I’m curious as to the correct (or at least not incorrect) method to spray this scenario:

Have a motorcycle tank that will be a dark root beer candy with cream colored pinstriping on either side.

I’m curious as to what’s considered the correct way to go about this.

I was planning something like: Sealer, cream colored base on just the parts of the tank where the lines will be taped, then intercoat over the whole tank, then tape where I want the lines, then base/flake/candy over the whole tank with the cream lines taped up, then pull tape and clear everything.

Is there anything wrong with this procedure?

Would spraying the cream base on just parts of the tank cause any issues, and if so, should I spray the whole tank in the cream color first? Or spray the whole tank in the intercoat first to have a “wet bed” down, and then spray the cream in the desired areas.


Or if there’s a completely different method, I’m all ears!

Not going to work.
Simple reason: your paint buildup when doing a candy job is so thick, you'd have a huge edge wherever you tape. Easy way, paint it, then have it pinstriped You can have the stripe either over or under the final clear.

When I first looked at your description of what you planned to do I said ya go for it to myself THEN the Master customizeser says NO! I'm at a loss??? that's exactly how I would have tried it?
If I was ever gonna ask anyone for advice about custom painting its Chop He knows his stuff! hes been doing this **** for ever! and his work speaks for itself!

yes it will work... buy why would you choose that over candy the tank, clear it, cut with 800 have it striped then clear ?

you are looking at, at least 3 more clear sessions to fill in those tape lines, and no offense but if you are asking this kind of question i have to assume your talent is lacking to pull it off correctly.

my advise, candy the tank, 3 coats of clear, sand 800 and hand it off to a pinstriper.

Thanks for the responses guys. Yeah Dave, still pretty new to all this. Have only done a few dozen basic motorcycle jobs and small stuff on the side for fun.

As for the “pinstriping”, I meant spraying the “stripe” color first, taping the lines I was going for, and then doing the rest of the paint job while the cream is masked, not actual pin striping by brush. I just figured spraying the light color first and then masking the striping pattern that I was going for before spraying the rest over top.

I already figured I’d be a few rounds of clear into if after all that to bury the metal flake.


Doing the light stripe color first made sense as far as making the tape work easier.

This project is mostly for fun and not super serious. Just doing these to learn!

Dave, really? Have you done this before? Not looking for an argument, but I have trouble with clean tape edges even with 2-3 coats of basecoat! And they are thinner and more opaque. If you do at least 2 coats of base metallic, then at least 3 coats of candy (the minimum I've found to get even coverage) that's a pretty thick paint edge, and with a small pinstripe, I'd guess the candy would even bridge over the tape stripe. Make a mess pulling it off!
You're probably the best painter here, so just wondering if you've got some painting secrets to keep film thickness that low next to a thin piece of tape.

I’ll be following your advise Chop. Will get the candy sprayed, then either top coat and sand or intercoat clear before taping out my stripes. I don’t know what I was thinking as there will be 2-3 coats of the gunmetal metallic base followed by 3-4 coats of 0.004 flake in intercoat followed by 5-6 coats of candy.. the line edge would be huge!

I will report back with the finished product!

chopolds wrote:Dave, really? Have you done this before? Not looking for an argument, but I have trouble with clean tape edges even with 2-3 coats of basecoat! And they are thinner and more opaque. If you do at least 2 coats of base metallic, then at least 3 coats of candy (the minimum I've found to get even coverage) that's a pretty thick paint edge, and with a small pinstripe, I'd guess the candy would even bridge over the tape stripe. Make a mess pulling it off!
You're probably the best painter here, so just wondering if you've got some painting secrets to keep film thickness that low next to a thin piece of tape.

yes sir i have done it, its sure not good practice on a tank, more of a low rider thing, covering those paint jobs are not fun.

a few tricks to keep that mil thickness low is using concentrate kandy and mixing it strong
into a carrier like DBC500, OR if spraying urethane kandy use the concentrate and add that to the urethane to require less coats.


but for this post, id say if the guy is just learning and trying to have fun then he is on the right path. he could read pages and pages of what to and what not to do but in the end the best lessons are by failures and successes.

id recommend he continue to do as he wants and he will grow and learn as he goes.


we are always here to help and always excited to see people learn and try (new to them) ideas

Agould650 wrote:I’ll be following your advise Chop. Will get the candy sprayed, then either top coat and sand or intercoat clear before taping out my stripes. I don’t know what I was thinking as there will be 2-3 coats of the gunmetal metallic base followed by 3-4 coats of 0.004 flake in intercoat followed by 5-6 coats of candy.. the line edge would be huge!

I will report back with the finished product!

now is a good time to pick up a striping brush and a aluminum panel buddy,

something i wish i has started trying to do, i still can not pinstripe

PainterDave wrote:

Agould650 wrote:I’ll be following your advise Chop. Will get the candy sprayed, then either top coat and sand or intercoat clear before taping out my stripes. I don’t know what I was thinking as there will be 2-3 coats of the gunmetal metallic base followed by 3-4 coats of 0.004 flake in intercoat followed by 5-6 coats of candy.. the line edge would be huge!

I will report back with the finished product!

now is a good time to pick up a striping brush and a aluminum panel buddy,

something i wish i has started trying to do, i still can not pinstripe

Like I said above, I didn’t mean pin striping with a brush. Poor word choice on my part.

I meant I’m trying to do some stripes on the sides of the tank with fine line tape.

I’m just trying to have a couple 1/16” or so stripes on each side.

I’m not using a brush to pinstripe, just using finelne tape to spray some stripes.