Wheel arch painting - tips

[Cuiken]

I'm seeing a lot of Sendero bodies with painted wheel arches. Looks good IMO.

I haven't painted an RC shell seince I was 13 years old (made a mess of it then). Any tips on how people have done this?

Mask and spray? Mask and hand paint?

I'm hoping the naswer isn't 'use a steady hand' because I only have two hands and neither are steady.

Forgive the noob question but I'd be very grateful to hear a walk-through on how to do it.

Ta.

[B-MOW71]

Mask off and spray is how I do it. After masking, I spray a couple coats of Tamiya PS-5 Black. After black has dried, I spray a few light coats of Tamiya PS-55 Flat Clear over top of the black. The last coat of the flat clear, I hold the can farther away and lightly spray to help give it a slight texture to the surface.

Here are a fes examples of the bodies I've painted with that technique. The first two pics I used the outside film as making. The last pic I used painters tape.

[QuesoDelDiablo]

Mask & spray

But do yourself a favour and good quality vinyl masking tape (very similar to electrical tape, often found in the autobody section) for making nice clean lines and smooth corners.

[Cuiken]

Chaps, good advice thanks.

I've got the black coat on but am waiting for my can of flat clear top coat to turn up in the post.

I used tamya maskking tape. Nice to work with but I won't know how decent it really is until I peel it off

Lessons learned:

1. Dont point then shoot (initial spray from the can is splattery). Everyone knows this. I knew this. Still did it.

2. Keep the can warm. I'm spraying in my cold garage (with forced ventilation). Doesn't seem to be an issue with the paint drying in there but the cans work best if I keep them in the warm house prior to use. I guess the propellant works better and the paint is thinner at warmer temps.

3. This is addictive. Planning to spray the bonnet in a camel yellow now.

Cheers

[QuesoDelDiablo]

Originally Posted by Cuiken

2. Keep the can warm. I'm spraying in my cold garage (with forced ventilation). Doesn't seem to be an issue with the paint drying in there but the cans work best if I keep them in the warm house prior to use. I guess the propellant works better and the paint is thinner at warmer temps.

Further to that point - even when painting indoors I keep my spray cans in a jug of warm (not hot!) water. Keeping the paint viscous and slightly increasing the pressure in the can helps the paint to atomize better coming out of the nozzle and you get much nicer spray consistency.

And yeah, as long as your painting area can stay at 10*C or better you shouldn't have any curing issues. If it start to drop too far below that though you might start to see bad things happen (flaking/cracking/poor adhesion etc).




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I'm not a pro or anything and I don't intend to sound like I know more than I do. I'm just commenting based on my own experiences.

[B-MOW71]

Originally Posted by Cuiken

Lessons learned:

1. Dont point then shoot (initial spray from the can is splattery). Everyone knows this. I knew this. Still did it.

Cheers

That's funny! Don't feel bad, I've done it too and learned!

Originally Posted by QuesoDelDiablo

Further to that point - even when painting indoors I keep my spray cans in a jug of warm (not hot!) water. Keeping the paint viscous and slightly increasing the pressure in the can helps the paint to atomize better coming out of the nozzle and you get much nicer spray consistency.

And yeah, as long as your painting area can stay at 10*C or better you shouldn't have any curing issues. If it start to drop too far below that though you might start to see bad things happen (flaking/cracking/poor adhesion etc).

Good info on keeping the can in warm water. I have not tried this, but will do so now since temps in my area colder than I like.

Thanks for sharing!

[smog]

Originally Posted by QuesoDelDiablo

Mask & spray

But do yourself a favour and good quality vinyl masking tape (very similar to electrical tape, often found in the autobody section) for making nice clean lines and smooth corners.

This is solid tip. Going to look for this product