basic painting guide

been a while getting to this so apologies.

firstly, theres more than one way to skin a cat but this has worked for me for the last 30 years so its my take on things.

i'll keep it simple but just poke me if i've missed owt out.

0ne.
strip parts to either a bare metal or a solid base if the paint is good.
finish with a 180 grit sanding pad.

two.
apply your undercoat.
in this case a two pack high build primer but if doing it at home, a celly will do as long as you give it time enough to harden.



three.
flat your undercoat with 320 followed by 500 grit dry sandpaper. you can use 600 wet.
i always use a carbon guide coat but you can use a flip of aerosol.



i'll do applying colour later as i'm short of time now.

five.
once colour is on then leave to harden overnight.



six.
colour sand with 2000 grit wet paper ready for compound and polish.



seven.
once polished, look through your own reflection to check finish.



this is a very simple overview and i will expand on painting and polishing later.

just wanted to get something down as a start.

shaun.

thanks M8 that's awesome should help a lot of people

The finish on that tank is just perfect. Not sure about the grafix, man standing taking photo in well lit warm room,,, hay ho..

right, painting.

i'll keep things simple again.

theres no great secret to it, anyone can wave a gun around. its all about prep, gun setup, and finishing.

prep we've done.

firstly, buy or borrow the most expensive gun you can, there really is that much difference between them.

my divi guns are over £300 each which, though dear, aint as dear as the paint going threw them. it will also last you a lifetime if looked after.

setup is top priority. there are three main knobs. the first two below are fan and mixture.



the top is fan. pretty self explainitry but remember to alter your airflow when you alter the fan as it will increase as it narrows.

the bottom is mixture.



this pic shows both air pressure screws, one on the gun, another on the pressure reg. use the latter when you can.

you want a free air(trigger on) pressure of 2bar through the gun.

with the air correct you can set mixture.

a basic setting is to wind the knob all the way in before unscrewing three and a half turns.

there is a more accurate method with sprayouts and i'll do that another day.

try to hold the gun eight to ten inches from the panel on your passes and keep the gun as level as you can, twisting your wrist as necessary rather than the gun.

first coat should only be a guide coat for adhesion followed by full coats with 75% overlap.

your better to move too fast than too slow as orange peel will cover up but runs wont.

it'll take practice but once used to it you should be able to get a glass finish straight from the gun.

allow at least 5 to 10 mins flash between coats. no more than 4 coats of solid or 3 coats of lacquer should be applied in one go.

polishing.

not everyone will do this but i'll put it on anyway.

i use a 3 stage polish.



first, once your paint is hard, use a 2000 grit wet sandpaper to flat the surface. i showed this earlier.

two of these are machine polishes but they can be used by hand, it'll just take a lot longer.

the green top is the first stage fast cut. its what does 90% of the work.

once a decent finish is achieved, move to the yellow top.

this is a fine cut and removes any swirl marks and starts to give you a shine.

the third is the pink top hand glaze which is a bodyshop safe silicone polish.

if using a polisher, always wet both the pads and the paint surface so's as not to burn the paint.

the polisher should be no faster than 1200 rpm as to keep the polish where you want it.

never stop moving and avoid edges as there get enough by accident.

forgot to mention about gun cleanliness.

though my guns look filthy on the outside, their spotless inside and should be cleaned after every use.

will do the proper way to do this later as well.

wow another great installment learn t a lot cant wait till next one

Nice one Shaun

I'm looking to do a paint job on my Lav this winter but the paint choices are doing my head in.

what I want to do is a solid black and silver flake base, that will need lots of masking, with black candy over (most of) it and then a clear top coat.

I dont want to get involved with the 2K stuff as I'm not going to invest in an air-mask and all the gear for one job, could someone suggest a good paint supplier.

also, what is 1K is that Celulose or a different paint altogether.... I can find lots of stuff on spraying but not a decent guide to paint

its a while ago but the only single pack candy i used to use was "house of colour".

mixed with their own reducer (not thinner), made for a very deep shine but you did need to put a lot on.

they also used to do an inter-coat clear that made artwork and masking safer as you could clean up any mishaps without going through all your previous work.

i'd also consider using concentrates.

their small jar sized concentrated candy additives that you can add to your own clear lacquer.

not to be confused with dyes that are translucent basecoats which are quite commonly used on bikes.

"house of colour" also supplied both a how to book and a very informative video (i guess dvd now) that i thoroughly recommend if your new to painting.

1K is a ready for use (rfu) acrylic that uses a reducer where as celly is the spawn of the devil that should be buried and never spoken of again... and thinner based.

the only house of colour supplier i know of is vegapalm ltd (assuming they still sell it) on 01202 526477. based in bournemouth.

sure they post it nationally if you cant find anyone more local.

hope my jabbering helps.

Thanks for that Shaun.

I think the best thing is if I mail HOK telling them what I want to do and ask them to suggest the coatings for the job.

I spoke to HOK this afternoon, seems they do everything BUT the concentrate, that do just about every colour appart from black, do you think I would be able to add this to HOK http://www.customcreationpaints.co.uk/candies-p-13.html

This is the sort of effect I'm after [img][/img]

don't see why not.

no matter what companies will tell you, i've never had problems mixing different brands as long as its the same base product.

i used to use the HOK concentrate with my own lacquer as i found theirs a tad thin.

it goes a long way.

one tin will normally mix a gallon of correctly tinted candy. its worth doing spray-outs first to get the mix and gradation you want.

i'd also put a wet clearcoat down first to spray into to help the fade if you intend any gradation.