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Paint Procedures

dwleo

Member
I built a Cobra kit from FFR and researched and painted the body myself with urethane paints and clear from Summit Racing. I really recommend their products. I had twin white stripes and a medium metallic blue for the rest of the body. I am now getting ready to paint my T-bucket and need some advice. The body is prepped (featherfill and sanded) and I was going to just lay down the base a couple of times and then clear about three times. Then I started thinking about adding flames. So now I will be learning the ins and outs of laying them out and airbrushing. That will set my timeline back a month or so. Anyway my question is this:
Would it be best to lay down the base and let it fully dry then sand and lay down the flames and then clear the whole thing or should I base and clear then work on the flames?
Thanks for all help.
 
You can do it either way, but there is a window to clear the base coat. At least was when I painted. I didn't do flames, but when I done stripes, I put them under the clear. I preferred to put them on first because I felt the end result was better and less masking. You can also put the stripes over and clear, then un mask, put some fast eurothane reducer in the gun, turn the air up, and spray a fine mist on the mask lines. and they will melt, but be careful, too much is too much. The problem with doing it the latter way is you can get a hard line where the base and clear from the top coat are. Its best to mask it twice, once for base, then pull that and the second masking is back a little so the clear covers the edge. We used to sometimes tape masking paper on for the second mask, and roll it back so the clear would be variable and blend when we done repairs. There are likely as many techniques and opinions as there are painters, lol. When I first started spraying B,C, I had trouble with track marks, etc... I found some good books that helped with technique, and had a friend who was factory trained that helped me learn to apply the base, then paint the clear. I struggled with the Matt finish part with the base coat because I was used to acrylic enamel.
 
If it were mine I would only use a fine Scotchbrite Pad over the entire body. Then I would lay out the flames with some 1/16" or 1/8" tape and mask the rest of the body. After prepping the area of the flames go ahead and shoot the flames. After the flames have cured, unmask and LIGHTLY go over the flamed area with a fine Scotchbrite pad and prep the entire body for the clear coats. Be sure to build up enough clear to "bury" the flames so that after color sanding and polishing you won't be able to feel any transition from flame to body color.

Jim

PS. I like that you are using Summit's paint. I was first introduced to it when I offered to paint a '27T for a friend who is crippled. He said that he had the paint already. When he brought me the Summit paint I was VERY hesitant about how it would turn out. To my surprise, it was GREAT!
 
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Thanks Jim. My first paint job was my FFR Cobra and I was quite hesitant. But I read and read and read. Shooting featherfill really helped me get a handle on spray technique. Now I just have to figure out what flame design and just how intricate I can get.
 
I shoot the primer, then base coat, then a layer of mid-coat. I'm surprised no one has mentioned mid-coat. Anyway, lay out the flames on top of the mid-coat, air brush, HVLP, paint roller or whatever you are going to do for the flames and then clear coat. I have always sprayed the last coat of primer and all subsequent coats, including all the clear coats, without sanding or scuffing anything. If you know how to pull off masking tape (back onto itself) you won't have any trouble with paint lines. If there is a problem at the color changes, pinstriping has saved a lot of errors. Just remember that mid-coat is what you spray so you can mask or touch the surface without affecting the previous layer.
 

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