By Rich Evans

Rich Evans

Rich tip: Before mixing sealers or primers, I always turn on the mixing station and let it run for 5 to 10 minutes. The epoxy in the primer tends to sink to the bottom after sitting around, making it important to thoroughly stir it up before mixing with a catalyst and reducer.

When mixing sealer, I always use the same ratio: 1 part Non-Sanding Epoxy Primer, 1 part catalyst, and 1 part reducer. It's important to be strict when measuring each part of the mixture, because too much catalyst or reducer can cause problems with drying. Drying problems can also occur from laying it on too heavily with the spray gun. Be sure to allow plenty of drying time between coats.

To prepare for spraying graphics, a white base is applied to those specific areas as an initial step.

Before spraying the flames, it was necessary to wipe and tack all the graphics. Using the scaffolding, I started from the rear and worked my way to the front - going from bottom to top on the first panel, then starting the next panel at the top and working down to the bottom. This is the same method used for the base coating and clear coating stages of the project. 

Go with the flow

For the graphics I tried to flow more with them when I sprayed the yellow and red fade. Once I had an even coverage of the black with white sealer, I sprayed three coats of yellow over all the graphics. Then I began at the tips of the flames with orange and worked an orange fade towards the curve of each lick in the flame. Afterwards, I grabbed my red and applied it in the same manner, fading it out sooner, so the orange didn't get covered completely.

When doing fades, I like to give a light coat of my base coat mix and use left to right strokes or right to left depending on the direction of the flames. I then add more reducer to the mix and work each stroke just a little further out than the previous one.

Yellow -- the second base color -- is now being applied over the white in places where the company logos and flames will be.

Enter the airbrush artist

Artist Stephens then stepped up to the plate to airbrush the shadows and highlights in the Meguiar's logos and also render the reflections on the lettering to make it look like beveled gold. Fortunately we had plenty of Meguiar's packaging and labels to use for reference. For all of our airbrushing, we use House of Kolor paints because their pigments are ground finer than most other finishes which allows it to flow better through a small airbrush.

Following this procedure, the lettering was masked off and the ribbon underneath sprayed yellow. After that we applied the "since 1901" lettering, which was cut out of vinyl masking material, and sprayed the ribbon again with red.

Unwrapping the package

After the airbrushed shadows and highlights were applied, we then peeled the masking material used to blanket the trailers and trucks. Be sure to peel the paper masking first, leaving the vinyl masking until last.

Rich tip: To prevent lifting off the graphic, peel the masking off slowly and at a sharp angle away from the graphic. The best way is to use an X-acto knife, using two hands, being careful not to poke the paint.

We then wiped down and tacked the trucks and trailers and made sure to leave the edges of the graphics nice and clean. Make sure to remove any glue residue that might have been left behind by the vinyl.