Looking for some painting advice/services
 

I want to tint my side markers with body-color metallic paint. I've test rattlecanned pieces of plexiglass and held them in front of the lights to make sure they still show light, and they do.

2 things:

• What's the best way to paint these corner lenses with a Duplicolor rattlecan metallic for a base coat, with a glossy engine enamel clearcoat?
  
• Do one of you guys want to do it? I'll pay ya. I honestly suck with painting and always end up with dust/hairs/cactus in the paint. :suicide: :D

See this thread. Exactly what you are looking for. If you have Adam do it though you will have to deal with him and that is a whole different thread in itself. :rolling:

http://www.motorgen.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3207

Here's a pic of one of my lenses, this is candy black.



You can pay me to do it, or you can help out on the snake and when it comes time to spray the snake we'll do it for free.

You can't use a color if you want to be able to see your lights, you need to dye an intercoat and then spray it with clear to protect the dye which will fade in the sun if you don't. The lense above was done with 5 coats of candy, then 3 coats of clear. If you don't want it so dark we can do less coats of candy. Candy comes in a bunch of different colors, but the dye is expensive, so if you want something other than black you'll need to buy it.

To prep, 320 wet to remove oxidation then 600 or straight to 600, wet. If you're doing headlights you might want to finish with 1000, wet.



If you're set on metallic paint, I would try to do a metallic pearl intercoat and then clear over it. If you go easy on the pearl it might work. But body paint? No way.

If you try to spray 1K (rattle can) clear over spray paint, it will likely react with the paint and shrivel up. Or if you want you can use that rattle can tint, but it looks like crap IMO. I have a can of that night shade stuff laying around somewhere.

Cool. What would be involved with helping with the Snake? I live way out near Twentynine Palms so it's quite a drive.

Like I said, I did some test paint using Duplicolor (or similar) body colored metallic Pewter paint (rattle can) onto a piece of plexiglass, then sprayed a rattle can gloss clearcoat (engine enamel) over it. It turned out alright, and you can still see through it... Although a real batch of GM Pewter and a good reputable clearcoat from a real sprayer would be best.

I was originally considering chroming it but rattlecan chrome paint doesn't last, and the stuff that might takes a rediculous amount of prep work and is incredibly expensive. I really don't want to tint them using anything (candy black, crappy VHT, etc) and I'm pretty set on using body-colored metallic to tint it.

I don't expect you to drive 2 hours to help with the Snake, maybe if I tell Enkei that you're a good guy we can still set something up.

LOL it's no biggie. I go to OC every couple weekends. Usually when I'm around I have quite a bit of free time, so helping Motorgen is no problem. ;)

If you have your own stuff I'll spray it for free, I was assuming you'd want to use my HOK clear and tint. At $180 a gallon, I don't care how nice of a person you are.

If all you want me to do is spray it we can do it at Ben's house next time there's a Motorgen meet or whatever. I'll spray whatever you want on there and do light coats till you say stop, but be warned, I've never seen someone tint lenses with color. There's a reason they use candy black and not black.

Yeah, I have my own rattlecans to do this. The clear I picked out seems to be pretty damn good for a rattlecan clear. Hardens up nicely. I agree with you on the last sentence. Quality paint isn't free, especially the candies. ;)

Thanks! Not sure where I'll be for the next meet, but hopefully I'm in town for it. If you're free before that then I'd be willing to meet up with you sometime during the week (maybe even this week? a buddy of mine wanted me to hang out in OC for a couple days).

I too was originally concerned about painting the lenses with the metallic but it seems to be clear enough to still allow light through after a few coats. It'll look pimp. If it doesn't, then oh well. Side markers are cheap. :)

I'm confused. Do you have paint that you want me to shoot with an HVLP gun? Or do you only have rattle cans?

Just rattle cans. I don't have a clean[ish] room to spray it in out where I live. It's too dusty/windy and stuff ALWAYS ends up in the paint.