Spectra-Color Paint Instructions and Tips

About Spectra-Color Paints

This paint was developed with the Hot wheels Restoration in mind. The paints are specially blended with pigments and dyes to closely simulate the original Colors of the Mattel Hot Wheels Redlines. We have also developed solid colors to aid in the restoration of the post spectraflame cars. All our paints are urethane based and accept the same Redlineshop hardener.  To achieve that candy spectraflame look the paint is applied directly over the original bare zinc plating. This gives the cars that special look when it shines through the translucent color paint. Redlineshop Paints are pre- thinned. Some people like to thin the paint down for the final wet coat. . From windex blue to competition orange, they all use the same hardener to achieve the bullet proof gloss Finish. No need to Clear coat.  Our paints, when used with our hardener, will gloss over with a hard acrylic shell. There are two paints we carry that do not accept our hardener. Our Black Magic Vinyl top paint and the old lacquer based Hot Pink.

Instructions and procedures:

You should alway wear a respirator and use a paint booth, or other fume and overspray device’s, that extracts the fumes to the outside. The fumes can be harmful to your health and  are flammable. Don’t use.near an open flame or other type of device that can produce a spark. Do not allow fumes to accumulate indoor.

Application: Mix 5 parts paint to 1 part hardener. Only mix the amount you are going to use in the next 45 min to hour. Clean up airbrush with lacquer thinner. You can mix any of our paints together to come up with your own colors. You can also turn the spectraflame paint into a metal flake candy by adding our spectraflame paint to our Metal Flake Basecoat. Mix the Spectraflame paint to the base coat to achieve the density you desire. Our  Base coat accepts the same hardener as our spectraflame paint. When finished painting make sure you clean the airbrush with lacquer thinner. Always clean the tops of the paint bottles before you put the the caps back on. Also, when you remove the cap from the bottle place it face down so the top of the cap is sticking up, this keeps the paint from getting into the threads of the cap. Always keep the cap on the hardener when not in use. Hardener (catalyst) is sensitive to oxygen and will shorten the life  if exposed to oxygen for too long. Hardener that has gone bad will turn into a jello type consistency and the only thing you can add it to at this point is the trash can.

You should always start with a clean a grease free casting. This is a very important step. Contamination on the surface can cause the paint to fisheye. You can use a prep wash or wipe down the surface with lacquer thinner.  Your first two coats of paint should be lighter coats to break the surface tension and prepare the surface with a tack coat for the next coats. When spraying, try to change the angle of the airbrush tip to the surface. This allows the paint droplets to stick to the sides of the small pits in the zinc coating. To get a shiny gloss finish make sure your last coat is a wet coat. A final wet coat and the addition of our hardener will give the appearance of a clear coat. Do not allow the paint to completely dry between coats. After finishing, let stand to dry in a warm area. You can bake your car in an oven for two hours at 175 deg. Once cooled off the car will be ready to handle. Otherwise it should be left overnight to cure.

TIPS

** TRY to keen your airbrush psi Under 20 lbs. Just remember the higher the psi the paints will move through the airbrush faster and heavier. Painting too fast and too much can cause sags in your paint job.

** When shooting change your angle of the tip to the surface of the subject. This will allow the paint to cover the imperfection in the metal. The more paint you apply the darker the intensity of the paint will get.

** Start out buy painting the bottom and under the fender walls of the car. This way you will know how much paint and how many coats it is going to take to get the color intensity you want. Mistakes here can be hidden and it allow you to make the correction when shooting the outside body.