Trouble filling letters on intake.

[nik97]

I've been trying to paint my intake and fill the lettering with contrasting color but so far I've been unsuccessful. I searched and tried the "paint thinner" method and I've had horrible luck with that. Every time I try it, the paint thinner will not remove the excess paint well enough unless I use a lot of it and it begins to smear the letter color with the base color. I tried again using brake cleaner and that took everything off with one swipe. All of this trial and error is performed on a junk-spare tank. I am about ready to just go the long, tedious route and slowly fill the letters with a toothpick or model brush.

Any suggestions on what I may be doing wrong? I'm using 500 deg engine enamel(white) as the base and red and blue duplicolor truck/SUV to fill the letters. The paint thinner is some AutoZone standard issue. Should I try kerosene or maybe lacquer thinner? Thanks!

 

[hawkeye18]

I've heard Testors model paint works quite well, and you can use a small eyedropper to fill it up.

Another, far more painstaking route, is to cover the whole area with painter's tape and cut the SHO out with an exacto knife. Then, you can use a precision brush without worrying.

Have you tried asking the V6SHO list? search yahoo groups for V6SHO. There are people there (that refuse to come here lol) that have done this before. They can help you.

 

[DDakRT]

Did you bake your manifold to cure the paint?

If that doesn't work just tape it off and fill the letters in manually. That's actually what I did, tape the outlines and painted it using a touch up pen section by section. Took a little bit but not too difficult to do.

 

[nik97]

^No I did not cure the paint. I assume you mean to pop it in the oven? I'll give that a try with my test tank. Any input on temp and duration? Also, should I be using regular paint thinner or something else?

Thanks for the input guys.