Hi BSS,me again.If I were to do the matte stripes,I would paint the car black first,clear it,sand and buff.Then mask the stripes,scuff it with a red or grey scotch brite,one coat of black base,the flattned clear.Do not leave base coat open because it will not stay on long if you do.JMO.....Im sure someone will prove me wrong tho........... :evil:

 

Hello again! Thanks, I suspect your right, I wasn't sure if you could use a flattner in clear (like I said im new). Im just having difficulties on color choice, and or stipes or not. Probably my safest bet is no stripes one solid color. I could always go back and add striped later right? Im going for a very straight, clean look. Not a too flashy hey look at me muscle car look. No emblems, only trim will be around the glass.

 

Yep,you are right,you can allways go back and do more. :evil:

 

Matt stripes

My experience with matt stripes has shown me that adding a matting agent seems to be very inconsistent. It seems that all the variables us painters deal with are compounded when matt enters the equation. The solution I found is at your nearest Dupont dealer. Hot Huges is a satin urethane that works very well, and can be sprayed on fairly thin to minimize stripe edges. But, for now, if I was you, I'd concentrate on getting straight, black and slick first.

 

Once you choose the flattened product that will be applied do some testing to verify it is what you want. Spraying with fast dry reducers will give you less gloss, adding more flattener will give you less gloss, more flash time between coats will give you less gloss. Adding just a hint of blue tint or some graphite tint to the mix would also help set them off just a little... Bob

 

A graphite tint or even a very small hint of blue would look great. Now im thinking of no stripes, or if I do choose a stripe it will be a stock looking GT lower stripe in silver. Man...so many descisions!

 

Your car, your choice. My opinion - flat black stripes or flat charcoal on shinny black. Subtle, unique, similar to ghost flames.

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Matte on Gloss

If we could only dream up some way to flow between matte and gloss with out an edge line... Then we could probably get rich! I'm a firm believer that it's not finished artwork until you can't feel it. As for as the ghost reference, I love ghosting in graphics. There is a popular confusion about ghost and pearl though. A black car with flames laid out and dusted with pearl ("pearl flames")does not constitute ghost flames. On the other hand if you tear down the flames and spray it with transparent black, now you have "ghost flames". I like to think of it as art that you have to pay attention to see. I like to make folks look twice.

 

I want to think you could use Flex-N=Flat clear and then tape off the stripes and buff cause you can shine up the Flex-N-Flat when it's buffed and then pull the mask ..
Use regular clear on panels with no stripes of course and blend with the buffer after by sanding everything with 2000 etc..

it could be done... I'm tempted to tape something out and try..


or get it painted and buffed,,, and tape everything off for stripes and use Sems Trim Black , yes it will stick and stay on the buffed clear and last 5 -10 years .http://www.perfectfit.com/product.asp?Product_Id=154520&d_Id=15342&l1=15979&l2=15342

Heres a pic of some of the cleared black. I would have used the Trim Black if not for needing it to hold up against gas spills being a tank...

 

Your car, your choice. My opinion - flat black stripes or flat charcoal on shinny black. Subtle, unique, similar to ghost flames.

Are you speaking of just putting a transparent coat over the existing gloss black? If not, it got me thinking, why not just spray a clear coat matte finish over the already existing gloss black paint. I'm painting my 65 mustang with a charcoal metallic and am thinking about doing a 'ghost' stripe approach. Can this be done with a matte clear?

 

Sure. You can use a matt clear over it. Just realize you'll have a slight edge where the colors change.

....Howdy folks!!! It's been a long time! :welcome:

 

I'm looking for some thoughts here. What I want to do is this, on a hood I have some airbrushing I want to be gloss the rest of the snowmobile I want to be flat ( it also has airbrushing on it but that can be flat). Using two guns, can I spray gloss clear over the center graphics and use the second gun with a flattening agent mixed in to clear the rest just fogging the two areas together?
Anyone tried this. I have no booth so if I sand and buff will the flattened parts get shinney?

 

I have not tried this. But, in theory and on paper, I can't come up with why it wouldn't work. As long as the same clear, hardener, and reducer is used in both. Make certain you harden the flat clear properly. And I'd really try to keep the faded area as small as possible (quick transition in your fade). I'm thinking I'd spray the gloss clear last. Not, sure why... I guess I'd rather have a little gloss over-spray on top of the flat clear, rather than flat fogged over my gloss. As for buffing the flat, I strongly advise against that. Yes, it will shine-up. And no (from my experience) it don't loose it's gloss quite like you'd hope. I suggest you take a little extra time to clean and contain your spray area as much as possible. Nice thing about flat is that the light don't bounce off of it so much. Therefore, its really harder to see the trash in it. Not to say that you can't see it, but, you get what you get. You could (and should IMO) color-sand and buff the gloss part. Airbrush work always looks so sweet under really slick clear. Its like putting the art work under glass. OH....But, don't burn through the clear and mess up the paint under it! And, I suppose you'll really need to pay attention to the transition area. I seem... you could make the gloss area larger by buffing over the flat.

Like I said I haven't tried this. But, there's my thoughts.
Good Luck!

 

If you consider the past,most all flat stripes or graphichs were decals if memory serves me right. There were a few flat graphics but most were stuck/painted on later.
Find out what Dodge does to the Black SRT Challenger Gloss Black but a flat stripe out on the hood.
Something to consider is.
Clear the whole deal,cut and buff.
Then,
Mask off the gloss edge and go back over the "flat" area with 2-3000,Abralon or Trizact pads to dull it down.This will still leave a smooth top surface but relatively flat in finish.Not true flat,but close.

 

Thanks for the thoughts guys. I've done custom paint since the early 70's remember ordering the first HoK from Jon's garage, 8 years ago had a fire in the shop followed very shortly by the gangsters stealing all my equipment. At 58, I ain't starting over. Just do alittle stuff at home now, but I'm mostly out of touch with current trends.
My kids are racers, and I see alot of helmets with graghic's and a flat finish, I like that look, but agree some of the main airbrushing should be glossy.

A clean shop isn't an option, I'm working out of our engine,(karts and Snowmobiles) building shop, I have to dodge chips from the milling machine, I made that work before but I won't lay down a perfect CC without buffing. The finest sandpaper I used to use was 2000, not sure if theres something finer now, but the thought of having that be my final finish did occur to me.
I guess my biggest problem is, never having tried this, not sure how to end up with what I see in my mind.
Is there a difference between using some of the new matte clears, or just adding a flatting agent to regular clear?

Some of my paint can be seen here, www.4cyclecentral.com