Topic: Paint Guru's - Matte over glossy?

[B.O.X.N.I.F.E.]

My buddy and I have decided to tackle paint. In the last two years I've learned one simple truth; if I don't do something myself the results don't satisfy me. It might just be bad luck, but I let a friend who does amazing paint work have a whack at a project and it turned out quite... uh... #$%*tily.

So anyways, in the spirit of I Do Everything Myself I'm going to paint it.

The plan is a tweak on the stock scheme - '77 Candy Sword Blue, but the OEM gold striping replaced with a matte/flat white. We're having trouble figuring out at what point the base coat gets glossy and the stripes get the flattened clear. Someone wanna do a tank painting rundown for me?

I'm thinking -
filler over bare metal
5 or so coats of etching primer
color
clear
tape off stripes
scuff
color
flattened clear

now tell me why I'm stupid 

[jamesb]

i think my son sarted out with his flat color then taped it off then went with his gloss. i'll ask him when he gets home.the little sh!t is real good.he did his 60 bel air in matte,gloss,flake,and pearl it turned out pretty wild. 

[TwoTired]

filler over bare metal Only in the dents/depressions
5 or so coats of etching primerOnly first coat needs etching primer, Or use metal prep before a sealer/primer coat.  Are you sanding between that many coats for surface uniformity? The primer just needs to seal and provide a smooth base for the color coat
color
clear move the clear coat to after the stripes are done
tape off stripes
scuff
color What, is this a base color? or stripe color?
flattened clear

If you end with a flattened clear, you can be far less fussy about the smooth primer "evenness".  I'd prefer gloss finish, personally.

Er, what happens to flattened clear when you wax it to extend coating life?  Doesn't it get shinier?  Or, were you just planning on letting the paint sublimate/oxidize away with time, and never wax it?

Cheers,

[Psychonaut]

5 coats of primer is a lot. I have done one coat of high build primer and sprayed color over that. You can also skip the scuff step if you tape and do your next coat within 24 hours.  I'm sure there are paint guys that might even go more than 24 hours.

[Tim2005]

The scuff step depends on the type of paint being used, I am about to do a 400/4 in a red 2K base which the manufacturer (Debeer) recommends you to not touch after application and to apply the clearcoat over within 4 hours.  Though I've not quite worked out how the fitting decals step will work in with that...

Otherwise, I generally agree - I think my approach would be fill dents, 1 x etch coat, 2+ of primer, scuff, colour, stripes, mask rest & apply matte, mask matte & clearcoat the rest.  Like Lloyd suggests, the long term plan for the matte needs thinking over too.

[B.O.X.N.I.F.E.]

filler over bare metal Only in the dents/depressions
5 or so coats of etching primerOnly first coat needs etching primer, Or use metal prep before a sealer/primer coat.  Are you sanding between that many coats for surface uniformity? The primer just needs to seal and provide a smooth base for the color coat
color
clear move the clear coat to after the stripes are done
tape off stripes
scuff
color What, is this a base color? or stripe color?
flattened clear

If you end with a flattened clear, you can be far less fussy about the smooth primer "evenness".  I'd prefer gloss finish, personally.

Er, what happens to flattened clear when you wax it to extend coating life?  Doesn't it get shinier?  Or, were you just planning on letting the paint sublimate/oxidize away with time, and never wax it?

Cheers,

The tank is really rough. My buddies dad who paints airplanes and probably wouldn't touch a bike said "you better prime the #$%* out of that thing" when we told him about the project. Hence the many coats.

The matte was an idea but I'm not married to it. But I'd like to give it a shot.

[LesterPiglet]

I was reading the build of the Nissan Juke R which has a matte finish. They actually wrapped the car in a plastic coating to stop/hide stone chips etc.
Apparently once its painted it can't be retouched, dunno about cleaning tho.

Nissan JUKE-R Video 9 - Finishing Touches

[Psychonaut]

5 coats of primer is a lot. I have done one coat of high build primer and sprayed color over that. You can also skip the scuff step if you tape and do your next coat within 24 hours.  I'm sure there are paint guys that might even go more than 24 hours.

The scuff step I am talking about skipping is the one on color before clear, not prime, although you can it just depends on how smooth you want it. I would not sand primer in an engine compartment but I would a tank. You can let the color flash for an hour then clear it, just do it within 24 hours and you are good without sanding the clear.

[trueblue]

This is how I did mine, I laid down 2 coats of primer, adding extra coats wont help, then wet sanded with 1500 grit, then I laid down the silver, then using fine line masking tape, I think it was 1/4" wide from memory, I masked the lines in and trimmed the ends to give the points at the end of the stripes, once this was done it looked like this.







Then I laid down the red





Then VERY CAREFULLY remove the tape, do this while the paint is still soft so that it doesn't pull flakes of paint with the tape.





And finally clearcoat.





Installed on the bike

[B.O.X.N.I.F.E.]

That looks great. If I do the stripes glossy I guess I'll do it that way, whole tank white then color.

[trueblue]

That looks great. If I do the stripes glossy I guess I'll do it that way, whole tank white then color.

That's the easiest way to do stripes, first lay down your stripe colour mask out the stripes exactly how you want them to look, then spray your main colour over top, then when your done remove the tape and hopefully your stripes will be there.  But if you are going a dark stripe on a light main colour then it is a little more dificult because it will take more coats to cover a dark colour with a light, and depending on what colours you use it may never get good coverage, I have seen a car that was white with black stripes and it had a grey tinge around the stripe because he had laid the black first, in this instance you would be better off laying the main colour first then masking the stripes and spraying them in last.