Painting

[joshua]

So i have been using the pray lacquers on some models and what kind of clear coat should i use to make it really shine.  I am actually working on the general lee currently and dont know what kind of polish i should use and or wax if someone could delve a little deeper into the minute details for me i would greatly appreciate it. I am also going to use the BMF on the window trim to make it pop should i polish after I put the BMF on or before?


Thanks, 

Josh

[harron68]

I suggest you go to You Tube. Many tips and techniques there, everything from "how to" use an air brush with everything from cheap craft store water based acrylics to nail polish (actually lacquer). Check the tips here for paints too. Guys seem to have their favorite primers. Other sites like "Skid's Place," Scale Auto Enthusiast, and others often have "tips and how tos" sections. Good luck!

[Mr.409]

I would use clear from the same brand as your paint. It lowers the risk of somekind of a reaction that might happen if the paints are too different to work together. I'm using also basic spray paints found in every hardware store and they work really well.

BMF needs to be applied after polishing, otherwise it will come off while polishing the paint.

As for polishing, I wrote this on TRaK and I will copy & paste it here. My way of polishing:

I'm using this kind of a polishing set that I bought a couple of years ago:



Of course most important is that body is completely dry before polishing - with the paints that I use it takes about one week. This kit includes 2400, 3200, 3600, 4000, 6000 and 8000 grit polishing cloths. I have never used that 2400 grit as I think 3200 is rough enough to get rid of orange peel and it doesn't go through the clear as easily as the 2400 would. With that 3200 grit polishing cloth, I sand the paint so long that it is smooth and there's no orange peel anymore. Then I move on to finer grits, and I use all of them to smooth out scratches that were left from the previous grit. Polishing with these finer grits is much faster than when just sanding the paint smooth with that 3200 grit, because now all you have to do is just get rid of the scratches. When looking at the polished area in a good light, I think it's pretty easy to see when to move on to the next grit as the paint gets shinier and shinier after each grit.

After the body is polished with all of those grits up to 8000, I use that Micro Gloss liquid stuff (White bottle in the picture). I rub it on with a soft flannel cloth and the bottle says to rub it on so long that the liquid disappears from the surface. After that I rub on some wax that doesn't sand the paint. I'm using Auto Glym Super Resin Polish wax for this and it works perfectly. When the wax is dry and I rub it away, the result is as seen on the picture.

When polishing the paint job with polishing cloths, it's important not to use round moves. I haven't tried what it actually does, but everyone who adviced me when I bought the kit told me not to do this at any case. Other than that it makes no difference what direction you polish, as long as there is no circular strokes. You can polish so that you first move the cloth from front to back, and after that you can continue by moving it from side to side, for example. That doesn't make any difference in the end result, plus that it makes it easier to polish the paint from all corners and other tight spots.

I like to use masking tape to hide some areas that I've either polished already (For example if I have polished the door and I start polishing the front fender, I will mask the door away so I don't hit it with a polishing cloth again by an accident) and other areas I like to mask away are some of the tight spots that are very easy to polish through (Like the top of tail fins).

Here is the result:


I hope this helps!

[joshua]

Thank you MR. 409 i just went and ordered one off of ebay for 13 including shipping! Guess we will see if i grasp it or not when it comes in! Thank you for the advice and I will definitely try and apply what you've explained a little better for me


Thanks,

Josh

[Mr.409]

No problem, glad to help! That's a good price for that kit - I paid much more when I bought it here in Finland. Just go carefully & I think you'll do an excellent job. Keep us posted with the results!

[joshua]

So just had a revelation.... while I am waiting for the restoral kit to come in I decided to look around my work bench and found a bottle of duplicolor automotive clear coat. So I put 4 coats of racing orange on the general lee and let it dry for about an hour and started coats of the clear coat. I have 3 coats of clear and without even rubbing it out and or polish it is almost like a 1:1 auto. Im goign to let it dry for a couple days and then do some meguires wax/polish to make it really shine but I could not believe how well it is working out.