The time is approaching for painting my formula.

So far I have had the car down for 2 years and have been acquiring the necessary tools, and working when time permits on the body. Some of the main things I have fixed were a couple of 1" hair line cracks in the corners where the roof meets the top of the door pillar. Those have been MIG welded and I am reinforcing the body with a set of spohn sub-frame connectors so it doesn't crack again in the future.
I have removed the hood, front bumper cover, fenders, rear bumper cover, wrap around rear spoiler and hatch. The car is straight with no rust, but the paint is peeling badly and I am sanding everything down to bare metal. I have also had to fix a few cracks and a hole in the spoiler, and fabricate new threaded inserts where it bolts to the hatch.
I am planning on sanding the car and the panels down to bare metal, and priming with Eastwood's direct to metal epoxy primer. This would be followed by a two tone BC/CC composed of arctic white on top and machine gray on the bottom. The line between the two tones would be near the bottom of the car, at the "lip" that runs below the "formula" decal on the door.
I am a novice at this and would like to ask for advice on ways of obtaining a smooth transition line between the two colors?
I was planning on masking off the bottom portion and spraying on the white. After the paint sets I am planning on masking off the portion above the line and spraying the machine gray. Is there a trick in masking the two areas that would smoothen that transition? Would allowing the masking tape to protrude past the transition line, and folding that portion over accomplish that? I don't want to put a pin stripe where the two colors meet.

I have made myself a small paint booth in my basement and plan to start priming and painting the panels some time next month. The rest of the car is going to have to wait until spring, when it's warmer.

All constructive advice and suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

Sorry, can't be of help. Sounds like it is going to look awesome though!

 

The hairlines are stress cracks. I fixed mine like yours and did not add subframes. Painted the whole thing. I moved the car on a flat bed (without engine running) from one shop to another and they came back. My advice is to get the subframes on before paint, possible running two sets, inner and outer.

The secret to hiding the transition line is to bury it in clear. I literally sprayed this two tone color combo yesterday with Dodge colors. I will snap some pics on monday as I unmask it.

The way you want to do it will work, its just going to be time consuming taping it off. An easier, faster, way to spray, is to spray the white (base only no clear) over the whole thing. Then tape off your lines using fine line tape and paper mask where you dont want gray, spray gray only. Unmask and clear the whole thing at once. The more clear the more hidden the line will be. The downside to my method is that your grey will appear slightly lighter as it was sprayed over white as oppose to a gray, or black sealer. Also you will have more material cost as you are spraying more. The benifit is time.

 

I would would spray the top color last. You'll get better adhesion from the clear on the coat that is sprayed last. Spray the grey, tape it and spray the white, followed quickly by the clear. Check with your local paint shop for a tape that can be used for the line. You can usually tape it within a few hours of spraying. You'll get a good line, it's not that hard.

 

when i painted my motorbike two tone, i painted the lighter color first(silver) and than masked it off and painted the red. After the red sat to the specs that the sheet said i than put 2 coats of clear coat on it. My clear coat said i could sand it in 6 hours so thats when i wet sanded it down with 800 than put 2 more coats of clear on it. i still plan on wet sanding and buffing one more time, but right now it is smooth where the 2 colors join

 

I agree with you about the subframe connectors going on before the paint. That's exactly what I am going to do. For now I will be working on the panels in my basement. In the spring, when it warms up I will weld the suframe connectors and paint the rest of the car. Then re-assemble.
I want to go with both, perimeter type and the inner type subframe connectors, such as the Alston. Unfortunately my budget for now allows me to buy only one set. This is because I also have to buy a new transmission cross-member mounted torque arm from Spohn. I busted the stock troque arm out of the tail shaft housing on the T5. Luckily, I only ended up stripping the threads where the hinged part of the torque arm bracket bolts to the tail shaft housing.

I was concerned about spraying the gray on top of the white for the very same reason, the gray being lighter. I plan on getting a gallon of the white and a quart of the gray. As I will be painting this piece by piece, I am willing to take my time with it, but am willing to take an approach that would save me from having to buy more paint.

I didn't know that burying the line between the two colors in clear would minimize it. For some reason I thought that the glossiness of the clear would exaggerate the line between the two colors. Thanks for the advice.

 

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Yüz Germe