Spray Painting - Soft Edges

[jrh001]

Hi,

I'm fixing some dents and scratches on an old R30. Found a dent repair guide on this website:http://www.vgautopaints.com.au/

But I can't quite understand this tip:

*Tip

When masking up stick down the paper

with tape and then fold the paper over the

tape. This will give you a soft edge.

Does anyone know what it means?

Also found some useful videos on dent removal by a New Zealander who goes by the name of 'Restolad'. Here's an example:

JH

[Nacho Vidal]

it is a bit hard to understand, but i know that when you mask and paint, if the paint thickness builds up, when you remove the tape you get a sharp raised edge.

sorry its just a guess but does it mean by sticking down paper and folding it back, the edge of the paper will somehow soften the edge effect?

[jrh001]

sorry its just a guess but does it mean by sticking down paper and folding it back, the edge of the paper will somehow soften the edge effect?  

I can't see how to stick down paper _and_ fold it back, because if the masking tape runs over the paper, it's stuck to the paper and not the panel.

Thanks for the response.

JH

[jrh001]

Emailed VG Auto Paints and Tools and received a very quick response...

If you get a piece of masking paper and run some masking tape along the edge of it so its half on and half off.

Then stick down the taped up paper on the area you want to mask but in the opposite direction to where you want masked.

Then fold the paper over the tape so that it pulls the tape up and creates a rounded edge.

This is so you dont get a hard line where the paint/primer meets the rest of the panel.

Thanks hope this helps.

Ill be making a DVD of the lessons soon.

David Gatt

VG AUTO PAINTS & TOOLS

JH

[Sparkys]

What he said^^

The other thing you can do which works quite well, is to get some thick masking tape and fold 1/3 of it back on itself, then have the folded line as the edge where you want a 'soft' paint edge. I've done this a bit and after buffing you can't tell where the join is.

But it's a good idea to do all joins along a crease/change in direction of the car somewhere which gives additional 'blendedness' if you get what I mean. People expect to see a change in paint a little bit at a crease so it gives you a bit more breathing room if you make a mistake.

[errno]

i think id need a photo of that, ive read it twice and still cant picture it in my head

[rgr34]

i think he means fold the paper over the masking tape so a hardline is less visible....

[jimmyr31]

okay.

what this means is, when masking up an area you wish to paint or blend into existing paint you want to hide the fact its been painted.

Just masking it up with a peice of tape will result in a "hard line edge" making it clearly visible to the world that you've painted that area.

a "soft edge" is achieved when masking like so.

notice how I put down a strip of masking tape, folded half of it over, leaving it loose, then taping that down firmly with another bit of tape.

this is how you acheive a "soft line edge" and avoid paint build up resulting in a "hard line edge"

As you can see in the pic above I was priming, this method of masking should only really be used for priming.

you don't need this masking method for painting. You should be either painting the entire panel or blending the entire panel.

Either way you won't need this method and soft edge masking is only used when you want to spray a tiny bit of a panel.

When applying colour/clear coat/blending agent the whole panel your painting should be available to be sprayed.

cheers.

If you want to see my guide on painting go here.

http://mcc.xcesiv.com/forum/showthread.php?t=141

[jrh001]

Hi James/Jimmy,

Thanks for posting the link. Excellent painting guide for a beginner like me.

cheers,

JH