marshall13
Senior Member
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the first step is to admit your ignorance
Posts: 301
Fort Lauderdale FL
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assuming the existing paint is in decent shape, pull the tins that need painting... duplicolor is very reasonably priced, and lays on very easily, much better than cheapo store brands, krylon or rustoleum... scrub all the parts with tide, or dawn dishwahing detergent... all dirt grease and oil has to go.... after everything is clean and dry, time to sand.. for flat finishes, 220 is fine... for gloss, 320 is ok, 400 better, 600 better still... you're done sanding when every square inch looks dull, no gloss left at all after wiping with a damp rag, and air drying.. the old paint needs "teeth" for the new to grab hold of... if all the gloss is gone, so is all wax, silicone, etc... done sanding? ok, time to scrub the parts again, only this time, for best results, a non-detergent soap should be used.. ivory liquid kind of thing.... if it says it contains "cationic and nonionic surfactants" it has detergent in it... ok, clean and dry again.... do your masking as needed, then take an airline that has filtered, oilfree air, and blow every square inch off... there's still lots of sanding residue in those teeth in the old paint... after the blow-off, lightly tack- rag everything... if you dont have air, then rub with a clean rag, then a clean rag that's just dampened with laquer thinner(just damp, not wet, be quick, and very gentle, as laquer thinner will strip paint if applied too heavily, too long, or too roughly).... then tack it... if you have air, then the final cleaning step is to thoroughly clean your hands with the non-detergent soap, let them dry, and rub the heel of your palm along everywhere to be paint, while blasting air at the same spot (your palm prints are mildly abrasive, and when clean, the sanding residue sticks to skin very readily)... figure out how to hold, hang, and fixture all the pieces before you begin to spray, so you can get to all the areas that need painting without handling the parts.. one they're hung and fixtured, you dont touch them again.... apply your paint, use light coats, just wet the entire surface, dont try to build up in 1 coat... give a minute or 2 for the paint to tack up between coats... with flat black 2 or 3 coats wil do nicely, colors and gloss may need more.... when it looks good, stop... it's a very fine line between covered, and running paint.... give the tank a couple coats of flat clearcoat too, so you dont end up with the gas smear blues.... 24 hours later, re-assemble... 2 weeks later, you can wax if you like.... of course, candies, metal flakes, and other exotic combos of paint require lots more spraying time....
edit: for the complete painting noobs, the sanding grits i mentioned are the grits you final sand with... always start sanding with coarser grit... 120, 220, 320, 400, 600, 800... once the surface is completely covered in the scratches made by the grit in use, you switch to the next finer grit, until all the coarser scratches are removed, then on to the next, 320 and finer should be wet-sanded... coarser than 120 would be used only on rusted, pitted, scratched up surfaces....
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