Spraying Gold Flake in Lacquer witrh a Earlex Pro HV5000

29th April 2011
I had made some inquiries about the quantities of flake to use in the lacquer. For one coat of lacquer I was told use 200g in 0.5 litre of lacquer which consists of a 40% solution of thinners. For multiple coats use 100g in 0.5 litre of lacquer which consists of 40% solution of thinners on the first two coats. I decided to use 100g or 4 oz of dark gold flake this came in a 1200g pot so I hoped I would have plenty to do the inside and the outside of the body. I was intending to get this sprayed so that I could bolt the body work back to the chassis and move the buggy to my new garage so that I could rebuild its electrics. The day started of cloudy and this was the same day our future king married his long loved college friend so I hoped that the weather would improve enough for me to spray. The morning had started at 10 degrees and was predicted to be 19 degrees by the afternoon. I knew I would have to clean the Earlex PRO HV5000 spray gun before spraying the lacquer as I had previously been spraying black basecoat and wanted to ensure none of this migrated into the lacquer. The mix i used was pretty good as it went through the gun well . I remembered to put two marbles in the pot to ensure it would be agitated. I noticed that the gun needed to have the spray fully opened and a full trigger held open to let the flake come through. Unfortunately I learned this while the gun was pointing at the inside of the shell. But I hope to cover this at a later date with an interior panel. Once the flake was running through the gun it would puff for about three of four bursts before you had to run it again at full throttle. I soon had gold flake all over the car and all over me too. I started having strange songs go through my head.

Once I had coated the inside an outside with flake , I started to make up some lacquer I made this up as a mixture of 2:1 the interestink think about the 2K acrylic laquer is that when you ad the harderner the mixture goes white opaque until it is thoroughly mixed and appears clear. The clear coat lacquer was then flash sprayed onto the car this way trying to ensure it did not run. This was then repeated every twenty minutes making up new clear coat lacquer each time for four coats. At this point the surface still had an uneven texture. I decided that I would let it harden over night and give it a fine sand with 800 grit wet and dry before putting a further four coats of lacquer onto the surface. The gloss after the initial for coats was not to bad although the pictures do not pick up the gold flake as well as the human eye.

Next time I will put more Lacquer onto the car and drill the mountings for the new roll bar position, or would the lacquer wait until I could get my hands on some candy red paint?