First attempt at stenciling, any advice appreciated! =)

Hanman

New member
Hey all, thanks for reading. I'm a total newcomer to painting and I had a question about stenciling. Well, I actually have a million questions about stenciling but my first one is what type of material do you use to apply your stencil? I'm spraying an old vintage refrigerator for a game room. Basecoat will be black, then I'm applying a Cornhusker logo to the door. So my next Color would be a white border, then red. No curves so hopefully this will help. I've read about a product called Gerber mask but i can only find it in 50 yard rolls and at this point i really don't want to purchase that much. Is there anything a little cheaper that will work? Will contact paper work? plain old painters masking tape doesn't sound like a good idea to me, worried it would damage the basecoat. Also, do I need to clear coat after the basecoat but before the stenciling? Thanks again!

cory
 

tomsteve

New member
http://www.tcpglobal.com/airbrushdepot/mask.aspx

as for over bc or over cc, i have done it both ways. i now shoot 2 coats of clear, not that i had any problems over just bc, but i am sure i would have eventually. i shoot 2 coats of clear, wet sand with 600 then apply the film. i know theres an intercoat clear people use and i'm sure more experienced folks will chime in.
a lil on using stencils: yer prolly gonna get a ridge along the edges of the stencils. i used to try and get real tedious and sand the ridges down, but then i learned that what i was told to do, which is bury it in clear, was an easier way for me.
 

Hanman

New member
thanks tomsteve. When I we sand with 600 do I need to sand the entire project to keep consistency or can I just sand the area to be stenciled? will 2 coats of cc be adequate after the logo is applied? and yes, I realize this is all a lot of overkill for a **** fridge but man it's gonna be sweet if it turns out good! Thinking about either airbrushing myself or finding someone local to airbrush some flames around the bottom of the entire fridge also.
 

tomsteve

New member
i sand the entire project and add the extra coats of clear to the whole thing. sanding the whole thing gives the surface something for the next coats to bite into. the coats of clear after the stencil is lifted depends on how good additional coats of clear cover the ridges. i apply 2 wet coats of clear( with the proper flash time between coats) and let them dry overnight. then i sand( using a block) over the stencil work with 600. i go slow as what i'm lookin to do is get the clear to the same level as the ridges. once i get down to the ridges, i sand the rest of the project. it sometimes requires additional coats of clear and do it again. when i get the clear flat over the stencilwork, i add 2 more coats of clear, sand with 1000, 1500, 2000, 3000, then buff.
one other thing when stencling: only apply enough paint to achieve full coverage. what paints are you using?
 

Hanman

New member
Well, I'm not sure now. Originally I was going to just use a rustoleum enamel, but only because I had a can of black and red (don't ask me why cuz I have no idea) and figured it would do for this experimental little project for myself. But the more I research, the more inclined I am to buy a higher quality paint. I hate to get to much $ tied up in this, but if I'm gonna take the time to do it I might as well do it right. What paints do you use? I'm starting to see why custom paint jobs are so expensive. i never realized how labor intensive it is. About painting the stencil with the right amount of paint, I'm assuming you mean painting too much will only make the ridges worse? would you recommend airbrushing this part? Btw, my sister-in-law is from somewhere just north of Midland, MI. Small world, just thought that was interesting.
 

tomsteve

New member
yes, applying just enough for coverage is going to keep the ridges down. yes, theres aLOT of labor in prepwork and prices for paint jobs also pay for the experience of the painter and supplies used. i have my sons 98 explorer in my shop right now. he bought it a few months ago and we got it mechanically roadworthy, which wasnt bad, but the paint and interior has been extremely neglected. right now i'm just workin on cleaning and buffin it. it's gonna come back into the shop in a few months for some bodywork and new paint. i could shoot rustoleum on it, which total cost of primer and paint would run prolly about $150. but it wouldnt last long. or i( actually he)could go with PPG and spend a LOT more( prolly around $1000) on primer, bc/cc. in the case of this truck, i am goin with SPI primers and clear and not sure on the black bc. gonna be between whats availabel locally( dupont, which i dont like. takes too many coats to get good coverage), house of kolor, kirker, or some other brand that will have to be purchased online.. think i might add some flake to the 1st coat of clear. this is gonna cost prolly about $600- 700 in primer( epoxy and 2k high build), bc, and cc alone. i have shot a few different brands. i was using sherwin williams until the local shop switched to dupont. i liked the sherwin williams.

now, theres another brand you could use for this project and i am sayin it because this will be somethng that isnt out in the sun and i've shot it for projects like this and it was pretty nice and still lokin great. it's the duplicolor paint shop finish system.
http://www.duplicolor.com/products/psFinishSystem/

it is a lacquer product, but i find it to be pretty nice to shoot, dries pretty quick and lays down pretty nice. it runs around $20/quart, and with lacquer sanding between coats isnt necessary as every coat layed on top melts into the previous coat with lacquer.

sure is a small world! just googled arthur, ne. man, i thought the town i lived in was in the boonies!!!LOL. but i love small town life.
 

tomsteve

New member
and wouldnt ya know it, i am a forced into retirement carpenter! still do woodworking and got into painting after being forced into retirement 7 years ago( health reasons). just cant bust arse like i used to and only get 1-3 hours a day to work in the shop.
woodworking was where i learned a lot of the techniques with a spay gun.
 

