Hey, I have some A.C. Plugs that I had a guy custom airbrush for me. I had to purchase some Swimbait tails in trout pattern to put on after they were painted. Well...Now I know why they had the plastic in there. It has a chemical reaction with the paint and starts to melt. Does anyone have any tips for me to stop this from happening? Should I put some of my rodbuilding epoxy in the gap so that it dosen't come in contact with the paint? These are some sweet lookin lures, I even had him paint a couple of my saltwater surface lures also. I'll post some pics as soon as I get this problem worked out....Any help would be appreciated.....Warren

I've airbrushed many different AC lures and there's always two places where the paints Allan uses and mine react. The eyes and at the rear of the lure on the top half for about 1/2". I noticed you wrote plastic insert. Did you paint some of the Arbogast AC Plugs? Those are the only ones I know of that had a plastic piece in there. In any event putting a little epoxy in there should not hurt. Personally, I try to keep the epoxy out of there so it's easier to put the tails in. What tails did you put the lures? About a year ago I got some replacement tails from Allan, the Big Hammer tails also work well if your lure is larger enough. Good luck.

Cody, thanks for the reply. Yes they are the arbogast A.C. plugs. They came with a piece of plastic in the notch for the tail. I put big hammers in a couple and they started getting worm burn. I'm going to try the epoxy in there and see if it stops the melting.....Warren

you can thin apoxy with alcohol and coat the whole lure with it. the plastisol wont react with it and the paint will last 10 times as long. if you do coat the whole lure its best to use a drying wheel so the epoxy levels itself. just like drying a new rod.
Matt