In this 2 part video I show you my method of getting an absolute flawless mirror like finish out of rattle cans. It's not easy and this is a long video but if you want to know all the little secrets you should watch it all!
I always take a hair pin and ream out the nozzle on a rattle can. There are always plastic imperfections inside the spray hole, and honing them out makes a Huge difference in the spraying pattern. And...if you soak your spray can in pretty hot water, it'll spray a finer mist, and dry quicker. Experiment on some old surfaces first, just to see if You like the tips as opposed to not doing them. Good job on the Tank by the way, but next time, seal that cap hole!!!
Excellent how-to video! Thanks for showing what really happens when you paint with rattle cans. I always think I'm doing something wrong, but you gave me the confidence to continue with my project.
When your wet sanding you can stick your paper to a sponge so your fingers aren’t touching anything, also, you can use a spray bottle to wet everything down and not have to stop sanding. Great job for jingle cans man. 😎
This really inspired me to keep trying to get a good finish with spray cans. I know it didn't go perfectly but it's great to see how much effort you need to put in to get a top quality result. Thanks.
this is the best video of ever saying on painting with a spray can and you've given me the confidence to do my bike I'm in the Bondo stage now and hopefully within a few days will be in the painting I'm going to follow your lead dude you're awesome thank you!
I'm in the process of renovating a 1993 Moto Guzzi V65 Florida and have spent the last 3 days repairing the petrol tank filling and sanding, priming and sanding, filling and priming, and SANDING !!!! but good prep means good paint finish. Love the video
I had to of watched this video years ago. But man did it help me to this day. I have made some crap parts look amazing since but it’s been a little while so I actually forgot a couple steps. So I searched and searched for a video to help. Some were okay but finding this video again is relaxing because i know I’ll do it correctly now once again. Thank you man. 🍻 cheers.
I painted my Alfa Romeo spider,with a gun,but while colour sanding,I noticed the ear is a great way to get the paint ready for polish,as you sand the sound of the paper will change at 2500 wet,dry ( set sanding] the sound will become very quite as you get to a perfect finish.
Kudos for not just saying fuck it, and product looks good in the end. Professional painters would not have done it this way BUT you never claimed to be a professional. Good job and keep on keepin' on!!!
The old saying about "you learn more from your mistakes" still applies even when you watch someone else make them. A very useful vid, thank you for sharing it.
also use a guide coat of black primer over the grey primer. just dust the black on. then you can see your high and low spots when sanding primer. much easier and quicker.
I kind of like those sanding blocks. Every time I buy a new one, I put some 60 or 80 grit paper on a sheet of glass and sand the block flat. Doesn't take a lot of work. 👍
"You can see I fucked up a lil bit here...... thats OK....." Gotta love spray paint. If you make a mistake, just sand it off, and throw on another coat. hahaha
what primer did you use ? ihave been using the rustoleum automotive primer and it won't stop chipping I've been trying for a month. I read U-POL and heard it is the only way to go._I am going nuts can't figure out why the rustoleum automotive won't work.
I'm going to be painting a batwing fairing from Memphis Shades. I bought the bike used with the fairing used. I was able to get out 95% of the scratches using Novus, and now it has an almost mirror like finish on the plastic. Would you recommend a high grit sanding prior to primer, or prime it as is? The products I'm using are all from color rite so I can get a good match to the factory paint color.
The heavier the grit for sanding simply relates to MORE unnecessary sanding, the same with removing all of the paint on any item you are going to paint. The thing is, when the surface you are going to paint already has an undamaged finish leave it as is, wash it then seal the original coating and only then apply a couple of light wet coatings of primer which will also be lightly sanded, and for those who use a guide coat do it before sanding, there is more to painting than what I just stated, meaning a good prep job, so do not make extra work for youself when possible. I was a journeyman spraypainter at Disneyland in Anaheim for a lot of years and we never took any of our ride vehicles down to bare metal, with the exception of the 'subs' which were sandblasted to bare metal beneath the water line since a couple of coats of a bitumastic coating, similar to tar, would be applied to protect the hull from rusting, other than that everything was sanded with an orbital sander with 120, 240, 320 with spot priming as needed and then the final coats would be applied as needed. The exceptions to this were the autopia cars which use Dupont Chrome Illusion Paint, at $1,200.00 per quart to paint one car and a few other items which needed a little extra TLC to obtain a "show quality" finish required for our guest's appreciation while they are at our park. The thing with painting and painters is painting is an art form and not the robotic application of coatings, which I've stated before now, and some of the techniques which are presented here would never be used by myself does not necessarily mean they are wrong, it just means I was taught differenty and as long as the final product is pleasing to the eye then that's what is ultimately important.
