Duplicolor.... it rocks!

-CB-

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Hey folks... been a while... been VERY busy... but just tried something and had to pass it along (but maybe its already a know thing).

I had to paint a Harley fender, and went down to the autoparts and got some Duplicolor red metallic, some primer (grey) and some clear coat.

Brothers and sisters - this stuff is acrylic lacquer.  A true lacquer, it remelts into itself... but... the Duplicolor stuff is amazingly easy to work with.  The color builds deep in richness and coverage, but has a thin finish.  The clear coat however, is a thick build and self leveling product that shines like nobody's business.

Dries fast like nitro lacquer, but give superior performance in toughness.  It is a lacquer, so can reflow into itself for repairs.  It buffs out totally easy.  You actually level the clear with 1500 (yes 1500) grit, and then recoat one last coat.  Recommended three coats of color, and four wet of clear, then wet sand with soapy water and 1500 grit very lightly to remove orange peel.  Finally recoat wet with clear and rub if needed.  They say let two days before sanding - not a bad wait actually.  I dont know how clear will do over stains and dyes.  Yer on yer own there.  Solid colors... primer goes on easy, sands 1500 too.  You can damn near mirror finish the primer and it fils really well.

From what I can see... its a nice set of products to work with, and I still have a body here to finish... so I'm thinking of doing it up in
Duplicolor, just to see how things do.
 
=CB= said:
Hey folks... been a while... been VERY busy... but just tried something and had to pass it along (but maybe its already a know thing).

I had to paint a Harley fender, and went down to the autoparts and got some Duplicolor red metallic, some primer (grey) and some clear coat.

Brothers and sisters - this stuff is acrylic lacquer.  A true lacquer, it remelts into itself... but... the Duplicolor stuff is amazingly easy to work with.  The color builds deep in richness and coverage, but has a thin finish.  The clear coat however, is a thick build and self leveling product that shines like nobody's business.

Dries fast like nitro lacquer, but give superior performance in toughness.  It is a lacquer, so can reflow into itself for repairs.  It buffs out totally easy.  You actually level the clear with 1500 (yes 1500) grit, and then recoat one last coat.  Recommended three coats of color, and four wet of clear, then wet sand with soapy water and 1500 grit very lightly to remove orange peel.  Finally recoat wet with clear and rub if needed.  They say let two days before sanding - not a bad wait actually.   I dont know how clear will do over stains and dyes.  Yer on yer own there.  Solid colors... primer goes on easy, sands 1500 too.   You can damn near mirror finish the primer and it fils really well.

From what I can see... its a nice set of products to work with, and I still have a body here to finish... so I'm thinking of doing it up in
Duplicolor, just to see how things do.

exactly which product do i look for?
 
Welcome back!  Definitely good stuff to know.  I may have to give it a shot.  :icon_thumright:
 
I painted my 3 EVH guitars with DupliColor, it is awesome paint in a can. very easy to apply and sands out easy.
 
Excellent information, again.  Hey CB, I have been dying to ask about the Swamp Ash Tele that you used super glue to grain fill on.  How'd that monster turn out?  Nice to see you around.
Patrick

 
JIm Sliff is a veteran California/Fender repair guy I know from the SGF, here's what he has to say:

I've been in the paint business for 35 years, most on the technical end. I won't get into a debate with anyone on this, or make it complicated - but probably half of what most non-coatings professionals think is nitro is acrylic lacquer. You literally cannot tell one from the other without chemical testing of the finish. Either one will melt into itself upon reapplication; they smell the same; many of the early custom colors Fender, Gibson and others used were auto finishes...first enamel types and then primarily acrylic lacquers.

Did I miss something or did someone say something about "water base"?? Acrylic lacquers are not water base - they use the same solvent as nitro.

They both blush if moisture gets in the film. They both react the same to specific solvents.

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=160762&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=25 (p.2, if it comes up that way)

I'm still waiting for somebody to "objectively" compare the tone from a really, really thick nitro finish and a really, really thin poly finish and "prove" something with it.... :laughing8:

 
Been playing with paint.... oh boy.

The Duplicolor stuff is really good.  But I found an even better clearcoat.  If you like clear lacquer, then this stuff is gonna rock yer socks.  Its called Spray-Max 2k Clearcoat - and you can get it in "Glamor" gloss, or "Spot Gloss".  The Glamor is the way to go if you want a slightly harder surface hardness, and slightly better flow out, but it takes 12 hours to dry.  The Spot touch is an hour and a half to dry and doesn't flow out quite as well, and because of the chemical reaction, is not quire as hard - but still like nails compared to Nitro.

All of this is... ahem... poly-razz-ma-tazz paint, not laquer, but, it goes over lacquer just fine.

The down side is - the 2k has a can life of 24hours once activated.  Its a can inside a can, and you press a button to break on can into the other.  That activates the two part poly.  Then you shake it like 4 minutes or so... and spray.  You can lay down another coat in 10 minutes, sanding and leveling and polishing the final coat after the full dry time (1-1/2 hours... not bad).  The other down side is the stuff is more toxic than nitro.  VERY toxic, and you MUST spray in a booth or in a WELL ventilated place (garage with door open might do).  You have to use full body protection (long sleeve t-shirt and latex gloves, face protection, and a forced air, or activated charcoal respirator.  Yah. ... I know... some stuff, eh?

But the results are car-paint hard, and buffs out as easy or easier then nitro.

So there ya go
 
The guy that runs the paint your own guitar website recommends Dupli-color. I've used it on my little plywood project I've got going at the mo'.
 
Patrick from Davis said:
Excellent information, again.  Hey CB, I have been dying to ask about the Swamp Ash Tele that you used super glue to grain fill on.  How'd that monster turn out?  Nice to see you around.
Patrick

Just getting back into the swing...  that body is the one I'm gonna do up in metal flake blue.  Should happen maybe this weekend, depending on arrival of Harley parts <grins>

Thanks for remembering it.
 
CB, what do you think of the Dupli-Color Chrome/Gold enamel? Is it usable for guitars or only for metals? Also, I was wondering if you couldn't just spray a tremolo with it and make it gold.
 
I would think it would flake off of the metal parts. The chrome and gold you see on guitar hardware is electroplating, I think, which makes the plating bond to the part on a molecular level.

Brian
 
Brian, you're right. What about using it on a guitar body? Maybe if the body is sanded smooth up to 2000 grit, then sprayed, then wet sanded up to 2000 to get rid of the orange peel might deliver an even chrome/gold finish?

bpmorton777 said:
I would think it would flake off of the metal parts. The chrome and gold you see on guitar hardware is electroplating, I think, which makes the plating bond to the part on a molecular level.

Brian
 
Zaman said:
CB, what do you think of the Dupli-Color Chrome/Gold enamel? Is it usable for guitars or only for metals? Also, I was wondering if you couldn't just spray a tremolo with it and make it gold.

They have whats called MetalCast which is chrome-like in shineyness.  To get it to stick to metal parts, you need to scuff sand with 600 paper all over the part, then paint.  For plastic, they also say to use the adhesion agent they make just for that sort of thing.

FWIW, I picked up the MetalSpec blue paint today, and did a quick test spray.  I dunno but it could pass for Lake Placid blue unless you look "real close".  The metal structure is more "Cal-Custom" than LP blue was.  That is, the speckles are just a bit coarser than LP blue, but not by much.  Hopefully will prime and paint this weekend.
 
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