Gophers and Cheese

The next step in my lace panel paint job was to fog the edges of the lace panels.  The purpose of fogging the edges is to make the pinstripes more distinct and make the lace look even better. While testing this on my scrap metal, I freehanded the fogging effect with the spray can.  However, I wasn't going to risk that technique with my tank and fender.  The narrow "racing stripe" lace is way too thin to try it.  Instead, I dusted off my old airbrush for the first time in many years. Concerned with paint compatibility, I decided to use the the same black spray paint I will be using on my tank & fender in my airbrush.  How?  Giving credit where credit is due, I used a method I found detailed here .  I duct taped a straw to a can of Dupli-Color Gloss Black spray paint. Then I shook it up and gently sprayed some down the straw and right into the airbrushes paint cup.  This method worked great!  What's so weird is how the propellant make...

With the pinstriping complete, my next step was the lace panels. The materials I used were Scotch Blue Painters Tape, some printer paper to mask overspray, Krylon Easy-Tack, and Dupli-Color Gloss Black Acrylic Enamel. The fender was up first.  I started off applying masking tape right down the center of the pinstripes and tucking paper under to mask the rest of the fender. Then I cut a piece of lace and applied a few coats of Easy-Tack and pressed it down against the fender. After practicing on some scrap metal, I learned a decent technique to spray the lace.  The key is to be to right distance from the lace and spray from a consistent angle to get the crispest possible pattern.  Here is it right after pulling up the lace. Then I pulled off the masking tape carefully and my pinstriping remained perfectly in place. I repeated the process with the top of the tank.  Here you can see the two lined up. Then I did both sides of the tank following a similar pr...

After letting the red basecoat dry for about a week, I wet sanded it with 800 grit sandpaper.  Then I wiped it down so I had a nice smooth surface for laying down my pinstripes.  Once the painting is done, the stripes will remain red.  There will also be some red in the lace but the rest will be black. I bought the tape from Eastwood .  It's 1/8" Blue Fine Line Tape from Norton Automotive .  I bought some 1/4" tape too but found it was too wide for the style I was after.  Again, I was glad I messed around on scrap metal first to learn that. My goal is to have a large lace panel on each side of the gas tank and then a lace "racing stripe" of sorts running down the tank and fender. Here's how I laid down the tape: The toughest parts were making parallel lines, doing the circle around the gas cap, and getting the panel on each side of the tank to be as symmetrical as possible.  It was tedious - a lot of laying the tape down, pulling it up, laying ...

In previous posts, I covered how I sealed, prepped, and primed the new 3.3 gallon tank I bought for my Sportster.  I also stripped and primed my previously chopped rear fender. Now it's on to the fun (and scary) part - painting them.  Again, the style I am going for is lace panels and the colors are red and black. Initially, I went ahead and painted the rear fender gloss black and the tank got a basecoat of Dupli-Color Metalcast silver.  Here's the tank in silver.  Note that all the Bondo work around the gas cap is done and turned out great. After messing around with painting lace panels on scrap metal (see this post ).  I felt that Dupli-Color Metal Specks Retro Red would be a better basecoat for the transparent Metalcast Red that will come later.  I also decided to go a different direction with the fender and incorporate some lace.  To ensure it would match the tank, I roughed up the black paint I had sprayed and covered it in silver too. I t...

A while back, I decided that I was going to paint my new gas tank myself and the style I wanted was lace panels using the colors red & black.  I have been collecting photos from blogs and websites as inspiration as well as how-tos from various forums. I painted and airbrushed a lot in high school but that was a long time ago.  Knowing I'm rusty and I've never attempted a lace panel, I didn't want my new tank to be my first attempt.  I wisely bought a piece of sheet metal to practice on. After priming the sheet metal, I sprayed Dupli-Color Metalcast Ground Coat (Silver) on one side and Dupli-Color Metal Specks Retro Red on the other side.  Both have a glitter to them (too fine to be a true "flake").  The red covers a lot more evenly in my opinion.  It's also smoother - you can almost feel the glitter in the silver. I used some cheap 1/4" tape from the hardware store to lay out some rough lines (I have much better tape for use on the tank).  B...

I've been slowly making progress on my gas tank.  After sealing the inside, I got to work on surface prep for paint. I used Dupli-Color Grease & Wax Remover first.  Once dry, I used wire to suspend the tank from the ceiling over an old flannel sheet I use to protect my garage floor from overspray.  I also covered the openings on the tank with tape. I applied a few coats of Dupli-Color Self-Etching Primer.  It's a dark green. After that, I used Dupli-Color Filler Primer, which is a light gray.  It's a high build primer so it helped fill in light scratches and imperfections quite well. The weld around the gas cap bung bothered me as it was a high ridge.  The gas cap that comes with the tank is a pop-up so it will not cover this area. I decided to Bondo it with the goal of making it smooth. It took quite a few rounds of sand, apply heavy coats of filler primer, sand, apply heavy coats of filler primer, sand, etc. The last pic above was clos...