Clear coating decals??????

My question is in 2 obliqely related parts;

1- Is it advisable to clear coat your car after you placed the decals??
If yes can on recommend a good clearc coat brand
If NO well then , polishing??

2-Does any one have or used the Renassiance transkit for the Ford focus 1999-200 season- with opening doors and a host of photetched parts? (REN2457) If so can you send/post a picture of the door interior
SPANKYOU!!!!!

this is the reason
http://www.angelfire.com/de2/darren/fordiary.html

I can only answer the first question. Yes you can clearcoat on decals, especially those that you want to make it look as though it is painted on for example rally car liveries. But make sure the first 2 to 3 coats are very light mist coats or else the decals will 'melt'. Also make sure the decal is fully dry (let it dry a few days) and totally sticking on the plastic. Should it has an edge that is not sticking to the plastic, chances are that edge will be 'eaten up' be the clearcoat.

I have used Gunze and Tamiya clearcoats on decals with not much problems.

And ...........
you can't answer the second part
........wwhy?

(just kidding)

Yup, like said before, Tamiya, 2 mist coat to seal everything then the heavy coat and you'll have a mirror clean body with decals on it. If not satisfied, then you can compound it, decals are covered with clear so they can be polished.

I always clear coat after the decals. I put several coats on, sanding carefully between each coat to remove the step of the decals. Need to be very carefuy not to sand through to the decas.

I use Tamiya TS-13 staight fom the can and/or Gunze clear through an airbrush. Being lacquers you need to be very careful to only spray light mist coats initally so the strong slovents won't eat the decals. And it should go wthout saying that the underlying paint has to be lacquer too if you wish to use a lacquer top coat. It is possible to mix different types of paint but do lots of testing first.

After that a final sand down with some very worn fine sandpaper, polish with compound and finaly some carnuba wax. For me the last three steps give a more realistic finish than just leaving the final 'wet' coat shine.


The Renaisance doors are simply cast from the Tamiya doors if IIRC.

what is IIRC?
RallyRaider
extrapulate please

Extrapolate! Extrapolate!

IIRC stands for "If I Recall Correctly". So I guess I didn't need to say "if IIRC". :tongue:

tamiya and testor clear work great.. duplicolor didn't

meh.. not much a fan of clear coating myself, especially o race cars..

You run the risk of getting your decals eaten, and it's less accuate...

So why do it ? use a good compounding instead.

olivier

Originally posted by bigfrit
meh.. not much a fan of clear coating myself, especially o race cars..

You run the risk of getting your decals eaten, and it's less accuate...

So why do it ? use a good compounding instead.

olivier
I always feel like I'm going to rub off the decals when I polish them :( How do you polish over them?

You don't polish over decals. Unless they are protected by clearcoat, but you do not polish unprotected decals. You can apply wax over them though.

indeed I ment to polish before putting on decals...

Olivier

Originally posted by bigfrit
indeed I ment to polish before putting on decals...

Olivier

But then, the shine on the decals would not be the same as the shine of the car, and you can see the thickness of the decals and they do not look painted on. Unless you are applying decals of car maunfacturer's emblems or badges, liveries and sponsor logos of racing cars should not be thicker than the car's paintwork. They should look as though they are painted on.

I always thought on the real race cars, the decals were merely decals, thus not painted on...

just see the ferrari F1, the marboro, isn't painted on, it's a decal, otherwise they would have to paint it again every weekend...

and also, on real race cars, the decals are not the same shine as the paintwork, they tend to be a little more opaque, so it's not paint...

thus, I thought, but might be wrong, that IRL, they are decals, so they should be decals in modelcarland also... not clear coated, so it would still look like decals...


Olivier

Off course I might be wrong ...

Originally posted by Junhao


But then, the shine on the decals would not be the same as the shine of the car, and you can see the thickness of the decals and they do not look painted on. Unless you are applying decals of car maunfacturer's emblems or badges, liveries and sponsor logos of racing cars should not be thicker than the car's paintwork. They should look as though they are painted on.

And your point is? If you want them to shine as much as the body - clearcoat them. Polishing them will just destroy them.

Originally posted by bigfrit

Off course I might be wrong ...

You might, but you aren't. The markings on racecars are indeed stickers, but the decal thickness on a model can look out of scale, so it's safer to clearcoat them. As I've said before, it's a matter of personal preference, and I've tried it both ways, and Both look ok.

An interesting trivia information for you is that rally cars, at least works Fords, are stripped to the metal, damage repaired, and cars totally repainted after every event. :cool: