DIY Scope Respray

[+Ibbo]

Not sprayed anything for years but I'm just tiding the baby Tak as the tube is showing lots of battle scars

rubbed down and a couple of coats applied and it looks OKish

anybody any tips on spraying

hopefully it will be suitable to see the light of day when I'm finished

if not it might have a trip to Astrotec :P

[Perkil8r]

Preperation, preperation, preperation.... that's the key. Then lots of light, thin coats to build up slowly rather than heavy handed thick runny coats. If it looks a bit matt when done, don't panic, T cut and polish will bring up the gloss if a gloss finish is what you're after. Many moons ago I worked in a car body shop, and I've sprayed a few race cars in my time. Lots of thin coats is always the way to go.

[+Ibbo]

Thats the way I'm doing it

I need to get some better wet and dry than the crap I've been using also something a bit finer as well

might get an air brush

[Perkil8r]

To be honest, as long as the preperation is good and you buy decent quality paint, spray cans are just as good as air brushes. I did have a compressor and paint gun, that was obviously the best option, but for fairly large areas such as a scope tube I would say you will end up getting poor results with an air brush.

Between coats, have a look to make sure there are no runs or specks of dust in the paint. If there are, use some wet n dry on a block to get rid of them, in this case using the wet n dry in "wet" format. Just flatten it off before the next coat. Use something in the order of 1200 grade or higher at that point. T cut or G100 compound will soon polish out the flatting marks if you have to nib any bits out on the final coat, then polish with some good quality polish such as auto glym, not a cheap liquid spray type polish. You can get rid of tiny specks of dust in the paint on the final coat by using t cut or G100 by placing a 2p coin inside the rag, stretching it tight over and using that as a flat surface to smooth out the paint. The paint must be good and hard though, so leave a couple of days after the last coat before trying to polish anything out.

[+Ibbo]

Off to shops for wet n dry and some more paint

thanks for the tips I am sure they will help me

Steve

[Rusty Strings]

Piccies???

[+Ibbo]

I've no start piccies

will start taking them from now

[+Ibbo]

opps

please delete this

Edited July 18, 2012 by Ibbo

[+Ibbo]

Bit of a mare today

dropped the dew shield and made a mess of it

decided to restart it and take it to bare metal and the paint would not take properly

but with a bit of work it will be OK

the baby tak can have 2 different lengths of tube so you can use a 2" diagonal or stick a DLSR on the back of it so hence the 3 tubes

I'm going to do the finder which I've added to give you an idea how things started

more rubbing and coats and I reckon it will look OK even with my limited spraying skills

Edited July 18, 2012 by Ibbo

[Perkil8r]

If down to bare metal, use etch primer. It will give a very solid base on which to gradually build up the top coat.

[+Ibbo]

Slowly slowly

more rubbing down done, washed and drying ready for some more thin coats

might finish them for next year