The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Soft edge masking

When AD trucks came from the factory the line where the interior and exterior color broke was not a hard, crisp tape line but rather a soft transition as one would expect from using a reusable loose fitting "plug" to fill the door opening when spraying the exterior color.

I have no intention of making such a plug just to achieve such an insignificant result but if anyone knows of a masking method that would yield the same appearance I'd appreciate hearing about it.

Woody,
A nice video here That explains and works well.
Dan

Woody,

We taped and masked with brown paper the interior from the exterior (after first painting the interior) by taping at the edge of every exterior opening at the edges where the exterior skins ended. All exterior edges are over the interior pieces of sheet metal, except at the window openings - just mask at the inside "pinch joint". I forget how we exited the cab after taping the last opening (probably out the bottom?).

We'll be doing this again on at least one cab by the end of the summer (I hope).

I have found the easiest way to mask a soft edge is simply apply the tape centered over the desired line. Then simple roll back the tape along the length. This method deflects the air/paint and prevents the hard edge from forming

I use the roll back method also