NOOB.....Thanks in advance

[mbmoto]

Hello, my name is Mike and I have been building cars and motorcycles in my garage for years and sending them out for paint and body after fabrication and mock up....no more! So I am getting into painting my projects.......via the trial and error learning method. I have gotten to a point that I feel comfortable painting with single stage and base clear and have gotten good results so my next step is doing something with a stripe. I am a little unsure about a few things, Can someone please confirm the sequence below to make sure I have the correct idea of how to paint a stripe. For reference, I will be painting a front and rear motorcycle fender green with a single white stripe down the center.

step 1- base coat the fender white, allow to dry

step 2- scuff with 600, tape off the area the will remain white (the center stripe), wipe down the area to be green

step 3- spray the green, dry, remove tape, scuff, wipe down

step 4- clear everything

I think this makes sense to me because I can't (can I?) tape over paint that hasn't dried, and when I pull the tape I need to take care of the adhesive or it will ruin the clear...right?

If someone could verify my steps above or give me a detailed list of the steps I need to take I would greatly appreciate it. One last thing, I can tape the stripes with only fine line tape, right? The blue or green stuff won't give me a clean line, is this correct?

Thanks again in advance.

 

[LudicrousSpeed]

I am assuming you have already primed the parts, and have them all a single, even color?

Unless you have issues with your white paint, DO NOT scuff it. If you have dirt, or a run, then you would scuff it and the re-shoot the base. Let it flash the recommended amount of time before taping, the shoot the green, wait for flash, then clear.

You are correct about the tape.

Your bases are very thin, and do not hold up well to being sanded.

 

[mbmoto]

Yes, both parts are in a light grey primer and blocked with 400#. Thanks for the heads up on the scuffing. Do I still need to wipe things down after removing the tape to get rid of adhesive, or can I just let the green flash, pull the tape, and clear immediately? The paints I have for this project are PPG Deltron, don't know if that helps clarify anything.

I'm sure this is elementary stuff so thanks for hanging with me. I want to try and do this right the first time.

 

[TAZ]

There really shouldn't be any adhesive. Once you paint your base, mask off your stripes, then spray it, remove the mask materials, tack it, then clear.

Another thought....sometimes you can do the stripe first. I do this quite a bit on motorcycles. This really depends on the colors and type of paints you are spraying.
You can do the green, mask up the green, then do the white. BUT you have to be very careful when doing this as it could take quite a bit of white to cover the green. So in your case, most likely it is best to do the white base first.

 

[tomsteve]

use a high quality tape made for automotive painting. cheap tape will leave residue( guess how I leanred that one?)when ya peel it off, peel it away fromt he fresh paint and back on itself.

 

[mbmoto]

Thank you to all. This is just the clarification I needed. I will take some pics and report back results when the paint starts flying.

 

[TAZ]

use a high quality tape made for automotive painting. cheap tape will leave residue( guess how I leanred that one?)when ya peel it off, peel it away fromt he fresh paint and back on itself.

Yea, gotta watch the thin cheaper tapes. The reducer will get through the tape and soften the adhesive thus leaving it onto the surface when you peel the tape off.