The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Layering paint on steering wheel.

I'm getting close to being ready to paint a late 50's steering wheel that I put a 15 1/2" ring on. I made the "ring" entirely out of P7 epoxy. I am putting a 1"ish red stripe at the top of the wheel. The rest of the wheel will be black. My goal is to have the red stripe and the black the same level. The paint I'm using is The Restoration Shop Firethorn Red Pearl and Jet Black base and whatever clear and 2K primer they recommended. I'm no painter. I have a Fuji Q5 platinum turbine sprayer that I love. So that's what I have to work with. How many coats of primer? I need to do some minor blocking with it. Do I sand it between coats? Before I talked to the tech my plan was to tape off the wheel and spray 3(?) coats of red and remove the tape. Then wait as long as I could and carefully tape off the red. Then spray 3 coats of black. Then take off the tape from the red and spray 3 coats of clear. Unfortunately it turns out you can't do that. The tech told me that I couldn't tape the red for 24 hours and then it would need scuffed before it could be painted. You can't scuff that red pearl so I have to put a coat of clear on it and scuff the clear. Now I'm 4 layers deep. So I do all that and tape off the red. Do I spray 3 coats of black and 1 coat of clear, remove the tape and 2 more coats of clear? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

What about doing the black first waiting for it to dry. Scuff it up, tape it off for the red pearl, remove the tape, then clear the whole wheel.

I feel pretty dumb right now. That makes a lot more sense. Thanks.

I thingk the height difference between layers is made up with clear. Lots and lots of clear. Alot of wet sanding, polishing to end up with a 2-3 layers of clear at the thinnest point.
All base colors first, then clear on all. Make sure you get a clear that can do more than 2-3 coats. Some sold is strictly 2 coats. More than that, and it starts to ghost. I had a bit left in the gun and wanted a little more thickness in a spot. Had to wait a week, re-scuff, re-color then clear.

Thanks for the tip. I'll call Global. I spend most of my time sanding and polishing. Most people that race don't care about pretty but I like to call it micro aerodynamics. I believe the clear can be stacked but I'll call. It's the same paint that is going on my truck. Red body, black fenders. I have used a cup gun for over 40 years but on furniture, cabinetry and staircases I built. My only experience with Auto painting so far is my engine and transmission. I know I put at least 4 coats of clear on the transmission but it has been in the shop. On small parts I seem to throw more away than I use. I got the Fuji unit because I live in northern Indiana where the humidity is high. My shop is only 32' X 35' and my dehumidifier pulls out 9 gallons a day. The cost of getting clean dry air that I only need for painting is not in the budget. I liked the idea of the portability of the unit but the lack of overspray blew me away. For a guy without a booth in a world where $500 a gallon is entry level I love it.

9 a day???
& I thought I had issues with worrying about temp. Is it gonna stay within the 20 deg temp window while I'm painting.
I run thru a cooler after compression to develop condensation, then an auto drain water separator, a water trap and finally one of those filters at the gun.

I just plug mine in, clean dry air. I don't have A/C in the shop. I have become semi-nocturnal. I have to keep the shop dehumidified. Here things will rust just sitting in a closed shop. I put a coffee filter on the dehumidifier drain hose and run it into a plastic barrel. When the barrel is full it overflows into the plumbing drain. This gives me a nice supply of "distilled" water.

I could use some help here. I'm normally a big fan of the tech people where I buy my American products. So the plan was to spray the black and a coat of clear. I can't scuff the black either. Wait 24 hours scuff the clear, tape off and paint the red. Remove the tape and clear it all. I could probably pull that off. So I called Global back with my plan. I talked to the same tech guy. I wanted to know how deep I could stack the clear and time intervals. He said base 5-10 minutes flash and no more than 30 minutes between coats or to apply the clear or it would need to be scuffed.I think they call that a window time of 30 minutes. It would have to be unmasked right after flash. I don't know how that goes. Of course now it's Youtube time. When I watch people painting stripes on their cars and the amazing lowrider paint jobs they are not scuffing between coats and certanly not in a 30 minute window time. Then I had this crazy idea to look at the TDS, duh. It says 5-10 minutes flash, 2 to 4 hours to tape and if MORE than 24 hours it needs to be scuffed. It also says to wait at least 30 minutes before clear coating. So if I go with the data sheet, paint the first color, wait 2-4 hours, tape it off and spray the second color. Wait an hour or 2 take off the tape and clear it. I'm thinking I trust the TDS more than the guy this time. This is nothing against the tech guy. He helped me out a lot. They sent me a quart of acrylic enamel Jet Black instead of urethane. A new quart is on it's way and I get to keep the mistake. It's 90 bucks. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

I think you got this figured out.
Thats all I've seen between colors is... no scuffing, just dry enough to tape and mask. And when that's dry, pull the tape off and clear.
Maybe 3M 233+ green tape. Supposedly it lifts cleaner without leaving any residue, but it might be a sales gimmick, just more expensive than 3M yellow 388N.
It's such a small piece that you are gonna spend more time cleaning your gun than spraying.