TIP: Getting A Highly Polished, Wet-Looking Clear Coat

[Gordo]

AHA!  Great shot of the pedal.  That clarifies everything.  I was curious why a few were getting hung up on gigging wear and tear but I think you have the best of both worlds.  Pre-beat-up and show-car finish at the same time.  Too cool.  It's made me realize that my pedal finishes are downright boring....

In any event, thanks for the tip, and nice job!

[m-theory]

That's a very unique look, and a very creative way to go about it!  I'd have never thought of using flame for that effect! 

[DougH]

Nice look.

I've gotten away from high-gloss stuff due to stage light glare.

[Electric_Death]

One of the biggest struggles I've had in painting shells is getting a clear coat I'm happy with. Pretty much every non-HT painted shell has all kinds of imperfections (trash, as car painters call it) causing bumps and blemishes in the clear coat -- even the new version of the Fuzz Factory I just bought is covered in crapped-out clear coat.

So, I've spent the last several months coming up with a way to get a decent clear coat without breaking the bank, and I've finalized my process -- so I thought I'd share. First off, take a look at this close-up. Note the reflection of the foot switch as well as the reflection of the fabric backdrop along the sides of the pedal.



To get this highly polished and smooth look (no blemishes), I do the following:

1. Paint the shell the way i want it, sanding as usual between paint coats, etc., etc. This provides as smooth a surface as possible for the clear.

2. I've started using polycrylic, applied with a foam brush, and I put on a cover layer -- not too thick -- and bake it at 150° for 30 minutes.

3. I let the shell cool and cure for at least 12 hours, then I sand and smooth with 2000 grit paper, making sure to rinse off all the particles afterward.

4. I repeat steps 2 and 3 four to eight times, until I'm able to get a totally flat surface all across the shell.

5. I then use high grade car buff compound to smooth out the final sanding I did, and that leaves me with an almost crystal clear, mirror-like finish.

6. The final step is something I haven't tried until recently, even though I always have a bottle in my garage: NuFinish car polish. An application of this brings the clear into a crazy high-gloss, and it just looks awesome.


Anyway, I just thought I'd share now that I have something that really works well for me.

WOW, that's one major hassle when there's a really easy way to do it.
Go to somewhere like the Harbor Freight tool store.
Buy an air driven touch up sprayer - much bigger than an airbrush, a little smaller than a traditional industrial sprayer.
Don't forget the water and oil filter to put on the compressor's output nozzle.
Fill the sprayer with water, spray it and adjust until you have a nice cloudy spray pattern.
Empty it, dry out the paint cup, spray a good amount of air through the gun with the cup off to get out the moisture.

Fill it with your clear coat. Hold your sprayer about 2-4 feet away, spray it with a coat that is so thin you can hardly tell it's on there and most of it seems to drift off into the air -  wipe off the nozzle.
Let it dry for 10 minutes.
Repeat about 20-30 times, lol.
You don't have to hit it with nearly that many coats but generally about 10-15 - basically 1 coat every 10 minutes.
You avoid buffing and you avoid getting trash in the coats. I've achieve absolutely flawless paint jobs this way with both my industrial grade sprayers and even canned spray paint.

Avoiding the trash has to do with patience.
Sometimes I want things perfect, usually I just want to get the job done with quality results and rather thick coats but don't burden myself with perfection. I'm not selling it, it's still going to look exceptional and one of a kind and most of all, you know all too well the pedal or guitar is going to get scuffed, dinged, scraped and chipped. When this is often the case, I do a heavy coat up close and also because I don't have a proper spray room where I can spray an onion skin thin coat from 2-4 feet away then wait 10 minutes to come back and do one after another.

Also remember, when you watch the guys on shows like pimp my ride or trick my truck, notice they only do a single coat of paint. Sure those paint jobs look amazing but any scratch they get takes you right through to the metal. In truth they're low quality rush jobs that simply look incredibly expensive but listen to Jesse James talk about doing a paint job, he'll hit something with 30 coats and do it exactly the way I'm saying. Extremely thin coats slowly built up between drying cycles.
Less is more.

[railhead]

What you're saying is true, but I can do the above on my patio without worrying about overspray, etc.

[Plinky]

I just use the Duplicolor clear coat for automotive wheels that you can get from Pep Boys. Just a few light mist coats to cover waterslide decals, then about 2-3 wet coats and let it dry overnight. Dry enough to handle the next morning and it's pretty rugged for lacquer. I don't even buff them out anymore (3200-12000 grit polishing pads). Just make sure the room is ventilated and away from ignition sources - pretty stout fumes.  

Not the best picture to show off the finish, but it does a good job IMO.

[Electric_Death]

What you're saying is true, but I can do the above on my patio without worrying about overspray, etc.

Oh come on, that's what lawns and lawn mowers are for!