not four versions of one product. BESA-NATO is rated up to 200 hours in the salt spray test on shotblasted steel, BESA-NATO/SAT is its satin version, and BESA-VAL Q/D is the 1K line, with no hardener and no pot life. All three 2K lines are labelled use only in industrial facilities.

Ask about the BESA lines

Stocked, matched, and backed by experience

Why panel shops and DIYers buy here

Queensland Paint Supplies opened on Commerce Avenue at Kawana in October 1989 and still trades from that site, more than 35 years at the one address, now under the ownership of local family Cory and Candice. For a maintenance buyer that is a supply argument, because the second and third batch in the same colour have to come from somewhere. Sales van calls are run by Gavin Pollock, who the business says has almost 35 years in the industry and experience in industrial coatings, and the van carries a spectrophotometer and a computer for colours that are hard to identify. Cure is the third filter: the published primer data sheet requires the surface temperature to stay at least 3 degrees Celsius above dew point during application. The Bureau of Meteorology's nearest station to Warana, Sunshine Coast Airport at Marcoola, is a regional proxy rather than a reading from your shed, and it records a mean 9am relative humidity of 71 per cent.

Local since 1989
Same Kawana site for over 35 years
Concept Paints distributor
Including the NO MIX system
Cromax and BESA refinish
Cromax and Bernardo Ecenarro
Custom colour matching
Spectrophotometer on site and in the van

Questions

Asked at the counter

What is the difference between a 2K epoxy and a 2K polyurethane?

They are two layers of one system, not two answers to the same question. The epoxy is the primer: what its data sheet sells is adhesion to metal and anti-corrosive performance, sitting under a finish. The polyurethane is that finish, and its published 2K solid system is specified over the primer rather than over the steel itself. Budget for both, in the ratio and the order the sheets set out.

What does direct to metal mean, and when is it the wrong choice?

Direct to metal means the topcoat is published for adhesion to the bare substrate, so the primer coat comes out of the job. BESA-NATO is published that way, with direct adhesion across metals including galvanised and aluminium, and across plastics and ceramics. It is the wrong choice wherever the sheet says otherwise: BESA-GLASS, on the same range, is specified over a zinc phosphate epoxy primer or a shop primer.

Do I need a spray booth and an air fed respirator for a 2K polyurethane?

Work on that basis until the product's own safety data sheet says otherwise. Isocyanates are commonly found in two pack liquid spray paints and exposure should be considered high risk. The Queensland Code of Practice states air supplied respirators should be used with isocyanates inside an enclosed extraction booth, as the only devices giving sufficient protection. Where that capacity is missing, ask about the iso free 2K line, published as using non isocyanate curing agents.

What are a supplier's safety data sheet obligations in Queensland?

Under Queensland's WHS Regulation a supplier of a hazardous chemical must provide the current safety data sheet to any person likely to be affected by it or who asks for it. Packaging or relabelling a hazardous chemical under your own product name brings the manufacturer's duty to prepare one.

Can I use these industrial enamels in a home garage?

No. Bernardo Ecenarro labels BESA-NATO, BESA-NATO/SAT and BESA-GLASS with the instruction to use only in industrial facilities, and that is the manufacturer's own wording rather than a house rule. For home and hobby work, see the paint supplies and automotive paints pages.

Can I pick up industrial paint on a Saturday?

No. The Warana counter trades Monday to Friday, 7:30am to 4:00pm, with no weekend, after-hours or emergency service published. Weekend shutdown work needs its coating, hardener and thinner ordered ahead of the Friday close, so phone the order through earlier in the week.

Also stocked

From the Warana counter

Reading

Worth reading first

Ask us for a colour match or a stock check

Tell us the vehicle, the colour code if you have one, or just what you are trying to finish. We will tell you what you need and what it costs.

Sources

Need industrial paints?

Bring the substrate and the exposure to 5 Main Drive, Warana, entrance in Commerce Avenue, or phone 07 5493 2088, 7:30am to 4:00pm Monday to Friday. The counter works through it by surface, environment and finish. Two pack orders need the matching hardener at the published ratio, so count the parts and order ahead of the Friday close.

Call the counter

07 5493 2088

Call 07 5493 2088 Get a quote