Quote:
Originally Posted by BigDogTim
I love that you used the milling to guide your design. It looks so natural
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Thanks man! There is no way I would do this on another person's Etha. It was a pain in the butt and even though it took hits no problem through practice on Saturday, I'd feel terrible if the paint chipped and I charged someone $150 to do this to theirs. It's pretty simple, just time consuming, but there is no turning back once you start sanding. Duracoating it would be a better option, but more money and this will be a backup marker for me, I don't plan on ever reselling it (unless the offer was too good to pass up ;-)
Get some painters tape, some 600 grit wet sand paper, the colors you want, and some clear coat, gloss or matte whatever you want. I used matte and it still has a little shine to it. I like it.
Take it completely apart.
Sand it down a little (only the parts you will be painting), don't wear off the black annondizing, but just enough to scuff it up so the paint will stick. Then clean it really well, I used a damp paper towel and qu-tips then a mild solvent. Then tape up every little part you don't want paint on. This will take a while because paint tape is straight and there are a lot of angles on this thing. I followed the natural lines for the design, but do whatever you want. I did 4 coats of paint, with 15 minutes between each coat. DO NOT OVER APPLY the coats. Spray it, get all the coverage, and let it dry. The more you spray the more likely you are to get drips and uneven drying. So just cover it, and stop. Be patient. If you are doing more than one color up top like I did, put down one color, let it dry overnight, then tape it all off (or you will get overspray), leaving only the area exposed where you want the second color. Let that dry for 24 hours. Now, tape it up again to cover the areas you don't want to clear coat. Do the same process, light coats, every 15 minutes for as many coats as you want. I did 4 in an hour, waited another 24 hours and did one final 5th coat. That's it!
I put it all back together and had ZERO issues. I did the trigger sideplay fix while it was all apart, I used an old credit card though. Works great.