bigvegan
03-06-2007, 10:49 PM
Before we get started, this is an extremely over-long post about painting a coffee table. That's why it's here in the Off Topic post section. Click the back button if you feel your patience might be tested. (On the plus side, it may keep you amused for a few minutes, and there are pictures too.)
So I'm looking for a car as a hot rod project. Doing this on a budget, while living in an apartment with no garage, with minimal skill, is going to be somewhat tricky, so I figure it's easier and cheaper to plan things out first. Without a plan, for someone like me, once I did anything that rendered the car even temporarily undriveable, automotive entropy would kick in and it would never be driven again.
I've always liked the beater look as well. Lowered, dark grey or black primer, black or red rustoleum steelies, no hubcaps, you get the idea. Sort of a rat rod musclecar, only without all the nonsense about period correct parts. (Is there already a term for what I'm talking about? Pro-beater? Rat-tourer?)
So anyway, the other day I got the idea for what I thought might be the ultimate touch for a Pro-beater, namely a flame job done in Rust.
I thought it would be cool, and I decided I had to try it out. Since nothing would look more ridiculous than a Honda Civic with a flame job, I decided to paint my coffee table.
Step 1: Drawing the Flames:
How hard could it be to draw flames? Really?
Pretty hard actually. But with enough pieces of paper and enough time spent doodling, I eventually got a marginally passable flame pattern going. Then, out came the Crayolas for drawing a pattern on the table. Drawing freehand, time and patience kind of made up for my lack of drawing talent. Kind of.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2007/03/IMAG0004-1.jpg
Step 2. Masking the flames:
Now, drawing flames is tricky, but getting 3/4" household masking tape to do compound curves is even trickier. Clearly automotive masking tape would have been the call here.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2007/03/IMAG0007-1.jpg
3. Applying the paint:
The paint came from the Michael's craft store. It's the Sophisticated Finishes Rust Antiquing Set, and costs about $10-11 for the small set.
The first step is to apply the Iron Metallic Surfacer, which is basically iron filings in an acrylic paint base. You paint on a coat of that, and it will look like the picture below. But then you add the antiquing solution, which is a mix of ammonium chloride and copper sulfate, and let it sit for a day or two.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2007/03/IMAG0008-1.jpg
4. Remove the Masking Tape:
Once you've let it sit for a day or two, the oxidation process kicks in, and here's how it looks after a couple of days with the masking tape removed. It's cool to see how it looks when you pull the tape off, and in this case it didn't look too bad. (Well, considering the look I was going for. Many people would object to someone intentionally making a perfectly nice wooden (Ikea particle board) coffee table look rusty.)
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2007/03/IMAG0009-1.jpg
Step 5. Pinstriping:
According to the experts, the thing that really makes a nice flame job pop is the pinstriping. Fair enough. Michael's didn't stock pinstriping brushes, but they had some nice thin brushes, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Wrong. I put some paint down with the thin brush in an attempt to pinstripe, but it looks less than ideal. Just as with the masking tape, it clearly helps to have the right tools. Anyway, here's what the finished product looks like:
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2007/03/IMAG0010-1.jpg
Not perfect in every detail, but enough to prove that the concept could work, at least assuming that you had enough coats of primer to keep the fake rust away from the real sheet metal.
Not only that, my coffee table is now about ten times cooler than the stock Ikea model, which I guess is probably the whole point of any custom paint job.
That's it for this post. Back to the Camaros!
So I'm looking for a car as a hot rod project. Doing this on a budget, while living in an apartment with no garage, with minimal skill, is going to be somewhat tricky, so I figure it's easier and cheaper to plan things out first. Without a plan, for someone like me, once I did anything that rendered the car even temporarily undriveable, automotive entropy would kick in and it would never be driven again.
I've always liked the beater look as well. Lowered, dark grey or black primer, black or red rustoleum steelies, no hubcaps, you get the idea. Sort of a rat rod musclecar, only without all the nonsense about period correct parts. (Is there already a term for what I'm talking about? Pro-beater? Rat-tourer?)
So anyway, the other day I got the idea for what I thought might be the ultimate touch for a Pro-beater, namely a flame job done in Rust.
I thought it would be cool, and I decided I had to try it out. Since nothing would look more ridiculous than a Honda Civic with a flame job, I decided to paint my coffee table.
Step 1: Drawing the Flames:
How hard could it be to draw flames? Really?
Pretty hard actually. But with enough pieces of paper and enough time spent doodling, I eventually got a marginally passable flame pattern going. Then, out came the Crayolas for drawing a pattern on the table. Drawing freehand, time and patience kind of made up for my lack of drawing talent. Kind of.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2007/03/IMAG0004-1.jpg
Step 2. Masking the flames:
Now, drawing flames is tricky, but getting 3/4" household masking tape to do compound curves is even trickier. Clearly automotive masking tape would have been the call here.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2007/03/IMAG0007-1.jpg
3. Applying the paint:
The paint came from the Michael's craft store. It's the Sophisticated Finishes Rust Antiquing Set, and costs about $10-11 for the small set.
The first step is to apply the Iron Metallic Surfacer, which is basically iron filings in an acrylic paint base. You paint on a coat of that, and it will look like the picture below. But then you add the antiquing solution, which is a mix of ammonium chloride and copper sulfate, and let it sit for a day or two.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2007/03/IMAG0008-1.jpg
4. Remove the Masking Tape:
Once you've let it sit for a day or two, the oxidation process kicks in, and here's how it looks after a couple of days with the masking tape removed. It's cool to see how it looks when you pull the tape off, and in this case it didn't look too bad. (Well, considering the look I was going for. Many people would object to someone intentionally making a perfectly nice wooden (Ikea particle board) coffee table look rusty.)
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2007/03/IMAG0009-1.jpg
Step 5. Pinstriping:
According to the experts, the thing that really makes a nice flame job pop is the pinstriping. Fair enough. Michael's didn't stock pinstriping brushes, but they had some nice thin brushes, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Wrong. I put some paint down with the thin brush in an attempt to pinstripe, but it looks less than ideal. Just as with the masking tape, it clearly helps to have the right tools. Anyway, here's what the finished product looks like:
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2007/03/IMAG0010-1.jpg
Not perfect in every detail, but enough to prove that the concept could work, at least assuming that you had enough coats of primer to keep the fake rust away from the real sheet metal.
Not only that, my coffee table is now about ten times cooler than the stock Ikea model, which I guess is probably the whole point of any custom paint job.
That's it for this post. Back to the Camaros!