Painting Rod Blanks

[russ71]

G'day,
I'm new to the site and have been building rods as a hobby for about two years, what I'm after is some info on how to paint rod blanks, I have a few un finished rod blanks that I wish to paint, but how to get a good hard flexible finish?
I've tried Krylon spray paint even with a finish of Krylon clear, but the finish seems to come up, um, to put it bluntly, crappy.
Anyway some info would be great.

Russ

[grave41]

A mate of mine is going into painting blanks . He used to paint show cars and has painted a couple of blanks for me , awesome candy purple and mauve that changes to pink in the light. I never post pics as I'm hopeless with cameras and computers.
I"ll try with the iPad for you.
Some of the stuff we have planned will blow you away.
If the new stuff works as well as the stuff we are using I will give you the details . Example shadow patterns
Cheers Graham

[Stuart]

Most automotive 2 pac paints work fine, however its dangerous stuff to use. Automotive enamel work well, but it wont take the abuse a 2 pac will. Its also much cheaper and very versatile.

If you have a compressor, a good spray gun then you can use metallic base coats, clear top coats. You can use pearl bases, then spray a dust coat of another contrasting colour then clear.

There is no limit to the effects or colours these days. Years ago, we use to use a 3 stage system where, when you moved the rod around in the sun it would change colours in 4 stages, down side $600 per litre.

Polyurethane is a very durable system, cost around %20 to paint your blank and will last for all eternity.

Stu

[grave41]

Hope this works

[grave41]

BummerBummer

[russ71]

Thanks for the info gents,
I'm looking forward to your info Graham and pics when you work it out. I read about that you can add a tint to speed high gloss rod finish, so I attempted one today were I added some silver tint into the speed stuff, it didn't come up too bad, but it requires a light sand then another coat to top it off.
I think I will go down to the automotive paint dealer and pic his brain in some cool colours in the mean time, might even buy a small quality spray gun, I have a comp stu, I will give it a go, worst thing is, I'm partially colour blind.
I will keep you posted on how the speed stuff comes out.

cheers
Russ

[Stuart]

What ever you do, make sure you filter your paint before spraying, many dont do this and they wonder why there is so much crap in the paint.

[russ71]

No worries Stu,
I purchased some paint today with the added flexi stuff they put in, I only got a black and a white atm, need to get the feel of the new spray gun I also got, they got (persuaded) me to buy all the stuff I need to get a good end result. $300 at the end of I all, but I had the hand brake behind me watchn (the missus) then I had to spend some $$ on her, when will we learn???
Any way I mentioned how I what to create chameleon ( cant spell it)colours in the future, so I will keep going to these local blokes, ones likes fishing, so I might get a discount one day.
The method I used with the speed stuff worked out okay but the colour looks like a under coat silver, will try some other tint, maybe a blue?????

Cheers
Russ