PaintIt

The Graphics are fairly easy to draw in Corel or Illustrator as a vector file that is needed for a plotter to cut the mask. I am fortunate enough to have my own plotter so this makes it even easier. Any sign shop could create the artwork and mask though. I actually think it would be cool to use shadow the design where it overlaps to create some depth. If you created the mask the possibilities are endless. Black stained wood , apply masking , paint white Paint white , masking and paint the design any color. I could go on and on. You could even paint several layers of color then paint the guitar white. mask off the white area and sandblast the design slowly revealing the different colors depending how far you go. Kinda like a multicolor jawbraker has layers

I would design this in the computer as vector art and have a local sign shop cut it with Paint mask. guitar white and apply the mask and paint black. The clear will level the surface to make it nice and smooth. I am guessing that only the pencil lines would be black not the inside of the design. I would also suggest shadowing where the design crosses to give it some depth.

The brand of gun does make a difference on how easy this can be done. Yes it can and is done with one gun successfully on a daily basis. I would much rather have some old base color come out of the gun while spraying base that dries in 10 min opposed to having color come out in a clearcoat that takes a full day to cure before I can fix. I do not think it is econmical for someone that is spraying 1 guitar a year to have multiple guns. I do think that they should know the possible issues and the importance of cleaning the gun. I forgot about using a flake base. On another job days or weeks later from somewhere a metal flake will show up like magic to ruin your day!!!

Will this happen if you spray stain tinted clear? Or just if you spray color coats? If you spray candy automotive colors especially blue this is the worst. A small speck will come out and the solvents will cause the spec of candy concentrate to get larger and really make a mess. If you take the gun apart including the seals this is not as much of an issue but can still happen. I can not speak for any other product than auto clear so it may not be as much of an issue. I painted with one gun for many years and got by but I fixed my share of OHOHs. Even dried clear in the gun can come out and cause headaches so it is good to keep a clean gun.

The Sata mini Jet is a great gun. I have several dedicated to different uses. For me the most important thing is to dedicate a gun to clear and never put any color through the gun. No matter how well you clean the gun at some time a spec of color will come from somewhere and ruin a job if you use the gun for color and clear. I had one gun in the beginning and cant tell you how many times this happend. I also have some Iwat gun adn they are outstanding also . I love the LPH50 as a base gun for small items like guitars. Many people have really good luck with sharp and finex guns also. In the end it is how well you can sand and buff that dictates the quility of finish, the gun just makes it less work.

I agree this thing prob sounds like a jackhammer. HVLP guns will need a lot of air so you need the highest CFM and largest tank that you can afford. A large tank can make up for a lower CFM rating but only on small objects that do not require the compressor to cycle on during spraying. 30 gallon tank would be a miimum in my book.

If you have never airbrushed then using a regular brush would be easier. There is a pretty steep learning curve with the airbrush and most give up before they even get past the drills needed to learn control. Good brushes are generally not cheap. You should expect to spend 100+ for a quaility brush.

2 part poly IS automotive clear Well if the 2 part poly is indeed auto clear I would say you have solvent pop. To much to fast is generally the problem. I use Dupont 7900s high build clear and it is very forgiving and solvent pop is very rare. I generally wait 15/20 minutes between coats of clear. 1 tack coat and 3 wet coats is my routine. solvent pop is not as much an issue with the 2 part clears but if you are adding reducer also it is much more an issue.

That was what I thought it was. But then why can't I seem to get them out? And if they are pinholes like Drak said, how should I fix it and prevent this problem in the future? Not sure about 2 part poly but with automotive clears if you dont let each coat flash long enough or lay it on to thick you can get solvent pop. Solvent pop is caused by the trapped solvents in the previous layer gassing out to the surface and getting stuck as an air bubble. What you have looks like solvent pop to me and can only be fixed by sanding until they are gone.

Aaaah, excellent. Thanks a bunch, ihocky! Knowing me, they probably don't make poly primers, at least not readily available. The train of thought I was riding said that if you're supposed to stick with one type all the way, the primer should be included. So I take it that Krylon and Duplicolor plain white primer is acceptable to use as a base for color and clear? It'd save me a decent amount of money as opposed to buying primer for the spray gun. I'd really want to go with HoK all the way, but they're all, "Only use our stuff!" and their stuff is supremely expensive. All I'm planning on getting from them is a bottle or two of candy apple red to do the accents with. Plain black and clear are cheap enough to get anywhere. Watch you paint types.. Uros and acrylic do not play nice. You can generally put uro over acrylic but not acrylic over urothane. It can wrinkle the underlying paint due to the solvents. Sticking with one type of paint is the safest way to do this. I use HOK, PPG, DUPONT, SEM, DIAMONT, ALSA and others with each other but they are all uros. Ask the MFG and they will say to use only their products together but most play nice. One note is that HOK clear can have issues with delaminating over other brand paints. I Prefer dupont 7900s uro high build clear over all my work. HOK is a Acrylic Urethane and is listed by HOK to be compatible with acrylic lacquer or urethane enamel top coats. Hok is actually a modified acrylic so this make sense.

Yes you can build and sand the clearcoat to get rid of the orange peel. In the end you will need to sand and polish to get it smooth anyway as painting is only part of the process.

This is a recent addition to the HOK line of paints. Initial report are good on easy use but the dry time is longer than Alsa's mirror chrome. You willl not get a true chrome finish from this product more like a polished aluminum look. Very difficult overall to use as it requires a perfectly buffed out black finish to get the highest reflective look. The real chrome finish on helmets , guitars and such can be done with a spray chrome process from Alsa and several other companies that starts at about $7000 for the machine. This type of paint is better for effect painting and as abase under a transparent candy IMO.

