OK, so took a little break from the Bonty but have now regrouped and am back tackling the Mag 21 SL lowers. I wasn't tremendously happy with the previous attempts at getting Mirror Chrome finish I was after, so I stripped down the fork legs again to bare magnesium and have since procured another set of Mag 21s so I have 4 legs going at once. I figure if I botch one of the the sets, I'll have the other to fall back on. If I do well on both, I'll have 2 Mag 21 SL Ti's!
My thinking now is that part of the difficulty in achieving the right finish was that I didn't bother priming the legs first. So, I'm trying the following sequence, using the following products:
1. Once the old paint is stripped, clean/degrease with acetone and immediately apply self-etching primer. I used Rustoleum brand auto primer in grey.
2. Wet sand to 600 grit to make sure primed surface is smooth, then apply liberal coatings of Ace brand Premium gloss enamel in black. (Ace is just a generic hardware store in the U.S. that makes knock-offs of the proprietary brands like Rustoleum.) I applied many coats, which actually gave the forks a decent gloss (see pics below).
3. Let cure for at least 2 days, then apply liberal coats of Ace Premium Gloss Enamel clear coat. Just as with comments I've seen for users of 2K clear coats, I went very heavy with the clear coat which allowed the enamel to anneal while drying, smoothing out all the irregularities. I found going too light left the "orange-peel" effect.
4. Let cure for at least 2 days, then apply one liberal coating of Spaz Stix Mirror Chrome. Once dry, buff with a microfiber cloth.
Here's the product listing (in order of application from left to right):
Here's the legs after primer:
Here's the legs after gloss black enamel and clear coat enamel. Photos make it look like the legs are scuffed, but they're not, I guess it just caught the light that way, or it is dust (it was breezy when I took the pics, lots of pollen in the air).
And here are the legs after Mirror Chrome application and hand buffed with a microfiber cloth:
I'm contemplating hitting the legs with another coating of clear coat before I consider getting the gold tinted coating on. I'm doing trials with Gordon Tarpley's usage of Liquitex Acrylic high gloss varnish mixed with yellow and red food coloring, on clear plastic containers. It goes on with a brush, and I've been using a high quality Purdy nylon/polyester brush, but it still leaves streaks and bubbles, and the coloring isn't quite right. So I'll try using my air brush with this mixture on test objects next, but if that doesn't work I'll move on to trying Kustom Canz candy lacquer in either yellow or gold. And if that doesn't work, it will be time to try mixing up a batch of SEM California Gold. Soon as the weather settles down over here, I'll be back at it posting more results.
My thinking now is that part of the difficulty in achieving the right finish was that I didn't bother priming the legs first. So, I'm trying the following sequence, using the following products:
1. Once the old paint is stripped, clean/degrease with acetone and immediately apply self-etching primer. I used Rustoleum brand auto primer in grey.
2. Wet sand to 600 grit to make sure primed surface is smooth, then apply liberal coatings of Ace brand Premium gloss enamel in black. (Ace is just a generic hardware store in the U.S. that makes knock-offs of the proprietary brands like Rustoleum.) I applied many coats, which actually gave the forks a decent gloss (see pics below).
3. Let cure for at least 2 days, then apply liberal coats of Ace Premium Gloss Enamel clear coat. Just as with comments I've seen for users of 2K clear coats, I went very heavy with the clear coat which allowed the enamel to anneal while drying, smoothing out all the irregularities. I found going too light left the "orange-peel" effect.
4. Let cure for at least 2 days, then apply one liberal coating of Spaz Stix Mirror Chrome. Once dry, buff with a microfiber cloth.
Here's the product listing (in order of application from left to right):
Here's the legs after primer:
Here's the legs after gloss black enamel and clear coat enamel. Photos make it look like the legs are scuffed, but they're not, I guess it just caught the light that way, or it is dust (it was breezy when I took the pics, lots of pollen in the air).
And here are the legs after Mirror Chrome application and hand buffed with a microfiber cloth:
I'm contemplating hitting the legs with another coating of clear coat before I consider getting the gold tinted coating on. I'm doing trials with Gordon Tarpley's usage of Liquitex Acrylic high gloss varnish mixed with yellow and red food coloring, on clear plastic containers. It goes on with a brush, and I've been using a high quality Purdy nylon/polyester brush, but it still leaves streaks and bubbles, and the coloring isn't quite right. So I'll try using my air brush with this mixture on test objects next, but if that doesn't work I'll move on to trying Kustom Canz candy lacquer in either yellow or gold. And if that doesn't work, it will be time to try mixing up a batch of SEM California Gold. Soon as the weather settles down over here, I'll be back at it posting more results.
