Here's a few tips on dealing with tape edges to
make your paint jobs look thier best.
Always tape on a cleaned, smooth, as well as
scuffed or sanded surface. My favorite is 500 or 600 grit. This
allows your tape to adhere properly. Don't pull the tape too much as
you go along. Paper tape will break and vinyl tape will stretch
leaving you with an uneven line. Stretched tape also has a better
chance for allowing the paint to bleed under it. Before you
spray always go over your tape line, push it down lightly to prevent
bleeds and check for missed areas while masking.
Once down and ready to shoot, go over them first with an airbrush (or touch-up gun cranked
way down to
a small round pattern) and shoot AWAY from the step in the tape and
not into it. Think of walking down steps and not up them. Do a couple coats this way. Then shoot the rest of the
color as usual with the gun set to wide
fan spray just being very light around the tape edges. The thicker
the paint, the rougher your tape edge will be. Don't leave the tape
on longer than it has to be or it can mar the surface or worse
adhere to uncured paint. As soon as
your newly sprayed paint is dry enough, pull the tape off. Pulling
the tape over itself in a "U" Shape and slightly angled towards the
inside of the fresh paint shears the edge cleanly instead of making
it jagged. Add one coat of inter-coat clear
over it ALL and another focusing on just the tape edge. Let it dry
and VERY lightly sand the tape edge with 1000 grit or so just trying
to knock it down a very tiny bit but not to the point of sanding
through. This also gives you a window incase you need to stop for a
while. If so, lightly scuff the surface before you clear again, if
not proceed as usual.
Next bury everything with 2-3 coats of catalyzed high-build clear and add
one or two extra coats on the low side of the tape line as needed. Add this at the start of clearing, fanning out each coat a little
more to blend the coats. They've got to be sanded anyway. See how it turns out.
I've had them turn out good enough that you cant feel the tape edge
at all at this point. If you do have a slight one it will be buried deep enough
you can wetsand with 1000 grit to get rid of it, then just the
normal 1500, 2000, Trizact then buff and you're done! That trick
could save you a gallon of clear on a kustom job on a car.... not to
mention a whole lotta extra work.
The benefit of all this is you get very nice, crisp tape edges that don't
require much clear to smooth out or any striping to dress them up.
Starting out, many shoot a tape edge like it's not even there then
wonder why, once they find the buried tape and pull it off they wind up
with a nasty jagged, rough tape ledge!
Practice makes perfect and with a little practice
you can master the dreaded tape edge too! It's one of the things all
painters need to do so you might as well do it the best you can.
Hope this helps...
