Unfortunately, it got dark by the time I finished the masking, so I wasn't able to get any painting done tonight. Tomorrow I should be able to get the CF effect completed for good or bad. I'll post pictures of the silver only and then the final product. If it ends up looking like crap, I can at least rest easy in the knowledge that I'm not going for any awards!
A heartwarming tale of man and machine that will make you cry, laugh, and roll around on the floor trying to catch your tail.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Next Phase: Body Work
Well, after having given some thought to it, I have decided to go ahead and give the body a custom paint job instead of just painting it blue and slapping some stickers on it. I was thinking I might go with a color change paint, but the lhs (local hobby store) didn't have any, and I don't really feel like waiting for it to arrive via ground shipping. I remembered reading about how to paint faux carbon fiber, so I thought, "What the heck, let's give that a whirl." With that in mind, I washed out the body with dish washing soap to remove any oils left behind from the forming process.
The next thing I had to decide was what is going to be CF. I figured the most typical things I've seen are the hood and trunk, so I masked off everything but the hood and trunk. Usually I just mask the bare minimum to get the job done, but once I finished masking the hood and trunk, it was actually less work to just mask in the rest with tape than to use newspaper. I was able to mask the curves by cutting the masking tape into thin strips and using the cuticle sticks mentioned before to tack it down as I went.
After I got it down in a reasonable facsimile of the curve, I used the stick to work out any bubbles and wrinkles. Because this body has a lot of detail in it, I considered using a liquid mask, but I wanted to keep it as simple as possible for now. I've also read mixed reviews on it, so I thought it best to stick with a known quantity. For those of you who are curious, I'm just using regular blue painter's masking tape. It has worked pretty well for me in the past.
The most commonly mentioned material used to get the carbon fiber checker pattern look is the non-slip shelving liner. As it happens, I had some oversized liners that needed some trimming down, and I sensed an opportunity here. I cut a length off that was adequate for the hood and trunk and proceeded to trim it further to closely approximate the shapes I needed. Once I was satisfied with the shape, I just taped it down on the edges. As you can see, when I spray the paint on, it should leave a checkerboard-ish pattern.
All the examples I read on the web said to use gray for the lighter area, but the lhs only had silver. I figured that CF looks kind of shiny anyway, and I'm only going to use one light coat of silver anyway, because I want it to be very subtle. I'll be backing it with a metallic black, which should darken the silver somewhat as well as give the overall look the sheen common to CF when examined closely. Seems like a fairly good rationalization for not using the recommended charcoal gray at any rate.
Here is what the body looks like from the exterior. I'm no expert, but from what I can see right now, it looks pretty good. There are a couple of potential problems I can see right now, which pretty much means this will either come out looking really great or pretty crappy. I'm not seeing a lot of middle ground here. The first thing is that the shelf liner is not very rigid, so it doesn't necessarily stay right up against the surface to be painted. The second is that if you look closely at the hood, there is an air scoop in the middle, which means that the liner kind of hovers over it.
One recommendation was to heat up the liner material with a hairdryer, but if I do that, I think that it will make the masking tape adhesive really tacky. If that happens, it will make the rest of the body difficult to paint. I will try putting some weights in it with the body upside down and leave it tomorrow while I'm at work. Hopefully this will help the liner conform to the body contours. The backup plan is simple -- the cuticle stick. I tell you, this thing has more uses than duct tape! While I'm painting, I will simply use the stick to push down the liner so it's right against the surface. I've already marked some points on the liner so I know where to push.
Unfortunately, it got dark by the time I finished the masking, so I wasn't able to get any painting done tonight. Tomorrow I should be able to get the CF effect completed for good or bad. I'll post pictures of the silver only and then the final product. If it ends up looking like crap, I can at least rest easy in the knowledge that I'm not going for any awards!
Unfortunately, it got dark by the time I finished the masking, so I wasn't able to get any painting done tonight. Tomorrow I should be able to get the CF effect completed for good or bad. I'll post pictures of the silver only and then the final product. If it ends up looking like crap, I can at least rest easy in the knowledge that I'm not going for any awards!
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