Wow. I don't know what got into you when you decided to share this information, but I sure do appreciate it. It's not often that experienced guys want to share their inside brands and tips. Super cool.
I read the entire thing straight thru and will be copying and pasting into a file, printing out and following to the letter on my test tank.
I have a question:
If you want to do multiple color pieces or some kind of designs or stripes, after putting down your base color coats, can you use tape or how do you mask off for the detail work?
Thanks,
-S
thank you for the kind words, it was an effort to dispell some of the "painting myths" I was reading, and to show you really CAN paint a motorcycle with "spray cans" and get truly professional results WITHOUT using a compressor.
it also provides a "FAQ" of sorts, which I felt the subject of painting (which only comes up 27,000 times a month) needed and teh barf mods agreed and made it teh sticky.
If you want to do multiple color pieces or some kind of designs or stripes, after putting down your base color coats, can you use tape or how do you mask off for the detail work?
that's a very good question,......
when doing multiple colors, or a scheme (repsol, yamaha "bumblebee", etc,..), you start with the lightest color as the base, if you're using the above "basecoat in a can" paints, you can mask off for the next color after only an hour or so, but with traditional spraybomb paints, you will probably have to wait at LEAST a day, maybe 2 or 3.
they make special plastic low tack masking tape (3m's blue "fine-line" is my fave) in several widths, which allows you to make smooth round corners and follow contours, I like to use the 1/4" and 1/8th" widths
I also use the 3m masking hand-roller you find at home depot for ten bucks,...it can be loaded with 12", 16" or 18" paper, and automatically places a strip of standard masking tape at the edge, so things are nice and fast, PLUS you wont get "pattern transfer bleed" which happens when you use newspaper and the ink stains the urethane paint, or bleed thru's, where the paper soaks through and sticks to the (supposedly) protected surface below.
ok, lets use a number plate for example:
on the primered fairing, shoot the white over the area where the plate will go making sure you don't have any thin spots near where the edges are going to be, don't worry about masking anything off at this point, as you'll be painting over it later.
then after the white cures, you run the fine-line tape in your pattern which in this case is a number plate, one strip going around the whole outside edge.
now take the masking paper with the tape at the edge, and stick it to the blue fine-line tape making sure you don't have any areas where it could bleed thru, the fold or cut the paper hanging off, so that it approximates the shape of the plate, and do any trimming with a razor. go all the way around so the the white plate is under the masking, then shoot the next color, and again WAIT till it's cured enough to peel (basecoat=2 hours, traditional=4 days) when peeling GO SLOW, and peel the tape back over itself so it "cuts" through the paint and leaves a clean edge.
when using a razor blade to make intricate patterns, or points, make SURE you use a SHARP single edge razor, and lightly cut JUST THE TAPE, NOT THE SURFACE, and sometimes I'll stick a clear piece of thin acrylic plastic behind the tape, and make the cut ON THE PLASTIC , then pull it up and stick it to the surface so I'm sure it won't go through and cut the paint.
so light colors first, followed by darker colors, use a flexible masking tape as the outline, and to give a clean edge when you peel it, NOTE: when doing several colors, you will always have an "edge" of raised paint where one color went over another, so the TRICK is to shoot AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE near the edge, JUST ENOUGH FOR HIDING, and then stop, or you get this big ass thick raised edge which affects how much clear you'll need to apply to cover it.
so the shooting sparsely trick is also a money saver as well as the best way to shoot several colors next to one another.
that's pretty much all ya do