frmt

So I decided to just jump right into painting all the badges on my truck. This week I've been working on the Ford Oval from the grill.

I am an extreme beginning painter. I mean I understand the principles and concepts but when it comes to translating those to tangible results I get lost. Mainly because my only training has been common sense, forums and videos. It would be greatly appreciated if anyone here that has painting knowledge could take a look at my progress to let me know what they think.

Summary: I've taken my Dremel and ground all the clear and paint off the original oval. I then prepped the surface with some isopropyl. Then applied my primer (wet sanding gently in one direction with warm water with some soap between each coat with 100 and 2000). Now I have a few coats of Cardinal Red and I have been doing the same wet sanding as I did on the primer.

Questions: I obviously still have orange peel but it is very smooth to the touch. Is this normal? Will I only get rid of orange peel when I wet sand/compound/polish the clear coat? How do you think I'm doing to this point?

Finished Product: Cardinal red Ford oval with white lettering. Possible a few coats of VHT Nightshades to make the emblem a bit more subtle on my tuxedo black truck.

Big thanks for whoever takes the time to read this!

**Disclaimer** I am no where near an expert painting but would like to improve.

Toddman38

iTrader: (5)

Do me up a set, Same Colors!

HighPsi

Have you ever checked out Moodys overlays?

frmt

Would love too but I only have 2 ovals and they both come from my truck

I have and he does insanely awesome work. It's just something I wanted to try to pick up a bit more skills. If I end up messing it up somehow that's probably where I will look but if it turns out it will feel that much better

rob_v

Any pics of the final results?

Razz11

Honestly it looks like your problems were in the prep. Seems like you can see some lines from the dremel and probably why the center looks dull and edges are not sharp. I painted up mine on my 2013. All you need to do is scuff the surface smooth and spray with a good quality paint. There is really no need to completely remove everything. This set looks great and has been on for only a few months, but my 2003 had them for 5 years with no touch ups and really no blemishes to speak of...

frmt

Not yet Rob. First I will create some vinyl stickers until I can work out a good way to create a Ford logo template. Or I'll just try to hand paint the Ford. Either way I'll make sure I post the pictures.

Oh yeah, a lot of the marks came from the Dremel. When I decided to start this I wasn't sure if the paint would stick if I just scuffed the surface. Shortly after I took these pictures I actually got out some sandpaper and completely sanded the beveled Ford logo off, so right now it's just a plain oval. I figured it would be too hard to tape off the Ford and didn't think it would be precise enough. I found out it's probably just as hard to create a perfect template (at least from the materials I have). At one point I even thought about hand painting the Ford.

I think from here I will hold off painting and just create a couple vinyl stickers (like the ones Moody makes). That will be a quality solution until I can produce a quality Ford template.

I will probably sand my tailgate logo down though. That way the bevel doesn't interfere with the decal.

Thanks for your reply!

EDIT: Oh I also was wetsanding the red paint to try to even it out which caused a lot of the dullness. It was a pretty uneven job too because of the beveled Ford (part of the reason I wanted to remove it altogether).

NASSTY

I cheated when I painted my emblems. I used 2004-05 emblems because they are flat. They don't have raised letters like the 2006-12 emblems. The letters are silver but the flash from my camera makes them look white.

RLucky82

Well, you get the concept. Now get better by practice! The red doesn't need to be perfect because if you want great results you will finish with many layers of clear coat.

tko_818

iTrader: (1)

great start man. for starters, 100 grit is usually wayyy too rough to start sanding primer on something like this.. id jump straight to 320 to minimize sanding marks. and the clear after your spray it will likely have orange peel unless youre spraying with quality equipment and good technique.. Just wetsand it with 600-2000 and give it a good polish with some compound.