PAINTING STRIPES ON SPONSON

[mark couty]

I have multiple stripes to paint on the sponsons of my 1982 AVL. Does anyone have a tip or trick to taping off nice evenly spaced and smooth flowing curved lines around the sponsons. Thanks to all.

 

[wingnut]

I always use the same tape as the spacer. If that makes sense. It wastes tape but it works well for spacing

 

[Mike Hughes]

Go to your local auto paint supllier. They will have the good 3M striping tape in a bunch of diiferent sizes. Works great if you plan out your colors nicely.
Mike

 

[Kez]

I would use striping tape as Mike has suggested. The best (thinnest) stripping tape I've ever used is the Carl Goldberg ones. Not sure if they are still available

If you must paint the stripes, I have read a technique many years ago in one of the hobby magazines. For the AVL, paint the entire deck with the color of the strip first. In this case it is the dark blue. Mask and spray the light blue area. Then use fineline masking tape to mask the blue strip and spray white over it. Remove the masking tape and you have the dark blue strip. I have tried it in the past and it worked well. However you will end up with three layers of paint. I am also slowly building a AVL and my plan is to use striping tape.

 

[dr gary turner]

The best 3M is the orange dripping tape
Used on these boats

 

[Don Ferrette]

I would use striping tape as Mike has suggested. The best (thinnest) stripping tape I've ever used is the Carl Goldberg ones. Not sure if they are still available

If you must paint the stripes, I have read a technique many years ago in one of the hobby magazines. For the AVL, paint the entire deck with the color of the strip first. In this case it is the dark blue. Mask and spray the light blue area. Then use fineline masking tape to mask the blue strip and spray white over it. Remove the masking tape and you have the dark blue strip. I have tried it in the past and it worked well. However you will end up with three layers of paint. I am also slowly building a AVL and my plan is to use striping tape.

Well.... if you paint the darker colors first it will require more of the lighter colors to cover and can affect shading or tint of the actual lighter colors themselves. Always best to paint lighter colors first.

 

[Hydro Junkie]

Don and I don't agree much but I do agree with him on this one. When I built a sport 40 Dumas Atlas, years ago, I painted the bottom and sides first, since they were white. I then painted the white on the deck and cowling, letting it "fog" out from the areas that were to stay white. Next came the dark blue, taping off over the white, then repeating with the light blue. To keep the lines straight, I used the sponson insides up to where the deck covered them and then the side of the engine bay to line them up the rest of the way. Wasn't the greatest of paint jobs, using rattle cans out in the yard, but it got the job done. Hardest part was the white pinstripes between the light and dark blue as well as along the deck edge, keeping them even. Needless to say, there were areas that were uneven due to me not taking the time to do it right