USA patriotic design and need tips

[Mac_Muz]

First off I have learned more here in an hour than I have learned by asking painters in 20 years. I am not a painter of any sort, but I dream.... Thanks Scott!

I am doing my bike, and in a patriotic theme seeing as how things are. I am 50 as well, although that don't make much difference. Maybe I have patience for it...

Anyway the paint... All rattle cans this time, as it is to cold in NH USA to work out side. I have probably the crudest painting conditons here, and my living room floor too.

I am at 7 layers of primer. 5 are rustoleum brick red, and 2 are a gray.

Just incase it helps the bike is a 1981 XS 850 SH (Special) Yamaha

How many layers of primer are too many?

The flag like motiff will be a metalic silver first, and then some clear on the whole tank. The blue is a metalic blue, and I have kiddie stick on stars to stick on the cleared silver before I paint the blue. Then they will wash off I hope.

The red is a candy apple clear transparent paint, and the silver will show through. All that is just a matter of carefull taping, and I have that in my head pretty good now.

BUT this is where I run into a problem. Before I do the stripes in red I want to have a ghosted Statue of Liberty, just the face and helmet crown thing, at about life size to a humane head, not the statue.

I saw a tips and tricks Idea that I liked using stick on shelf paper, and maybe I can make a pattern templet. With the blue and stars masked off, I might be able to apply the "Liberty" templet, and spray her on with a very light coat of ???? color over silver metal flake. And then proceed with the red stripes.The ghost would be just visable from 10' or less....

There would be clear at each step. but I don't know how many layers would be too much. Is there a thing as too much, and since all is enamel .... can this take a bit of gas spill? or What can I add as a final clear from rattle cans that is?

Also I hope this is ok to write here, ad every thing is flames, but I simply can't find another site with this very good info..

Thanks....... Mac

 

[Mac_Muz]

Welp?? The siver ain';t gonna work! I need a white.... I made a test pattern on card board and the silve with red candy apple looks great but the white for silver idea sucks.... maybe a white peal, or opel?
Any ideas?

 

[TAZ]

Mmmm... being that you are doing it with spray cans, I would think this would be kind of hard to get. If you had access to a mixing system, it would help, but...the only thing I would suggest is getting one of those "aerosol sprayers" that you can buy at one of the local paint supple store, then have them mix up the color of your choice so you can spray it from the sprayer. Possibly find out the color name or factory code of the silver that you are using, have them mix up a pint for you, then have them add some black (or blue might be nice) in it. This will make it darker than the silver, thus giving you the ghost effect. Then of course, you will need to reduce it, and spray it in the aerosol sprayer.
Don't know if this will work for you, but it's an idea

Glad to see you enjoy the site!

 

[Mac_Muz]

Mostly bringing this to the top. Hoping to get answers to the above post...

But I am back in my game. I can go witha gloss white, and after some parts of liberty are made as a template, the next color is white icing.... Mac

 

[rex]

Yes there is thickness limit,or mils.A mil is roughly .001".On auto paint,usually the ideal job has around 3-4 mils of clear,a few mils of base,and as few mils of primers as possible.You want the primers and bases as thin as possible,but they can get thick with 3 stages or trying to do bodywork with primer instead of bondo and putty.You have to have at least 3 mils of clear or your protection is compromized and the clear will break down quicker.If I'm going to buff it,I put an extra coat on to keep the millage up,and then you can buff it lightly once more and still be fine.When your material gets too thick,you run a good chance of it cracking,especially in severe temperature changes.I've seen lacquer shatter when pulled into a warm building from 40 degree weather.This is pretty extreme but lacquer is a very finicky and high maintanence finish.Be careful with the Rustoleum,this stuff stays soft for a long time.I would suspect their primer is thick,so at 7 coats you probably need to remove 5.

 

[Mac_Muz]

Thank you. There are 5 layers of rustoleum red which took time to dry. It probable still is drying under the gray which is plasti-kote. it has been abour 4 days now since anything has been done, and the tank is near by the heating device for where I live. I do not smell anything in the way of fumes.... I have room to sand some off. I wanted to protect the steel.

What was the original paint had weather cracks which had a small amount of rust under each one. I had hoped a bit more primer would cushion stone chips and weathering.

All I want from the paint job is one season, at this point.

I am looking into attempting to learn more, and maybe do this as a few side jobs.

I have air, and a paint gun, and a paint gun on the way, but just this afternoon we got 8" of more white stuff! it is still coming hard too.... I drove 160 miles to a book store and bought 3, 2 are on body work and painting, and 1 is on air brushes. So I got caught in what I thought was a squall.

I was at bare steel, and filled in where the emblems were. There was a factory dent with a welded bar. I also filled in 3 or 4 small dents, and a few places I thought seemed to have a wave in the metal.

Looking at the tank now it appears to be fair to me. That is no areas that are odd or shaped badly. No places where the edge of primer shows bondo under it. The 3rd layer of primer took care of that. So I can sand off 4 layers....

There will be many steps to the final product, as there are 4 colors, and clear coats between most.

Updated colors are gloss white, white icing, candy apple red, and sapphire metal flake blue. I may not know what I am doing, but I fudge it good...... Mac

 

[Mac_Muz]

Is there such a thing as too many layers of primer?

Is there such a thing as too many layers of clear?

Scott thank you for the reply. Mac