I would not sand the metal flake paint. The reason is that as you sand the sandpaper cuts the flake and makes it look like a grey or white speck not a metal flake. Most flake is plastic coated with metal so you are ruining the flake. If you need to sand it should be clearcoated with enough clear to not sand through. The clear should even out the shine but will not fix any splotchy areas of flake. Orange peel is caused by the droplets of paint drying before the are able to flow into the rest of the paint on the surface. This can be caused by to much air pressure, not enough air pressue, air temp, how fast of reducer you use, and distance. With rattle can you have little or no control over these variables.

+1 on that - i have an airfed visor which works on the principle of a high pressure inside the mask which means no fumes can get in the sides. This is the very least you should use. In the end regardless of what gun you use you are going to sand and polish the finish to get it perfectly smooth. I have many guns by Iwata and Sata and they are great and will lay down a really smooth clear or base. If you do not learn to flow your clear you will always have orange peel. So laying down a great flowed out clear makes for less sanding but the polishing is the same after that. I would spend money on a decent gun but also a good variable speed electric buffer and 3inch air buffer. Also a good pad and compound system. I prefer the 3M perfectit system and the foam waffle buffing pads.

Auto Air is tricky to get the reduction for airbrushing. Most of the people that are getting good results use Fantastic household cleaner as a reducer. Mix 50/50 water and Fantastic and then use that mix to reduce the paint. AA has also come out with a line of reducers that are reported to work well also. Personally I will stick with Uros and not fight with the reduction. One other drawback I have seen is that AA sprays very rough due to have to spray very light coats to build the base colors. There are some amazing artists using AA with great success so it has a place.

Dupont makes a Blender that is used to melt the new clear into the existing finish. You would spray it with clear then second coat 50/50 clear and blender slightly bigger spray area. Third coat with blender only slightly larger area again. The blender is really just a very hot reducer that melts the clear down to the old clear. It will also be extremly smooth if done correctly and require no buffing. Your repair looks great and the color match in the stain is not noticable. Great job.

bowling ball finish can be achieved with auto paints using marbelizer from house of kolor and other paint brands. The marbelizer allows the second color to be moved using plastic wrap or other materials to create the pattern. Also some crystal effects products out from Alsa Corp and Dupont Hot Hue that are cool. This can also be done with AA water base auto paints with practice. this is a pic from Alsa Corp using Crazer paints

If you are going to use a candy I would use Kandy Koncentrate for House of Kolor in SG100 intercoat clear. Both of these can be purchased from Coast Airbrush in Small quantities. The reason for using the SG100 is to mix the Kandy Koncentrate and allow spraying like an automotive basecoat not a finish clear. This method drys very fast and will allow you to keep working on other colors very quickly. If you buy a true candy it is Catalyzed just like Auto finishing clear and much more difficult to spray. All of the colors on my hendrix guitar is HOK KK in SG100 over white. I do believe that HOK is available in rattlecan now at wallmart but it may just be a label and not the true product from what I hear. Hendrix Project

I would use acrylic paints to do the art. There are several water based auto basecoats such as Auto Air. PPG Enviro, ETAC and there is no issue clearing with Automotive clear after they are dry. I would not use oil paint unless you have a compatable clear coat. I would use regular primers and then a base color to start the art.

If you are using a automotive intercoat then it only needs to be sanded if you leave it open past the window. Most paint recoat windows are within 48hrs. If you go past it should be sanded or skuffed with a scotchbright pad. Most of the time I use intercaot to seal down the airbrush work because it is very light and has less adhesion than painting solid color. When Painting solid colors the only reason I would use intercoat clear is to bury the paint edge or to allow it to stay uncleared to allow skuffing later. The less you do this the better in my opinion. I like to bury my graphics with the final clear. Alright, thanks for the advice. I'm using this clear as a means of helping bury the paint edges where I've pulled up tape, since there's gonna be a few different layers of color, and I don't want huge differences between the lowest paint layer and the highest. So there's no forseeable problem with the tape sticking more or less with sanding or not? Without knowing your paints that is hard to say but in general no. If you are using pearl or metallics the tape can sometimes pull some of the flake and make a mark so intercoating is good. I would sand on the edges after coating with clear or it is not really working since the stripe and background get the same amount of paint. you need to remove clear from the stripe to let the background catch up.

If you are using a automotive intercoat then it only needs to be sanded if you leave it open past the window. Most paint recoat windows are within 48hrs. If you go past it should be sanded or skuffed with a scotchbright pad. Most of the time I use intercaot to seal down the airbrush work because it is very light and has less adhesion than painting solid color. When Painting solid colors the only reason I would use intercoat clear is to bury the paint edge or to allow it to stay uncleared to allow skuffing later. The less you do this the better in my opinion. I like to bury my graphics with the final clear.

You can also get the scothbright pads in gold which is even finer than the grey. I have also used a white version that I get from a window tint distributor for cleaning class. The white one turns flat black spray paint into a satin black that matches car interior dash parts perfect.

If you have a good paint distributor they will sell it to you in 1/2 pint and it will be fairly inexpensive. If not a pint of piant is about $50.00 depending on the color and the brand. Coast Airbrush sells in 4oz and up sizes so it can save you from having a lot of left over piant. 4 oz of unreduced paint is 6 to 8 oz after reduction depending on brand. Staying away from spray paint is a good suggestion

look at coastairbrush.com they sell small amounts of house of kolor paints

If you build the clear on the whole body and then smooth it you should be fine. A few light coats let to dry to seal the pours and then you could go heavier to level. You will get some die back of the clear so I would wait a couple of days before doing any painting over the clear. There is also no need for primer at this stage as long as you snad the clear well to allow for adhesion. By not using primer you will also keep the edge where you want bare wood very thin and easier to bury in the clear. My experience is with automotive uro paints on many different surfaces.