Car Detailing - Masking. Help?

[loken]

Has anyone done any car detailing before?

I recently did a simple black and white design on my dads trike, and used a mask. However the problem was, the material I used as the mask left a sticky residue. It was suppose to come off with soap and water, but we had to use an alcohol based medium instead that took away some of the paint.

Does anyone have any recommendations for masking materials?

[jeroentje]

I don't really understand.
Are you airbrushing paint on it, using masking film? Or are you attatching plotted/cut-out sticker material?

[loken]

Hey Jeroentje,

Well I can try to explain the process I used before. I made a simple black and white design. No shades. Just pure black and white. I kept the basic shapes quite simple. I then transferred it over to a sticky material. One side is paper, the other side is clear plastic. I cut out the design from the material. I peel off the plastic part of the material, which has a sticky side. The plastic was then put onto the vehicle and I made sure there were no loose edges around the design. Then, I just simply used a brush and black paint to fill in the areas I cut out. I could of used an airbrush I suppose, but there was little point since it was just black and white. After it dries, I just peel the plastic off the vehicle and the design is left intact with good sharp edges.

What I'm looking for is a better material for doing this. The plastic stuff I used left a sticky residue when I removed it.

[jeroentje]

Ah okay, I understand.

I did a lot of airbrushing, years ago. But on cardboard. I used a special masking tape called Frisk Film. It was specially developed for the purpose you discribe. Because it was quite expensive and I was just a poor student, I found a cheaper alternative that worked also. I used scotch magic tape (the non-permanent version in the blue box that sticks less) for the edges and just normal paper for the rest.

Btw, I advise you to use a spray can. I think it will look better because paint has thickness.

Anyway, hope this helps.
jeroentje

[BomberMan]

for small stuff you should be fine with regular masking tape, but for larger graphics use transfer tape, which should come in large pieces or in a roll... Frisket film is good for regular acrylic paints, but i'm not sure if u gonna be using them or urathanes, urathanes are the ones you should probably use for a car design (much more durable for outdoor type of clymate than acrylics, but urathanes are really toxic and a pain in the butt for novice to use) and frisket film will melt under that kind of paint. so again use either transfer tape, or frisket as Jeroentje already advised if u going to use simple acrylic paint.

[mcotie]

I used to paint Scoots (helmets, tanks, fenders, leather jackets, you name it I painted it.) back in the day. I used a pasche VL and most often the Createx paints for just about all of my artwork. Unless I needed some special stuff I used custom eurethane paints, basecoats and such. When I masked stuff off on custom painted parts, I would first lay down the base coat the way I wanted it. Then a few thin coats of clear. this would protect my basecoat. I would let it cure and bump the gloss off of it with some emery cloth or wet sander. I'm talking very fine grit, 600 ( if that serves me right, it's been a while). Using a degreaser thats safe for urethane I prep the surface for the masking. I used High Quality 3M masking tape( no cheap brand) for the bulk areas, and pinstripe tape for getting in close. I would lay the masking tape over the instripe and using an exacto , cut the masking ON the stripe, this keeps you from cutting into the paint underneath. I hope this helps. Thjis is old school though, I'm sure there are better ways these days, but I used to get super results with this method. The key is don't settle for cheap ass materials. You get what you pay for. And where some laytex gloves to keep your finger grease off of the surface.

You might want to buy some scrap metal (non rusty) and do some practice runs. I did this for a long time before practicing on some bro's scoot (not a good idea).

Good Luck
Mitch

[loken]

Hey, thanks guys!

I just discovered Frisket Film and thats exactly what I need. So going to pick that up tomorrow I think.

I'll have to post pictures once everything is done and the bike is assembled. The whole thing was built from scratch by my dad. Has a VW engine on it. Might be an inspiration to some concept artists as its pretty far out looking. :)

[jeroentje]

Post a pic when it's done, sounds pretty cool :)