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Hi my magna tank is purple now, but want to change it to black. How should I go about this procedure? Sand old paint off or paint over it? Im completely new at this...
Sand the clear off the stickers so you can peel them, then sand the whole thing smooth. The stock paint is really a good base to paint over, it's just getting the ridges from the stickers smoothed out.Hi my magna tank is purple now, but want to change it to black. How should I go about this procedure? Sand old paint off or paint over it? Im completely new at this...![]()
Or sit it in a pan or bowl of hot tap water. I run it as hot as it can run, probably about 130-150 degrees or so, whatever the water heater was set at. Just wipe all water off the can so it doesn't drip on the fresh paint.cool tip about heating the paint with warm tap water. you just run the can under the tap?
The key is what my friend the pro, who said it was all in prep and technique. It is all pretty much identical to using the good equipment, but the spray band is much smaller than the full size guns. You've got to do proper prep for the primer and the paint, do the spray with care and proper technique, then do the proper finish work on the dry paint. I will say I didn't color sand or rub out paint for about a week after a paint job just because I wanted to make sure it was reasonably cured - but I don't know for sure that it has to wait that long. I just figure you can't wait too long, but you can do it too soon.I did not realize that it could come out looking so good via rattle can.
+1 on the two part clear coat. There is no point in taking your time to do a good job painting your tank only to have a few errant drops of gasoline eat through it. I wish I knew about this several years ago when I rattle canned my old Intruder tank. I spent a lot of time making the paint on my tank look great. In fact it looked at least as good as the factory paint. But, when fueling, I discovered that even a single drop of gas would damage the finish.When it comes to bare color coat or clear coats I will tell you gas will eat most spray can paint these days. There is a two part clear coat in a spray that is on par with current pro finishes for gas resistance. Consider doing that clear coat. It's not cheap, but if you have as good a job as the one I'm showing below, it would be well worth it. It is called SprayMax 2K urethane and can be gotten from R&E Paint supply.
Hey Markk53, I am going to use a desert Tan for my paint and do not want it to shine. I am looking for the flat look. However I do not want gas to rip it off. What can I use to protect it without giving it a shine?Sand the paint on there, cut through deep enough to get any stickers off, then smooth it out completely to the touch - touch tells the truth. I just used cheap primer.
Wet sand the primer between coats if you let it dry out completely. If you're applying a coat within 10 minutes of the previous coat, sanding isn't needed.
Sand lightly to scuff the primer surface everywhere before color coating. Again, scuff the color coat if you let it dry completely. If you spray another coat within 10 minutes no sanding. If you don't, let the paint dry completely then shoot another coat either about six hours later (my opinion, making sure the paint is dry and wet sanding won't screw it up) or I let it go overnight.
Final coat is wet sanded - called a color sand - before being rubbed out. It's done to smooth out any orange peel (pebble grain appearance). Then the paint is rubbed out with regular rubbing compound to get that good shine. Then the final finish job will be polishing compound to look like glass.
If you spray a clear, and I recommend that two part clear, the color coat should be lightly scuffed again to help the clear adhere. That's where the goofball screwed mine up. The smooth paint - regardless of whether it's primer, color, or clear - will not allow the next coat to adhere properly. The 600 grit is fine enough that the rubbing compound will smooth the scratches over... but make sure to use lots of water whenever sanding.
Here's the progression:
initial sand to get the clear cut over stickers and initial smoothing - 320 grit.
smoothing process to cut down ridges from clear over stickers - 400 grit to start followed by 600 grit
all paint sanding - 600 grit
it is possible to save some rubbing time if you use 1000 or 1500 grit in the color sand after final paint application.