There was a very cruciall stage that was omitted in this process because a spot part filler should have been applied on the primer coat to eliminate any scratches before the base and clear coat is applied.
Hi.. just a few tips. Good job considering your using rattle cans. Get hold of 400.. 600. 1000. 1500 paper before you start. Count 4 seconds per 4 square inches then move over to the next area when wet sanding. Your building up way too much heat in 1 area hence your losing material. Get the top coat as even as possible then proceed with colour coat if it isn't blemish free its gonna stick out like dog shit on a pool table.
Yep, 80 grit on primer to start is where you went wrong. 400 grit to start, dry sand only, gets it perfect. Use paint thinner to clean in between coats. For the color, 1000 grit in between coats. DRY! No need to wet sand. Then use 1400 grit in between clear coats, with a smooth final coat good to go.
a nice way to practice is to get a large acrylic piece (ofc, clear) and cut them up in several 8 x 8 inch pieces, then start painting one first pretty light but many coats, and when you think youre done, take a lightsource behind the piece, it can tell you if you sprayed to little or too much etc. make sure to just paint one side tho, lol
Why did u not wet sand your primer with the 400 then six then 800 I always go to 2000 wet n dry sand build up a shine and then knock it down to 6-800 all whilst guide coating it then do the same method as u with the colour
I did mine and after letting the lacquer dry for 48 hours I wet sanded and polished it. Two days later orange peel appeared so wet sanded, applied two thick coats of lacquer, left to dry 48 hours, wet sanded and polished again. It looks great but now a week later the orange peel has returned?
I thought it came out perfect so why all the critiques ? I did my frame but used 2k primer and clear not cheap Either but came out well.....good job man well done !
Did your black or anyone else's look sorta grayish after painting it ? Will the buffing make it a shiny gloss black ? I have a feeling it's because of the grey primer.
another way to sand primer is with a slightly/non stiff green scotch brite pad.it shapes/forms to the contour perfectly and when clogged,rinse it out,shake it dry and continue.just use light pressure and let the pad do the work.
once i seen you sand that primer with the 180 i knew what was going to happen next. this was 7 years ago so no need to explain im sure you figured it out by now in 2022 lol
I tried this on a 1983 Honda V65 Magna that I'm restoring, and when I tried to put fuel in it, some of the fuel that spilled on the tank just started eating through the paint. How do I fix this?
I’m not gonna tell you what you should have done because you took a lot of time for a rattle can job and it turned out beautiful. How I do it is after my primer I use a 320 to get it smooth. Elimination of the scratch marks. And an orbital sander works the best. Or small hand circles. When coating lay it on like you want it to shine. Use a piece of metal material to test spray where you feel comfortable laying it semi thick. Hit that with the 600 after drying fully. I add 2 more thicker coats. Hit the ol girl with the 1000. For orange peel. Shine with 3000 and buff then polish. How you did it it should have had its shine with out all that sanding. Nice finished product. Good job bro
Very nice result although you did it the harder way. Would have been easier to prime and sand. When it's a nice shape and texture, then paint base coat but a bit closer to the part, yet at the same speed as you did. The way you are spraying far away and angling the spray a little upwards over the part, you get a lot of dry spray landing on the part, that created too much texture for you to sand. So lets say you are spraying a bit closer at 6 inches away, continuous strokes, and overlapping the previous spray stroke by 50% and not too slowly, then you should have a very smooth surface with just a little orange peel rather than a texture. I've practised on an A2 size sheet to get more used to spraying, to get a glossy finish without runs.
I keep wondering why you didn't choose automotive paints like Duplicolor in the fan spray can, such as GM1 black. I Know it needs a clearcoat but you may have used less paint. It is not expensive and is readily available.
TrailBusterBrute1 Ive used Duplicolor before on my Jeep. Its ok, some may have had success with it. I had great success with Rustoleum, it super opaque (on the same Jeep). The only downside is you gotta shake the can until your arm falls off.
