Painting a ghost stripe Need help

[cfriedman67]

I am getting closer to putting paint on my roadster. Is there a best way to paint a ghost stripes? Do you just use a shade darker or lighter than the base? Do you use pearl in the clear? I have read many things and not sure what is the best way to do it.

thanks
Craig

[GFX2043mtu]

There are several ways depending on the effect your looking for. My personal favorite is pearl in clear. You shoot the car the base color then stripe it or what ever your doing with a clear tinted with pearl. Then once done clear the whole car.

[cfriedman67]

Thanks for the advice. I guess you purchase pearl separately and add to the clear? If using a metallic light blue color is this still the way to go?

[GFX2043mtu]

Pearl lightens the base layer depending on how the sun hits it. It doest matter if its a metallic or solid base color, although metallics are more dramatic with pearl. You can mix the pearl your self, how ever if I where you I would have it pre mixed at my local auto body supply shop. I did a custom mix when painting my car, but be for warned it’s easy to over do it. Most body shops get it mixed as a toner (mixed in a liquid form) rather then a powder as it’s easier to control the quantity when mixing. I went through a few spray cards to find what I was after. Attached is a pic of my car in the sun. Mid you I used a good amount of pearl to get the effect I was after. Hope this helps, and good luck. 126817

[j.miller]

For a ghost stripe use the body color. It depends what your body color is but in general if you want the stripe darker add black, if you want lighter add silver for metallics or white for solids. For a ghost stripe you are not trying to change the color, you are only trying to change the value of the color. Pearl will change the color and that's fine too if it's what you want....da Bat

[Jeff Kleiner]

Also you can treat it like a 3 stage by adding some tint to a basecoat clear and runing a pass or 2 or 3 (depending on how much color variation you want to see) over either the stripes or everything but the stripes.

Jeff

[cfriedman67]

Thanks Jeff Jeff and and GFX. Other than adding pearl to clear I would assume I paint the "ghost stripe" first, tape it off and then the body?

[j.miller]

Thanks Jeff Jeff and and GFX. Other than adding pearl to clear I would assume I paint the "ghost stripe" first, tape it off and then the body?
That is how I do mine. Easier to mask the stripes then mask a whole car.

[cfriedman67]

thanks Da Bat.

[GFX2043mtu]

Yes, just be careful because if your shooting clear with pearl you’ll want to make sure it’s mixed well and says mixed. Also lay good even coats with a proper overlap so that the effect doest tiger stripe. I also assume by you know to shoot the base color first then the clear with pearl. Then tape it add for stripes and paint as normal.

[cfriedman67]

Thanks for clarifying. If I go this way I wasn't real sure. I got it know.

[cfriedman67]

I'm just about ready to paint. When it comes to the trunk, hood, and scoop ( I wil be painting stripes) do you shoot sealer (PPG MP 235) on just the under side of the hood, trunk, and scoop than paint and clear? Or spray sealer on both sides, paint and clear undereath and wait a couple of days before doing the same on the top? Or is there a different sequence that makes more sense?

[Jeff Kleiner]

....Or spray sealer on both sides, paint and clear undereath and wait a couple of days before doing the same on the top? ...

Absolutely not! The MP sealer must have base applied within 72 hours maximum or you'll have adhesion problems---that 72 hour window is based on maintaining 70 degrees and will begin to close if you get away from that. I shoot sealer and go immediately to base. If doing stripes I put that color down right away, layout and tape then do main. Yes, you can work piecemeal and split topsides and undersides separately if necessary but that usually involves a lot of taping and masking. Rather than doing it that way I've created some "flippers" so that I can do all surfaces of all parts top and bottom in one session without actually having to touch the parts. This allows me to have base on everything within 12 hours after sealer goes down then move right on to clear (remember, base needs to be under clear within 24 hours). There isn't any rest or down time when doing it this way and my a$$ is whooped at the end but I really don't like to push the boundaries of those recoat windows.

Good luck :)

Jeff

[j.miller]

I seal , color and clear the bottom of those parts, let dry a couple days, mask off, flip over and paint the tops when I paint the rest of the car...Da bat

[cfriedman67]

Thats what i was hoping to do. Do I need to tape off the tops when sealing and painting the underside? When I tape off the bottoms and do the tops with the rest of the car guess i overlap the sealer paint and clear on the edges? There has to be some overlap somewhere?

Appreciate the expert advice

[GFX2043mtu]

When painting panels I suggest if you can’t flip them, paint the underside first. Then soft edge the paint on the bottom outer edge of the panel when painting the top. What I do is, fold 1/4” of a 1” masking tape over on it self down the length of it so that when done you have a length of tape where 1/2” is adhesive tape and the other 1/4” of the tape is doubled up tape that isn’t adhesive . Now tape the underside of the panel with the adhesive part toward the center of the panel and the flap end flush with the outside of the panel. This technique blends the paint in when painting. This is because the loose flap slows / blocks some of the paint and creates a nice blend. One thing I do to do this fast is start the tape fold then I pull and bend the tape across my leg as I pull it across and it self folds the tape. I’m not a big YouTube fan as I find a lot of bad advice on there but I was able to find a video of this as describing it is hard to do and this video actually covers it rather well. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rG0WlY9NgPk

[cfriedman67]

Thanks. The video is great. To me that seems easier than building tables to flip over and paint. Do you tape up the tops when spraying the bottoms? If so do I tape all the way to the edge of the top or partially around the edge?

