It was several months ago that I disassembled a Les Logan Speed-X Model 500 bug in order to repaint the base. The upper parts were ok, the base needed paint in a bad way.
I chronicled in an earlier post my luck with the Krylon wrinkle-finish paint. All in all, my first efforts sucked. The wrinkle was uneven and the whole thing just looked bad. It looked worse than the original but chipped paint. Not good.
In retrospect, there were some things I overlooked that may have led to the less-than-spectacular results. For starters, I didn't follow the directions to the letter. The directions say to hold the can in your arm and then swing your arm in a circle beside your body. An odd way to shake a paint can, but I didn't do that exactly last time. Plus, it was winter and I sprayed the paint on the back porch. I should have stunk up the kitchen to paint the thing in warmer temps. I'm not sure that played a role.
The real issue I'm convinced now was paint film thickness. According to the directions, they recommend three fairly heavy coats of paint, sprayed 5 minutes apart. I read that the first time, but it sounded like too much paint too soon. I'm accustomed to autobody painting where you don't get too much paint down at a time.
The wrinkle effect is really odd because it doesn't happen immediately. It takes hours for it to wrinkle. And if you don't spray the paint film evenly, the wrinkle effect will be more pronounced in areas with heavy paint and less (or none) in areas with light coats of paint.
Now the directions say that if an area doesn't have enough wrinkle effect to simply add paint. I did, but it didn't really match the wrinkled part. It was clear to me that the entire piece had to be painted correctly — at the same time.
A few weeks ago I finally got back to the bug base and sanded all the wrinkle finish down smooth. First with the orbital sander, then block sanding with fine wet sandpaper.
Earlier this week I followed the directions to the tee — 3 fairly heavy coats sprayed about 5 minutes apart. I sprayed it outside in my barn where it was good and hot. The paint was still tacky the next morning, something that really surprised me. I guess it is slow to dry to allow it to wrinkle.
I let it cure a couple of days and retrieved it tonight. It looks great! Now the wrinkle effect is a bit more pronounced that it was new. I may experiment with the rest of the can just to see how I might be able to tone down the wrinkle effect a bit.
This is actually an automotive paint used to repaint underhood accessories that originally had a wrinkle finish. It's also good for inside the trunk, etc. Once cured it has a very tough finish.
I assembled the key this evening, and it really looks nice. I'll post pics later, but for now I'm just happy this project had a happy ending. It only took me an hour to find the parts that go with the base, hi hi. That happy ending was very much in doubt for about 20 minutes.
Krylon has other finishes that I may try on the next Speed-X bug base I paint. The have a finish that's kind of a satin/mild texture finish. I have a can of it, but its in a tan color rather than black. I've heard guys use this paint and thin paint a final coat of the color of their choice on top.
I'm probably worrying too damn much over minutia. Who cares about the wrinkle paint finish being too wrinkly? The key looks and plays very nice. I think if I was going to introduce a new/old key, I would build the Speed-X t-bar bugs. They're just unique looking, plus they work well.
73 es cul .. de KY4Z …cl … dit dit …