Not to shabby it came out nice the inly 2 cents I have to say is after sanding when cleaning off particles for next coat you shouldn’t use your bare hands . It leaves oils on your surface and can cause more issues . At least wear gloves if your not going to wipe down with a paint prep otherwise tho it still came out fantastic I’m painting my truck the same way . A lot more work I’ve got a couple coats on already my issue is I am having trouble getting an even gloss with my gloss colored color also using black . It looks wet in some areas and flat in others on my last coat . So back to wet sanding I guess maybe another coat will fix it . If not I’ll wet sand again and see if my clear coat will even it out
You should apply paint a few minutes after prime for better etching,,,and I always go right into clear from paint,,it will melt to together and gives a much better shine...
Krylon works great been using it on bike frames for almost 40 years screw the purist and their ""aww you should've..." Comments. whatever works for you not everyone has 500 or 600 s laying around. I've used industrial paint before -yeah the cheaper paint.
I like to use steel wool (00-000) on primer and first few coats of paint, with a thorough tack clothing to get rid of any particles. Wet sand closer to the end with 600-2000. Anything below 300 grit on anything but the worst crap or woodwork is just too rough imo.
Was the first view of the tank on the bike the finished product you were working on? If it was it looks great but it must have taken a week! Learning something on your own is always tough but when you put it on you tube for the world to see? That takes guts! I didn't hear you say you were an expert so I don't get these guys calling you a moron. You even called yourself out when it was going wrong. Watch some more pro videos. Prep is 90percent of the job! Do the job the same way you would if you were using a spray gun. The paint cannot fix the surface! Keep it up, the tank on the chopper looked great!
Actually, as this video shows, using paint CAN fix the surface it just takes forever and a crap ton of coats! Which makes sense if you think about it. As little as it may be each color coat is laying down a certain amount of thickness and if you sand back the high spots, slowly but surely it will fill in the imperfections. Primer is thicker and does it much much faster, but using paint is possible.
I'm in the process of clear coating my gas tank for my Sportster but everyone keeps telling me that it needs to be done professionally cuz what comes out of the rattle cans doesn't have a hardener and will melt away as soon as gas starts to touch it can anyone give me some facts on this matter
alex your sanding block is hollow because the bubbles and differences removed off your primer, if you would take a straight block you get little flat surfaces in the tank and you are going to see that a the clear coat
Ayo i just wanna say i been paintin my car for about a month or so with spray cans, mostly flat black and this video alone was exactly what i was looking for to help answer all my questions. I appreciate it yo
good gawd man,.............initial prep is key as you now know. If you can see it in your primer, you'll see it in your paint. You couldv'e saved a lot of time and a few bucks just taking your time on the primer. All you did was spray on color and sand it off.
Dude, sanding through to the primer with 800 has nothing to do with your primer. you're only putting one coat of base on before sanding... THATS why you're sanding through. give it 3 or 4 coats, then wet sand.
I would have removed the bump in the middle of the block so you use the whole area as it is meant to be used. Then you end up doing just what you told everyone else not to do and use your fingers going long way instead of across the so that the grooves from going along the axis of the tank will not appear and you yourself did exactly what you told us all not to do. I kept adding coats of base color and wet sanding until I got 1200 wet block sanded in-between coats, before I shoot my first coat of clear. Then I', going to block sand it with 1200 and shoot another coat of clear until I have enough on it to polish it and take all imperfections out of the top layer of clear and take it to a high polish mirror finish. Then call it done. Wax it and use it in all that mother nature can throw at me.
It doesn't look like you reply to your viewers, so maybe one of your viewers can help me. I have been doing paint jobs like yours for years, I had one job that I am still perplexed by. When I was finished with all of the steps, the top of the gas tank after about a month started to get several blister type bumps. I Painted the fenders, oil tank and frame all in candy apple red and none of the other parts had a problem,just the gas tank. Any body ever have an experience and a solution for this?
First get a small pail so u can dip sand paper in and prevent water going everywhere second use a plain bar of soap on the wet and dry sand paper helps with the sanding process allowing ease of movement and less abrasive action in the sanding result. Not perfect but not a bad job either ur on the right track.
Save yourself some time and energy and wet sand the high build primer with a flexible foam block and 600 grit paper and lots of water. Essentially your using the paint as a thin primer to fill the fine scratches you created with your 400 grit. Twice the work.... Thanks for the video!!
This always seems to be the theme of people that use rattle cans to paint, They don't prep their work well enough to get the finish they want, Patience goes a long way when preping anything to be painted, My rule of thumb is sand until your arms feel like they are going to fall off and then clean and look it over to be sure you got it all sanded smooth. 400 grit should be high enough to be able to paint. I start with 220 grit and work my way up to 400, The smoother your primer is the smoother your painted surface will be.
