paint

[zeke61@webtv.net]

i want a metal flake paint job on my v-king.what kind of paint?whats the process step by step?

[Techno]

This is one of those things thats like a tree. It branches off.

You can use gelcoat or paint.
Can use colored flake or silver or special affect flake. A colored flake will "paint" the boat. Blue flake will be a blue boat thing.
A red boat painted with blue flake stripes will be just that. The density can be varied for a shading like thing.
Special affect stuff reflects in different ways,like the rainbow stuff. The Kamelion and such paints are really tiny pyramidal flakes.

Can use ultra tiny flake to rather large. Larger flake need specials to get through the gun, more after prep too.

The flake is mixed in with clear paint and sprayed on. The amount of flake put in as well as how dense you put it down are 2 contollable items. The ultra mini flake lies flat and doesn't take a large amount of anything to do. Later its cleared. Black paint and silver flake ( this can be done in reverse, there is black flake)
Looks like black but with a silver glitz. If alot was put down then its a silver glitz boat with some black showing.

The larger the flake the bigger the sparkle (ultra mini flake glitters) the more work and more after prep to smooth the paint back down. Needs a more specialized gun. (actually a less specialized- primer gun bottom feed.)

I used House of Kolors- HOK. PPG is considered superior and a few others It was a catylized paint and was important enough to me that I spent $500 for a supplied air respirator. This is because almost all the catylized paints have Isos or isocyante in them and mixing then spraying it is bad for your life.
I'll repeat that last part. A supplied air respirator is required! Although no law exist for a home user they do for commercial painters in comercial booths. Filtered respirators are not good enough. Its up to you in the final. There is no lower limit of exposure for it.

Step by step.
1)Prep the boats surface. Wash with soap. Then wipe down with wax & grease remover. Do any body work needed and repeat the prep wash.

2)Either sand it rather coarse with 100 grit and spray primer, I used epoxy primer although the boat is plastic and doesn't really need it. Thick paint coats should be primered though. (silver base, metal, Kandy, clear- it adds up.) Primer is sanded.
2) sand with finer the paint should say but think its about 200

3)paint with base color. This can be a normal color or whats really a base paint. Bases need a clear or a second something.

4) mix in some amount of flake, the product should say, in the clear and spray like it was clear. Around a volume ounce per quart. If base cured you treat it per normal and scratch it for bond.

4a) if large/r flake a 2nd coat of only clear and knock down with sanding. This is because it physicaly is big and may not be a plate laying flat but like a flagstone surface.

5) clear it.

6) color sand (this is just sanding) Buff. Don't wax for 1- 3 months, depends. Except for not waxing step 6 is optional.

The pict below shows ultra mini flake which barely shows in the picture. I used it since the silver base wasn't sparkly enough for my tastes.
An overall flake job or only specific locations- the nose fading back or stripes. Flake size flake color and density are all choices to customize the job. Can mix all of this from density, color, size, on one job.

Forgot the picture has Kandy paint so the flake is under it. If it was done on top it would be silver. Under it gets tinted by it. I could have sprayed more on top for more different affect.

[IWannaGoFaster]

I sprayed a boat about 8 years ago with large flake.

I sprayed a background of Brilliant Silver. Then I mixed the large silver flake with thinned clear to flatten the flakes on the hull. Next I sprayed with thicker clear mixed with the large flake to get the flake to stand on its edge a little so it would be a liile uneven to catch light at different angles. I then sanded the that and masked off where I wanted the silver flake to show through and sprayed inside those lines with Kandy Purple. Masked that off and painted the rest Black to set off the flake. Next was 2 coats of clear, wet sanded, then finished with 2 more coats. Sanded and buffed. Amazingly brilliant and sparkely.

The complete paint job was a black boat with purple flake grafics outlined with silver flake.

It took me about 2 months to do everything and about $800 in paint materials.

:cool: It was worth every hour and every dollar.

The flake does not cover like paint. That is why I put down the brilliant silver first. That made up for the space between the flakes. It takes a lot of patience to get a good even cover. I wish I had pictures of it to show you but I always thought I was going to keep it.

Be careful about mixing paints. I think if you use the MetalFlake brand paint, its lacquer so you can't use a lot of urethanes on it. If you do, the urethane reacts wilt the lacquer and the whole paint job will lift and be ruined. I found out the hard way. :eek: The first time I painted the boat, a rookie at the paint shop said it would be fine but it wasn't. :mad: I had to remove everything and start over. Had I read the DATA sheet for the clear myself I would have known. So my total cost for the paint job was about $1200.