Rattle Paint Ratings?

I'm interested in grabbing a tank, sides, and tail off of eBay for my near-pristine 1978 650B (with that incredibly popular burnt red-orange paint.) I'd rather not mess with the original pieces because my bike is in REALLY good condition (OK, so the spokes drive me nuts too...).

ANYWAY, there are various types of rattle cans out there - enamels, laquers, epoxies, etc. What opinions or experiences are out there? I know that rattle coats are thinner and probably softer. SO, are there any paints or techniques for getting great results?:blink:

you can get clear coat in the rattle cans too, so that would help out I would think as far as the softer issue is concearned.

I've found Duplicolor Engine Enamel with ceramic to be pretty tough for rattle can paint.

Rattlecan enamel jobs will always be softer and a tad less glossy than mixed enamels because they don't contain catalyzing (gloss and hardening) agents. They're also prep-sensitive to any oils - finger or otherwise - as they contain no anti-"fisheye" additives.

That said, you can do some nice paintwork that'll fool most lookers short of a pro, and maybe a few of those as well.

If you're working outside, shoot early in the morning - the air is still, humidity is lowest and the bugs have pretty much gone to bed. If you're on a concrete or asphalt driveway, wet it down before shooting. Keeps an amazing amount of $hit and corruption out of the paint.

Shoot medium coats, allow tack time and get all the edges covered. I generally shoot 4 - 6 coats. ASAP, move the piece indoors to dry for an hour or two in shade, then set outside in the sun all day if possible. The piece will get hot, the paint will bake, and you'll see how good your prep work was because the paint will shrink to it. Wet sand gently with 600, repeat color shoot if necessary.

For masking two-tones or stripes, bite the bullet and get the green 3M line tapes. When you have your lines set, go over the color-side edge of the tape with a thumb-tip or a soft pencil eraser - prevents bleeding.

Shoot the second or stripe color lightly - much more lightly. Load up the paint and it's likely to peel at the curve/corner mask lines. Pull the masking within about 30-40 minutes of the color shoot, depending on conditions - let it dry too hard and again, it's likely to peel. You want the paint still soft enough to separate easily, but not so wet as to bleed or run.

If you're shooting a single color, or single color with a decal, let the paint set at least a day, if not 2 or 3, wet sand, apply decal (if any), then dry, wipe down, tack rag well and shoot clear.

If you're shooting a second color/stripe and the shot looks good, let it dry an hour, pull mask, prep and shoot clear - it will stick to the fresh paint. If you can, let the clear set a couple of days in the shade - prevents "flashing", especially in higher humidity/wetter shoots.

*Always* use the same brand primers/paints/clears if possible - with one exception - I prefer epoxy clears over enamels, and PJ's Epoxy clear has been just peachy by me. With a bit of practice and some talent, you can shoot clear wet enough to lay out with nearly *zilch* orange peel - a nice, deep "wet" look.

Sanded/rubbed colors/clears can look really nice, but they seem to always lose a bit of gloss that no rubbing or polishing ever gets back.

Duplicolor's okay for primers/colors. Their clear is okay, but soft, and it stains/yellows quicker than PJ epoxy to my experience.

The only use for a Krylon can is target practice.

That goes double for Rustoleum.

Hope that helps, best of luck...

Just for grins, here'a a rattlecan job on a pal's flat tracker tank I did a couple of weeks ago.

Some kind of off-brand red he gave me, a set of OEM decals and finished off in PJ's Epoxy clear.

Totally untouched since the last shot of clear - the job just laid out that way....

Post edited by: Pterosaur, at: 2006/05/06 22:00

FWIW.....

Rattlecan Enamel...I like DupliColor.
Never used a Lacuer

Follow Recoat times....as listed on the can instructions.
Prep work is the key to ANY refinish......ask anyone here, they'll tell ya.

I did mine with DupliColor Acrylic Enamel and DupliColor Acrylic Enamel ClearCoat. Tried the "With Ceramic" Clear (Enamel) and it ate the color coat off (????) one side cover. Never did get an answer for that, but oh well. Re-prepped and shot again with regular and it came out pretty OK I think.

Point is....I like DupliColor...others like Krylon...Some may use Rust-o-Leum....few may like WalMart brand (kidding!!!!). Prep is the key no matter what. And remember.....anything you can FEEL on the surface,....you WILL see in the paint.

Other side of the same job...

Whatever kind you pick, I'll take mine in black please.

God bless!

-Ron

Rattlecan black can be *reallyreally* neat to play with if you have a gun and compressor to do the clear work with.

Did a paint job long, long ago in a galaxy far, err, well you know the rest of that line...

Anyways, black is pretty much black. It's well, you know, black.

Knowing it was gonna be a pricey shoot, we saved money on color by shooting a set of parts with PJ Epoxy Black.

The first layer of clear had 1/8 oz. of House of Color Heavy Metal Flake.

The second layer of clear had 1/8 oz. of HoC Irridescent Flake.

The third layer had 1/16th ounce of HoC Fine Metal Flake and 1/16 oz. Clear Pearl.

The fourth layer was straight clear.

In daylight, it looked pretty much black from any angle except up-sun. Then it just *burst* into a metallic rainbow.

At night under mercury lights, it was just plain spacey. As it moved between lights, it would shift from black to metal to rainbow to metal to black.

Got a lot of free beers for that job.

Wish I had some shots of it...

yet another rattlecan job. all duplicolor products.



Post edited by: mykznme, at: 2006/05/09 21:24

Sweet. Really, really sweet.

If I didn't know better, I'd think it wasn't. Duplicolor, that is...

Super gloss, depth and especially high marks for the consistency of the metallic - no mottling or streaking.

If your camera takes nice close ups, I'd like to see a shot of the blue/gold/green border.

If you'd care to list what colors and the steps you took getting there, I'd really like to read about it. Everybody does something a little different, and there's always room to learn.

I'm *seriously* impressed.

This isn't a rattlecan job, but something similar could be done with Duplicolor.

I never could get this job to show up right on film - this is a scanned image of a 5x7" photo.

HoC heavy flake in Martin Seynor clear base color, Harley candy red, then about 5 coats of straight Martin Seynor clear.

It looked nice in sunlight but it was absolutely hypnotic under mercury lights. The upper right corner in the shadow of the gas cap gives the slightest *hint* of the effect.

I was gonna get trick with a second tone, but the pure simplicity of the job won me over.



It was a straight layout - no sanding or rubbing. That was a sweet, sweet job...

Post edited by: Pterosaur, at: 2006/05/09 22:54