Hanman

New member
Man I can't thank you enough for your help. Can't wait to get started on this now. I have one more question and I think I'm ready to tackle this. What do I use to apply the stencil? I've heard some good and bad advice from guys around here, but as you can probably imagine now by seeing how isolated I am, there just aren't a lot of experienced auto-body guys in my area to talk to! lol One guy said just to apply contact paper and use an exacto knife to cut out the stencil, one said to use masking tape, I've found some products online just for this (gerber mask, can't remember the other one now) but it was only sold in 50 yard rolls and I just don't need that much. Id hate to have a 49 yard roll of mask laying on a shelf in my shop for the next 5 years! lol As far as the paint, I was leaning towards house of kolor because I've heard a lot of guys recommend it online. We have a Sherwin Williams store near-by though and I really like their house paints so I think I'll go with this. These projects aren't going to receive the sun/abuse that a vehicle's paint job does. I think I'll go ahead and use up my rustoleum paint on my own fridge first, and I have another fridge I'm going to try to sell and I'll use a Sherwin Williams or House of Kolor on that one. If/when I get it finished I'll post some pics.
 

Hanman

New member
And you have no idea on being in the middle of nowhere! This place definitely isn't for everyone but I love it. Try having 0 restaurants, 0 gas stations, 0 stop lights, 1 part-time police officer. My wife is from Rapid City, SD (65,000) and she never has really adjusted to it, she used to say that there is nothing here. I'd say you're right, there's no crime, no drug problem, no locks on our doors. My sister-in-law's parents are desperately trying to sell their house up there and move out to Denver. They worked for Dow chemical and both got layed off a couple years ago after 30+ years each when everything tanked up there. Things picking back up?
 

tomsteve

New member
i have used contact paper used to line shelves. it worked. i bought a roll of kustom shop masking film. its the only one i've tried and i ike it.

http://www.tcpglobal.com/airbrushdepot/mask.aspx

welll, things are pickin up slowly. i dont see michigan comin back completely. i think employment here has been too dependant on the auto industry for too long, mainly what used to be the big 3. plants have been mothballed everywhere. actually, west branch is about 3500 residents, but we have the state police, county sheriff, and city police all in this town and they dont let too much happen.
my sons in the army and was out at fort carson, about 30 miles south of denver. i went out there last july when he came back from afghanistan. i still would love to move out there. it is absolutely beautiful. the temp was in the upper 80's- low 90's, but the humidity was so low it was actually comfortable. we didnt have nearly enough time to get out and see the sites, but we did go up pikes peak and went to the garden of the gods and a few other places. theres an awesome concert venues too. the red rock ampitheater and park west of denver about 10 miles is an awesome place to see a concert from what my son says.
http://www.redrocksonline.com/
 

ironmanai

New member
I use frisket paper from hobby lobby or michels (its pretty thin and kind of hard to work with if you cut it out then move it) or clear projector paper from office depot (this works better to cut out your design then move to project and reuse)
 

TAZ

Administrator
Staff member
Sounds like a cool project. I have a customers old Coca-Cola machine in my shop that I'll be redoing soon! It's already stripped with a coat of primer, but has to be bodyworked and reprimed.

As far as clearcoating with spray can, it definitely will take more than two coats to make sure you can't feel any edges in the logo.
Like TomSteve said, on normal painting, you could clearcoat, sand with 600 (although I like using DA 600 versus wetsand), then reclear, THEN wetsand and buff.

You'll probably find that the spray can paint will stay softer longer, so be careful when going onto the next step.

oOu're right about the cost of materials. You could easily have $400-$800 in materials depending on colors. Black is fairly inexpensive, but clearcoating, resanding, and reclearing again gets quite costly.
 

Hanman

New member
so i went ahead and broke one of my own rules, which is that I used cheap paints and hoped for professional results. Unfortuantely when I attempted to apply my stencil it pulled the clearcoat off also, basically screwing everything up. So now I'm on to plan b and have some more questions. lol I"m planning to just sand down my clear coat smooth now and re-apply several coats of my cheap ass spray can clear coat. After, (and IF!) I Get an acceptable finish with my clear coat I'd like to just apply a decal of the logo I'm looking for. I saw on T.V. a guy was restoring a coca cola machine and instead of stenciling the logo or hand painting, he just used what he called a vinyl screen print. Does this make sense to anybody? and does anybody know where I can find a product like this. I literally live in the middle of nowhere so the internet is my only viable option for searching for specialty products like this. Thanks guys.

Cory
 
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