Digital Camo paint job, could use some tips

[shaggyslaser]

Okay, so my 91 Laser needs a paint job, im not too particularly crazy of the primer job the car came to me in, and the close personal friend I bought it from gave me the idea of doing a digital camo paint job. I really, really like this idea, and want to do a semi gloss of it, while keeping it white, grey, dark grey, and black. Either that, or urban camo. I don't want to keep the squarishness of the masking small, but actually rather large. My masking idea so far is to use post-it notes. Anybody else have any suggestions? I know how far good paint prep goes, and I'm not interested, at least not yet, in doing a full single color paintjob. Also please keep your negative comments to yourself, this is not my street car nor my daily driver.

 

[360glitch]

Hmm. I'm thinking a post it note would not work out because only the top part is sticky so the rest of the post it note will be at minimum slightly above the surface of the car allowing paint to go in under/behind it.

 

[92awddsm]

Go to a vinyl shop and have them cut you out a large amount of 2"x2" squares to use for masking. Post it notes wont work and painters tape will make for a long, tedious job.

 

[shaggyslaser]

The vinyl is a great idea, and I am surprised I didn't think of that, considering I used to work at one. To make it easier, buy direct from a vinyl vender, a full roll, or even 2" wide roll and use a paper cutter for measuring. I knew the inherent problem with the sticky notes, but was kind of hoping someone had a solution. Great ideas so far. Thanks! Lets keep 'em coming.

 

[shaggyslaser]

Cheese squares! They come precut to the right size and are sticky, and come stacked! Haha, to imagine a paintjob made with cheese.

 

[turbo1307]

The vinyl is a great idea, and I am surprised I didn't think of that, considering I used to work at one. To make it easier, buy direct from a vinyl vender, a full roll, or even 2" wide roll and use a paper cutter for measuring. I knew the inherent problem with the sticky notes, but was kind of hoping someone had a solution. Great ideas so far. Thanks! Lets keep 'em coming.

Check your pms.

 

[myeagleneedmods]

Cheese squares! They come precut to the right size and are sticky, and come stacked! Haha, to imagine a paintjob made with cheese.

Vinyl squares would be nice, but cheese squares make for a great story of how you painted the car

 

[360glitch]

Vinyl squares would be nice, but cheese squares make for a great story of how you painted the car

I suggest using swiss for an even more interesting design.

 

[king_of_HTX]

Just go get a vinyl wrap. It will cost about as much as a paintjob.

 

[badabing33a]

do it like dale jrs camo national guard car. idk how you could do it since its basicaly one big decal but its possible. but whatever you do, its gotta be perfect and time consuming for it to look good. you could go to any decal shop and they could get all the measurments and print it out and they will apply it. its not cheap but might be cheaper than paint. our dirt imca modifieds and late models have vinyl wrap and its only like $500. but it helps to know the guy .

 

[shaggyslaser]

More or less, that's the exact idea I am going for, but slightly larger blocking. Getting a vinyl wrap is a lot more expensive than say, 20 cans of rattle can paint.

 

[TurboATM]

if it were me, andi had to wing it...i would take something and draw out the shapes you wanted on the car, doing the outline of all of the camo spots/squares.

when u are done, take tape or whatever and mask off 3/4 of the spots, and paint (if you have 4 colors...)

then cover the painted ones, and cut out another 1/4...paint and repeat.


...now that i think of it, this is prob. the longest to do, take alot of tape, but most professional, i guess.

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or cut out shapes of what you want in say 10 peices of cardboard and just go crazy with your colors, overlapping each one. this would seem to be much more easy

 

[king_of_HTX]

More or less, that's the exact idea I am going for, but slightly larger blocking. Getting a vinyl wrap is a lot more expensive than say, 20 cans of rattle can paint.

If it were me I would spend the money and have it done right the first time instead of trying to rattle can it.

 

[Foz]

You probably know if you worked at a vynl shop, but they normally have "masking" or stencil vynl which is a cheaper sticker, because it's basically paper and not meant to have long term holding power. Last time I had some custom work done the sticker shop made the stencils for me, so that the body shop could just lay them down and spray.

Probably the easiest and best way to go, have them print out a design a few designs but not seperate them, and you can seperate as you go covering the base layer, or working backwards...

 

[pwnzer]

if you were to paint a base layer and paint the squares over that leaving some squares the base layer color wouldnt that create a slight ridge at the end of the squares??? im thinking your going to have to paint each square individually using the vinyl idea stated by many people above...

 

[InfiniteGSX]

You know a good way to mask, Trees, plants! I have seen some shows where they will camo crap by overlaying branches with leaves, plants and other things to get a killer camo effect.

 

[pwnzer]

that certainly works... watch the movie shooter cause its good and they do that... i tried it myself pretty effective never on a car though...