I am hopefully going to be ready to paint the belt/quarterpanel moldings and the revels on me 28 special coupe soon. I know that Fineline (3M) narrow tape is used to mask the edge of the body before painting the trim. I don't know what is the best width to use for the masking. I comes in various sizes, like 1/16", 1/8", 3/16", 1/4", etc. I would think 3/16" or 1/4" would work OK, but the stuff is fairly expensive and I would like to buy just one size, unless more than one size it necessary. Has anyone had experience using the narrow tape on a coupe or possibly a sedan and can recommend the best size?
Fineline masking tape size
- Thread starter wrndln
- Start date
Aerocraft
Well-known member
I have successfully painted the trim colors on my Coupe, Tudor, and Fordor using the 1/4 inch Fineline tape. It worked well since it is wide enough to attach the masking paper (with 3/4 inch 3M tape) with ease. When I was in business restoring and painting antique airplanes, my shop used so much of it that I bought it by the case. Gar Williams
Doug in NJ
Well-known member
I used 3/16" for my car. I had to mask all the window reveals, which had tighter turns than other places that needed to be masked. That width worked fine for the reveals, and was not inconvenient to use for everywhere else. I masked all 7 windows, the belt molding, the bottom moldings, and around the gas tank, and I used maybe half a roll.
Doug
Doug
I think it is much easier to paint the whole car then the trim last. I debated about which to do first and have come to the conclusion that it can be done either way, but I think painting the whole car first is probably a little easier. It takes a lot of masking to paint the trim last, but you only have to do it once hopefully.
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Doug in NJ
Well-known member
About the painting order: I actually used 4 colors:
1: Semi-gloss maroon for the underside, interior, firewall, and door jambs and edges. (The underside, firewall, and interior were painted a year or two ago.)
2: Gloss maroon on the outside lower body (the gas tank was painted last year).
3: Gloss black for the trim color (belt, moldings)
4: Semi-gloss black for the rear wheel wells. (I chose not to paint them maroon because of the black lower molding.)
I did the wheel wells first, then masked them off (easy) and the next day I sprayed the door jambs, the top edge of the door openings, and the frontmost portions of the cowl and gas tank (ahead of the cowl band) in semi-gloss maroon. A day later, I masked all the jambs, and sprayed the main body color, taking care to do the window reveals. I then finally I masked all the lower body and the window reveals (lots of fine-line tape needed!) and sprayed the moldings, belt, and roof in black.
It came out very nice, and the color breaks between the semi-gloss and gloss look very good. But it was a MONSTER pain in the a**. The total number of paint mixings and gun cleanings was huge, especially because I painted the doors separately, two at a time. And since the body was on the frame, I had to carefully mask the frame, drivetrain, firewall, body blocks, etc. If I had done the car all black in lacquer, it would have been much less work. But I'm done, and it looks great.
(Actually I still need to do the hood, fenders, and splash shields. I will hopefully get the hood or the side splash shields done by the end of the 2010 painting season, but the finders will take another year (or two)...
Doug
1: Semi-gloss maroon for the underside, interior, firewall, and door jambs and edges. (The underside, firewall, and interior were painted a year or two ago.)
2: Gloss maroon on the outside lower body (the gas tank was painted last year).
3: Gloss black for the trim color (belt, moldings)
4: Semi-gloss black for the rear wheel wells. (I chose not to paint them maroon because of the black lower molding.)
I did the wheel wells first, then masked them off (easy) and the next day I sprayed the door jambs, the top edge of the door openings, and the frontmost portions of the cowl and gas tank (ahead of the cowl band) in semi-gloss maroon. A day later, I masked all the jambs, and sprayed the main body color, taking care to do the window reveals. I then finally I masked all the lower body and the window reveals (lots of fine-line tape needed!) and sprayed the moldings, belt, and roof in black.
It came out very nice, and the color breaks between the semi-gloss and gloss look very good. But it was a MONSTER pain in the a**. The total number of paint mixings and gun cleanings was huge, especially because I painted the doors separately, two at a time. And since the body was on the frame, I had to carefully mask the frame, drivetrain, firewall, body blocks, etc. If I had done the car all black in lacquer, it would have been much less work. But I'm done, and it looks great.
(Actually I still need to do the hood, fenders, and splash shields. I will hopefully get the hood or the side splash shields done by the end of the 2010 painting season, but the finders will take another year (or two)...
Doug
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its a lot easier to mask off the moldings than it is to mask off the whole car just to paint them, i would suggest you paint the moldings first, dont worry about the paint getting on the body, just paint down the body a few inches, let it dry then mask off the moldings, that way you only have one line in the paint and you dont have to worry about the molding color showing if you dont get it all masked off, mask the molding sand the over spray and paint
Doug in NJ
Well-known member
Since my car had the entire upper body and roof in the same color, this approach was not that I used. But it makes a lot more sense for open cars and anything with just the belt in the contrasting color.
Doug
The width of the Fineline depends on two things. 1. the size of pinstripe or gap in pinstripe needed. (not a factor in this case)
2. The radius of the bends you need to make. Narrower tape will bend in a sharper radius, wider tape is easier to pull straight lines.