Despite being less than pleased with the first phase of the painting of the Skyline, I plugged along, prepping for the second phase of painting. My plan was to have a three- or four-color scheme. After the first phase didn’t go so well, I decided to go with a three-color scheme.
The second color in the scheme was silver. I purchased a can of Pactra Racing Finish Indy Silver paint a couple of days ago. After removing the painter’s tape from the car body and cleaning up the crumbs, I began spraying the silver on. This paint adhered to the body much better than the green paint and a little better than the white paint.
This paint was fresh – purchased a few days ago – as opposed to the white paint which was a few months old, and the green paint which was more than a year old. Of the three colors I painted so far, the silver was by far the easiest to work with. It went on smoothly and evenly, and clumped only once – more as a result of my mistake, not the paint.
After applying the paint, I dried it with a hair dryer, which is really effective and a time saver. If you decide to use a hair dryer, set it on the medium heat setting. If you use the hottest setting, it will dry quicker, but you risk heating the paint so much that it starts to bubble, or you could heat the tape that’s on the body so much that it comes off too before the paint dries or melts the adhesion, which could leave behind a residue.
After drying the first coat, I applied a second coat and subsequently dried it. Once it was completely dry, I removed the painter’s tape that I was using as window mask. HPI bodies come with pre-cut window masks, which I used, but had remove after the green and white were applied. So, I used painters tape for the silver coatings. Another disadvantage to painters tape is that it has a tendency to stick to the body a little too much. It’s okay for unpainted parts of the body. But, if you have already painted a part of it, do NOT put painter’s tape on it. When you pull of the tape, no matter how carefully, you’ll pull some paint with it.
This happened in two areas on the roof of the Skyline. The tape pulled off the white backing coat. At first, it didn’t look so bad. There was still some green paint left. Up close, you could see it, but from far away, it looked fine.
Once all of the tape was removed, I painted the windows black. I prefer a tinted window look on my cars, but don’t like the tint paints out there because I don’t like seeing through the windows. This is personal preference, but I like the sleeker look of completely black windows.
When I applied the first coast of black, it instantaneously showed through the green paint where the white backing was removed because of the painter’s tape. At this point, I didn’t really care. Again, this body was just going to be used for practicing.
The black paint, which was also purchased a few days ago, went on smoothly and evenly. I believe that the age of the green paint was the reason it didn’t adhere or work that well.
After drying the black paint and applying a second coat, I cut the body. This is the first body I’ve cut using lexan scissors and I highly recommend them. They’re great. My only complaint is that sometimes the curved blades make it difficult to cut straight lines. They are big advantage when cutting curves though.
I recommend outlining the body cut lines with a black marker to make it easier to see what you’re cutting. If your car is black, though, you might as well skip doing that. If you do opt to trace out the cut lines, do it when the protective overspray film is still on the car. That way, even if you cut a little crooked, the line will not be there once you remove the film.
When cutting with lexan scissors, I would line up how I wanted to cut a particular part, and then would move the body into the position that felt the most comfortable. The more comfortable you are holding the body; the slower you’ll cut ensuring a smooth line.
Once everything was cut, I used a Dremel tool to sand down the edges and rough part. I would highly recommend getting a Dremel tool. Lexan cut on angles can be pretty sharp. So, sand it down. Trust me, you’ll thank me when you got to pick up your car and don’t cut your hand.
Next: Finishing Touches Pt. 3 Previous: Finishing Touches Pt. 1