[GFX2043mtu]

I agree this is easier and is a common body shop technique for soft edging a panel. Taping the top off when shooting the bottom is a good idea. This will ensure you don’t get overspray on the top especially if you don’t have a down draft booth. When spraying the bottom or inside of a panel focus on that surface and not so much the sides of the panel as you’ll re-spray them when the panel is flipped, re taped and your shooting the cars outside surface. You’ll want to quick hit the edges but knowing they’ll be gone over when shooting the main surface. Biggest thing is never ever spray up on a panel as you’ll loose that soft edge.

[cfriedman67]

Thanks for everything. I think I’m good to go.

[j.miller]

Thats what i was hoping to do. Do I need to tape off the tops when sealing and painting the underside? When I tape off the bottoms and do the tops with the rest of the car guess i overlap the sealer paint and clear on the edges? There has to be some overlap somewhere?

Appreciate the expert advice


I do not mask off the top while painting the bottom. I sand both sides to 320. Finish sand the bottom with 600, seal, paint, clear and let sit for a couple of days. Turn over on padded stand, 600 the top, clean &dry, turn over, mask bottom to the under-edge, turn back over and shoot the tops. I always shoot the bottoms first because they will be sealed with paper for a few days and if you get any marking from the stand you want it on the bottom where it only contacts the stand on the inner panel ridges (I turn the hood sideways on the stand. The doors I have a fixture that holds them so I can paint all at once...da Bat

[cfriedman67]

Thanks Jeff. I wet sanded the car with 500. Would you recommend now doing it with 600?

[j.miller]

Thanks Jeff. I wet sanded the car with 500. Would you recommend now doing it with 600?


No don't resand.I finish with 500 then sealer. I just said 600 to save argument with others who swear by it. Cheers

[cfriedman67]

To funny, thanks.

[Jeff Kleiner]

500, 600 whatever it takes.

Jeff

[j.miller]

500, 600 whatever it takes.

Jeff




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[rich grsc]

wouldn't 550 be better? :rolleyes:

[cfriedman67]

I have a few problems and have resigned to myself for a redo. My problems are a few. I have a very distinct edge between colors of the stripe and the base color. Its a ridge you can feel after clear coat. I tried sanding it down with 1000 grit wet and got it pretty smooth and was going to do that to the whole car and reclear. As I was sanding I went through the clear so the hood needs to be redone. The trunk, when I pulled the tape 3M fineline there was small piece that came up with the stripe. This was my first issue. I said OK I wil redo the trunk no big deal and wet sanded it with 500 and it is ready to go. So now the body. I have the same issue with the stripes standing up forming a ridge up and down the body. What did I do wrong so i dont do it again? I used Deltron Concept clear and omniplus paint (its a metallic). I painted the stripe color saturday, laid out stripes on Sunday, taped, painted base coat and cleared on Sunday. Any suggestions would be be appreciated.

Another thought. I realized after wet sanding some of the car with 1000 grit wet I was able to level out the ridges in the stripes. If I can do that with the rest of the car without burning through is there any reason I can't just redo the hood and trunk, and the stripe. The reason I bring up the stripe is it is a ghost stripe and I mixed the color myself by adding pearl and tint to the base coat. I don't hae any of that mix left so to try and duplicate it would be risky. So basically is there any reason I cant wet sand the clear with a 1000 grit and repaint the stripe and then reclear the whole car?

[j.miller]

How many coats of clear did you put on? If two, you are going to not have any clear left after 1000, 1500, polish. I do 3 coats PPG clear and color sand 1500. I don't take the ridge all the way down because I know the compound will take more off and leave a very slight roll. If you want NO edge you need 3 coats of clear, sand 800 and recoat with 3 more. Now you have enough material to make it flat, flat, flat. Concept clear is designed for 2 coat production work and can give you trouble if you go 3. I use Vibrance. It's more of a custom clear so it allows you to go 3 coat application. Soooo, if you want flat. Sand with 800, don't go too heavy on the stripe edges and hit it with three more coats...da bat

[j.miller]

Realized I didn't answer your question on why there is still a ridge. There is an old adage "ya can't fill a hole with paint." Same same. You can't smooth an edge with paint. When it dries back it assumes the profile. You have two levels of paint=two levels of clear. I'm not a fan of Omni (won't go into it) but the old DBC dried with a much lesser edge. The water base I shoot now leaves a similar edge as the Omni so it's a little more careful work to minimize...da bat

[cfriedman67]

I used three coats of clear. Two questions: I already wet sanded part of the car with 1000. Can I clear over it or should I go back and use 800. Second question is can I paint over the stripe again. (Can I put paint over clear) also the reason I asked all these questions is my local paint guy made me crazy like I did something wrong and the ridge was to big. Next time I’ll know better. Thanks again for all the advice.

[j.miller]

I know guys who spray over 1000 but I am not comfortable with it. My minimum is 800.You can paint over the clear. If you are doing it to raise the levels , I wouldn't. If you are fixing something , by all means go ahead. Omni builds a pretty big edge at 3 coats there is just no way around it.

[j.miller]

An alternative to resanding with 800 would to go over everything with a gray Scotch Brite. Gray leaves a 5-600 scratch without removing to much material.

[cfriedman67]

Hi Jeff, I cant thank you enough!! You gave me the confidence and info I need to fix waht needs to be fixed.