Painting the Gas Tank - Part 5

With the lace panels done, the next step was to paint the rest of the tank and fender.  It might have been easier to paint the panels last - I'm not really sure.  If not easier, it might have been less stressful - I was worried about messing up all my progress up to this point.

Once again, I started with the fender.  Because I was worried about putting masking tape directly over my freshly painted lace panels, I went to the hardware store and bought special Scotch Blue tape for delicate surfaces.  It has a lower tack than normal blue tape, which is already pretty gentle.

I taped along the pinstripes, covering up my lace "racing stripe".

Then I sprayed a few coats of Dupli-Color Gloss Black.

Then I peeled off the blue masking tape.  I was relieved to find none of my recently painted lace lifted or was messed up in any way.

Next, I pulled up the pinstriping tape.  The lines were crisp and looked great.

If you look closely, the "fogged" area where I airbrushed looks like it has a slightly gray fog to it.  This was noticeable but I hoped the next step would fix it and it did.

The next step was to spray Dupli-Color Metalcast Red Anodized paint over the whole thing.  It's a transparent red and made the red in the lace & pinstripes even deeper.  It completely fixed the gray fog.  It should also provide a thin protective layer above the lace to wet sand before the clear coat.  I think it turned out amazing and can't wait to repeat this process with the tank, even though it will be a lot more complicated to mask and paint.

More to come in Part 6...