New Project - Suggestions Please

[leejc73]

The actual water cutting cost me £20 the guys were only presented with a couple of JPG's and did all the AutoCAD work themselves, I was expecting a much bigger bill so they might have done me a favour.

There is a tolerance of I think he said 3mm but you wouldn't have known from the finished product as some of the lines have seriously sharp angles on them, apparently they get through a sapphire focuser every couple of weeks and the machine eats nozzles at a rate of 1 a week.

They asked for pictures once the projects finished and handed over, so when I send them over I will ask how they feel about doing similar kind of work.

 

[Firat]

To paint the rads did you mask of the parts you dint paint and just prayed it? if not how and can you link me to a place where i can find that exact colour please, im in love with it!!!!

Thanks m8

 

[wassupdoc]

The tubing and coolant looks amazing! loving the window as well

 

[leejc73]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the comments, I masked with cardboard and tape round the edges (cardboard needs to be fairly flexible to slide under the mounting lugs, and need a thin blunt edge to slip the masking tape under the surround) and then used an old pair of barbs to protect the threads.

The paint colour is Vauxhall/GM Arden Blue (pearl) in the uk you can get it from halfords as a standard colour, took me a while looking through to choose it. I'm in the process of blocking up a replacement motherboard, and thinking about what to do with the window, it's a choice between clear polycarb or mirror film in contrasting colours??? Probably blue/gold I'm going to run it through an art package to see what it looks like.

I can't recreate a mirror effect easily, don't have the talent with paint packages. That's what i'm considering at the minute, and hopefully If i can flood the interior with enough light the mirror effect should reverse allowing you to see the internals. I've done it on my HAF-X with red film and it works, but give's a red tint to your view. Not such a problem here as the coolant should show through and the components, the gold sits over the AX750 (although looking at it now, it's a bit high) so fingers crossed it should look alright.

Cheers

Lee

 

[Firat]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the comments, I masked with cardboard and tape round the edges (cardboard needs to be fairly flexible to slide under the mounting lugs, and need a thin blunt edge to slip the masking tape under the

surround) and then used an old pair of barbs to protect the threads.

The paint colour is Vauxhall/GM Arden Blue (pearl) in the uk you can get it from halfords as a standard colour, took me a while looking through to choose it. I'm in the process of blocking up a replacement motherboard, and thinking about what to do with the window, it's a choice between clear polycarb or mirror film in contrasting colours??? Probably blue/gold I'm going to run it through an art package to see what it looks like.

I can't recreate a mirror effect easily, don't have the talent with paint packages. That's what i'm considering at the minute, and hopefully If i can flood the interior with enough light the mirror effect should reverse allowing you to see the internals. I've done it on my HAF-X with red film and it works, but give's a red tint to your view. Not such a problem here as the coolant should show through and the components, the gold sits over the AX750 (although looking at it now, it's a bit high) so fingers crossed it should look alright.

Cheers

Lee

Thanks a lot, did you also purchase the grey primer it suggest to use on halfords website? How many coats did you put on it? Did you sand it between coats?

Sorry about all the question I'm a noob in painting!!!

Thanks

 

[leejc73]

Hi Firat,

Sorry I didn't reply to this earlier only just noticed it's here.

I didn't prime because the Rad was already sprayed black and the coating was good so decided to start from there.

I took a scouring pad/scotch pad and ran it over the radiator body, didn't go mad just enough to key the surface to provide a better grab for the top coat, quick blast with some compressed air to clear the majority of dust and a wipe over with some alcohol wipes i've got that leave no residue.

Then sprayed it, took about 10 minutes to touch dry and left it another hour to harden then flatted it back a little and I mean only a little as the finish was quite good (used 1200 grit wet and dry) cleaned and sprayed again.

I think I was quite lucky as it was one of the warm days we had a couple of weeks ago so the shed was a good temp for paint drying/baking (whatever the term is)

Most important tips I would have for you and the mistake I made early on working with spray paint are not working too close to the piece and when you spray it's on before piece off after piece although I think these are the well documented beginner mistakes, I still made them but that was with aero models a long time ago and an air brush. It's not something to be afraid of I wouldn't say but pick a warm day (if we get anymore) and invest in the correct class mask.

 

[Firat]

Hi Firat,

Sorry I didn't reply to this earlier only just noticed it's here.

I didn't prime because the Rad was already sprayed black and the coating was good so decided to start from there.

I took a scouring pad/scotch pad and ran it over the radiator body, didn't go mad just enough to key the surface to provide a better grab for the top coat, quick blast with some compressed air to clear the majority of dust and a wipe over with some alcohol wipes i've got that leave no residue.

Then sprayed it, took about 10 minutes to touch dry and left it another hour to harden then flatted it back a little and I mean only a little as the finish was quite good (used 1200 grit wet and dry) cleaned and sprayed again.

I think I was quite lucky as it was one of the warm days we had a couple of weeks ago so the shed was a good temp for paint drying/baking (whatever the term is)

Most important tips I would have for you and the mistake I made early on working with spray paint are not working too close to the piece and when you spray it's on before piece off after piece although I think these are the well documented beginner mistakes, I still made them but that was with aero models a long time ago and an air brush. It's not something to be afraid of I wouldn't say but pick a warm day (if we get anymore) and invest in the correct class mask.

Thanks a million!!!!