Paint

 

Well as much as I would like to use the Craftmaster Paints, I can't get it shipped directly to the USA and there are no suppliers that carry the brand in the USA. So doing a little searching to find a quality paint that I think would be a good choice, I decided on a company called Epifanes NA Inc. that specializes in paint for yachts after viewing the following youtube video. The video compares three types of paints (https://youtu.be/wGCgZfuPb1A?t=2s) and Epifanes paint seemed to be the best in my opinion. As stated on the back of the paint can, Mono-urethane paint is a hard, abrasive resistant air curing high gloss yacht paint based on urethane/alkyd resins. For use above the waterline on wood, steel, aluminum and fiberglass.

This is a company out of Holland, but is imported and distributed here. I acquired my paint from an on-line retailer Jamestown Distributors in Rhode Island. Epifanes offers several varieties of paint systems, but I wanted a one part paint system. Didn't much care about wanting to mix two parts and trying to get all of that done accurately. The Paint is called a Mono-urethane hard high gloss yacht paint. I purchased Bright Red (3116) and Red Mahogany (3233) to compare. I didn't want to rely on the online paint charts. At first I thought the Bright Red was too bright and the Red Mahogany was too dark for the chassis area. So I mixed up a 50-50 solution to see what combining the two would look like.

I was leaning towards the combination for a long time, but ultimately decided to go with the Bright Red. Why not make it bright and flashy!

So the process I have chosen for all the bare metal components is to first prime with a self etching automotive gray primer (available everywhere), top coated with Epifanes Multi Marine Primer,

followed by the final Mono-urethane yacht paint. I also purchased the same type of paint but in Black (3119) for the main body of the Lykamobile. The following are pictures of my progress so far.

On the springs I used Rustoleum Rusty Metal Primer instead of the Self Etching Automotive Gray Primer as shown below. It is a heavier primer/filler.

Multi-marine primer on top of the Rustoleum primer.

And you will notice that I am spraying the paint. I also purchased Epifanes' recommended spray thinner and am using a DeVILBISS HVLP (high volume low pressure) spray gun as shown below. 

I have maybe sprayed painted once before with my father's Sears and Roebuck Craftsmans spray gun about 45 years ago, this gun makes me look like I know what I'm doing !! Not a single run if you get it set up correctly. And a few more pictures of the final paint color (possibly final coat depending on if I didn't miss any). I have many more parts to go and with staging etc., its going to take some time.

On a side note, make sure you wear a protective filtering mask for VOC's and particulates. I did, but I didn't wear a cap and now I'm sporting a slight pink highlight on my gray hair. haha!