How To Custom Paint A Union Jack Flag
This image How-To consists of painting a Union Jack flag on a Mini Cooper S. From start to finish. From prep, to layout, to painting the pinstripe first, to painting the design along with clearcoating. I also included a video at the end.
See some other How-To’s (these are 7+ years old, but still may be helpful to other painters)
We masked it up so we can paint the A pillar moldings and the belt moldings toward the end of the paint job.
So the total of four 2 1/2″ pieces makes it 6″ wide. If I put it next to the 1/4″ on either side, of course the total would be 6 1/4″
I used these four pieces as a guide to lay some 1/4″ fineline next to it.
You can see how I did this in the above image.
I help eliminate this by putting a slice in the tape, Then I push it down real good
This will be a guide to lay your next stripes. It’s a good idea to lay some on each end and closer to the center as well.
This way you have a guide to use from the start to the end
You’ll see toward the end of this How-To that 1/4″ of this area will be a red stripe for the edging.
IMPORTANT as I did not do this the first time around. Run the tape all the way until they meet on all 4 areas..
You can see I did do this on the left bottom corner area.
Ignore the lower right for now. Pay attention to the upper right.
This is where it really starts getting confusing. So bare with me lol.
In the upper right hand and the lower left hand corners, you will see the 1/4″ guide masking tape that goes from the corner down the corner of the roof. On one side of the tape where the smaller side of the corner stripes will go, I placed a 1 1/2″ pieces of tape. Then I put another one on the other side of it. I put the fineline up against that.
Then I placed two 1 1/2″ tape, PLUS one more 3/4″ (now you can look at the lower right)
Do the same in the OPPOSITE DIAGNOL corner (noted in teal lettering)
So now you should have 2 corners done. You have 2 more to do. DO NOT use the 1/4″ green tape down the center method. You will need to do the other 2 corners differently.
Pay attention to the triangles to do this. See pic below
IMPORTANT – Now do the other 2 corners by making the exact same triangle noted by the IMPORTANT green lines. You’ll want to make the triangles the same. You can do this by running a piece of masking tape directly across to the other side. Once you have this noted, you can run your piece of 1/8″ fineline down to the edge of the roof. You’ll want the width of the spacing to be exactly the same on the the sides. See the green lines on the end of the roof. Spacing is the same.
The triangle starts directly across from the other.
Now once you have that 1/8″ line down, work your way backwards using 1 1/2″ masking tape as guides
You can also use the image below as a reference
The two yellow lines are 3/4″ tape that you use to help make the angles the same as the other side. Start those at the same place as the other side and make sure that the width is the same at the end of the roof and those angles should be the same.
Note the printout that I used as a reference. Not to scale since we wanted to make sure the flag design looks good on the roof
Doing the stripe color first makes it a LOT easier to do since you don’t have to guess at the width of a 1/4″ stripe.
You are using the 1/4″ tape to make it for you by covering the area you want to leave as the edge.
For those who haven’t seen my YouTube channel, I have a video that shows how to do a pinstripe backwards.
You can see that here
https://youtu.be/Tk1vlmi12Jw
You’ll want to take your time and do a good job as if you leave a gap, then this area will become wider than 1/4″ once done.
The green masking 1/4″ runs over where the orange tape and the previous orange tape butt up against eachother. If you do not do this step, any hairline gaps will leave blow-through. This is just an ‘insurance’ step.
Cover that gap!!!!
It will make it easier to cover the black versus the red overspray areas.
The customer wants the gray to have a matte finish. So we’ll buff the roof. Then we’ll mask off the gray areas again, scuff them. Then we’ll spray a couple coats of clearcoat with flatting agent.
Due to the colder weather, the fact that I used a High Solids clear along with the humidity we had, I opted not to spray the matte clear over the gray. I started doing the outline but it was leaving a print. Prints on this roof with a gloss and matte finish would be a disaster as there is no chance of buffing them out if needed. So I told the customer if he still wanted the gray stripes matte clearcoated, he can bring it back in a couple weeks. This way, we know for sure the paint will be cured.
Thanks for reading.
Comments