james caruso
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i am going to continue in a pm. i’ve eaten up enough of jantxx’s thread!!
sorry for the hijack btw!!
abd???
i’m down here outside of atlantic city.
welcome to the site!!
mocoke, where in jersey are you??
ha, you’ll have to excuse me and my poor memory. no, i dont think there is any problem with that at all. you’ll never see the scratches. the thread was started so long ago i forgot what the original thing was that he was clearing. for some reason i was thinking we were talking about polished metal that you would not want to dull out.
sure but you prepped it with scotchbrite…. nothing wrong with that. problem is clearing chrome or polished metals. really cant go wrong with the clear 4 chrome. its dynamite for that.
i always have a window guy come in and remove my glass. believe me its the best $100 i will spend. never had one break and i dont have to worry about dealing with it. usually takes them less than 10 minutes. i would be messing with it for over an hour and then i would break the thing anyway.
i usally run mine @ 18-20psi for clear and 16 for base. in the winter if your clear is cold and high in solids you might need to bump up slightly.
oh yeah, dont use acrylic paints. you are wasting your time unless you plan on airbrushing t-shirts. you have the thing to do work on cars, bikes, etc. so use the same paint. you need to get the feel for the paint you are always going to use. diamont works great. thats all we use here. reduction will always be more than what you are used to with a gun. transparency is big as well. bc100,bc201 and overreduced to make a more transparent black to airbrush and shadow with.
well i usually try and tell guys who are just starting to mess around with lettering. cut out a mask maybe saying “toyota” or something. take the letters drop shadow them, shade them in to make them look rounded or embossed. you can do all that with pretty much a weak black mix then go in with some white and highlight the letters. you can also bevel edge the letters. practicing stuff like this will give you decent results quick and actually make it look like you are acomplishing something so a beginner doesn’t get discouraged. kinda keeps you motivated a bit. of course first thing would be to get the feel of it like any other spraygun. you want to be able to make a line without the dumbell look where its heavy on the ends. you know how to spray so its just a matter of getting used to the tool. the only added thing that you dont really do in normal spraying is you need to practice changing your distance off the panel. with a spray gun i’m sure you always try to keep that consistant. with an airbrush its just the opposite. distance will vary depending on the size of the line. practice making short 2 – 3″ lines that go from a point to maybe 3/8″ wide. keep doing these until you can do it without thinking about it while making them really smooth and consistant.
wow, never would have guessed their clears cost that much. their base is quite reasonable. i guess they make it up on the clear :lol1 i’m glad i found the spi stuff years ago. i cant imagine the amount of money i have saved over the years by using their stuff. 400 is just crazy for any paint. it only cost around $5 to make a quart of clear activator. i know there has to be markup but thats crazy.
bondo, if you ever get the urge to try something else, give the spi euro clear a go. its about the same price as the napa you are using now. a little difficult to buff after about 3 days butother than that one of the best clears i have ever used.
couple questions for you water guys. do you find the film thickness per coat in water is thicker than solvent. on thing i like about diamont is its so thin so when doing graphics and stuff it doesn’t take as much clear to burry the edges. #2, once water is flashed and given a little time to harden up can you tape and mask on it without pulling it off, leaving tape marks, etc.? just curious for the future how waterborn is going to work in the custom paint side of things.
i have 2 turkeys around my shop that do the same thing. they follow you all over. the other day they walked right in the shop and sat under the prep table and wouldn’t leave. i eventually had to just pick them up and take them back outside.
jimmo, thats a very good idea. never really thought of that. i wonder if it etches or dulls polished metals though? i always use alsa’s clear 4 chrome as it was meant for bare polished metals. i have done polished copper with it before and it turns out great with super durability. the stuff holds better to shiny surfaces than powdercoating. it would be interesting to try the dtm hardener in the dc92 though. that may work really well.
i get my booth paper from here.
https://www.andreaefilter.com/
this is another company as well but more expensive.