Another tank painting thread!

[1978GS750E]

Color coat polishing complete!

Finished with the color coat polishing. Waiting on the correct decals to arrive, and for the paint to cure for the 7 days that the decal maker recommends, before putting them on. So far, I have to say this is a lot of work, but will be worth it if it continues looking this good after the decals and clear!

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[nvr2old]

Your parts look real nice, but I'm wondering why you polished the paint before applying decals and then clear coats. The paint should actually have a 600 finish on it before putting the decals on and then the clear followed by the final polishing process. The clear won't stick to an un-sanded (polished) surface. Maybe I mis-understood what you're saying.

[Nessism]

I agree with Larry; you don't want a polished surface for the next stages.

I like to use gray scotchbrite after the first clear layers to flatten the paint and prep for decals and final clear. The polish stage is for after the final clear is applied.

[1978GS750E]

Maybe I got some bad info???? The decal manufacturer said to polish the black, put on a very light coat of 2K clear, apply the decals, then finish clear with 3 progressively heavier coats???

Would I be better to wet-sand the tank with 600 before applying the decals directly on top of the black and then clearing the tank?

As you can tell, this is my first attempt doing a tank! Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Nessism]

What I do is: strip parts down to bare metal, body work, prime, base, clear, gray scotchbrite, apply decals, more clear, polish as needed.

There are photos of this process in my KZ build thread starting with post 247...

[nvr2old]

[QUOTE=

Would I be better to wet-sand the tank with 600 before applying the decals directly on top of the black and then clearing the tank?

Yes. That is the correct series of steps to follow. Give your decals 24 hrs. to breathe and gas out before spraying your clear coats and you'll be good to go. As Ed mentioned, polishing is the final step.

[1978GS750E]

Decals are on!

Finally got the time to apply the decals.

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It will be a few days before it gets warm enough to spray the clear. Hope all this work is worth it!

[1978GS750E]

Getting close to finished!

Well I bit the bullet and sprayed the clear today. Used 2K Glamor Clear, went on really well for my first time using it. Have a little polishing on some orange peel but I think it will be fine!
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[1978GS750E]

Finished!

Finally got around to doing the final cut and polishing on my tank and cowl project. Not perfect, but I probably will never be satisfied with any paint job that I do myself! Overall it came out a lot better than I expected for my first rattle can paint job. Now to see how well it holds up.
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Looks a lot better than the 40 year old paint that was on it!

[nvr2old]

I knew a house painter whose motto was "it'll look better then it did". I always loved the honesty and the humor in that. You should be very proud of what you've done. You jumped in, stuck to it, made a few mistakes, fixed them, and came out with a nice looking paint job. Congrats.