Wow really so how long should this whole project take
Shouldnāt matter too much. Gray would be better but black should cover up that beige totally I would think. Also try to find something higher than 1200. That will definitely give you a really great finish, but if you can get some 1600 or 2000 also it will be a little better.
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Just depends on how much time you have. This is a little piece so it wonāt take all that long. I will sand the primer and put on the first coat of color tomorrow. That has to cure for a couple days, then I will sand it and put on the clear, wait a couple days, sand that and then buff it out. Iām only doing one coat of everything because this is just a tutorial project, but on my case I did 2 coats of color so that adds another few days. All in all it can take a week if you have nothing to do all day or up to a few weeks. The sanding is very very tedious. I probably sanded my case for a total of about 10 hours at least.
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Bumpin for update.
Woahhhhh!!! 3 days before you can sand the first coat of paint? Yeahā¦ kinda makes senseā¦ I usually donāt even sand between color coats only wait till the last coat for it to dry properlyā¦ BUT my piesces have never looked as beautiful as yours!!! I canāt wait for the updates! I will so follow your guide from now on if it becomes mirror!!! Woo!!!
GW so far and canāt wait for more!
so how exactly do you wetsand. Do you soak the sandpaper or do you just dip it in the water. and should it just be water or a water soap mixture
Oh it will be mirror like donāt worry! It should actually come out even better than the case I have pictured in the first post because I didnāt do that one as well as I could have. Itās not difficult to get a mirror finish, it just takes a lot of work, time, and patience.
There are a couple ways to do it. The way I do it is to dip the sanding block and paper together into a bucket of water mixed with just a tiny amount of dish soap to keep everything lubricated. I just dip it quickly, but that is enough to saturate the paper because the MDF block I use also soaks up water. I make sure that itās dripping a little bit and let it drip onto the surface. When you sand you want the area you are sanding to be totally wet. This doesnāt take a huge amount of water though. I will get into it more with pictures on my next update.
BTW I updated the original post with the paint brand in case anyone was wondering about that.
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I see i will try the dish soap and wat grit sandpaper should i be using to wetsand
Wow @*that gloss in the first pic. How durable/delicate is the final clear coat once everything is done? Iām just painting my case and wonder if a slightly āroughā (as in not high gloss) surface might be more resistant to scratching. At the moment I imagine that such a glossy surface is really sensitive. After all Iāll be using my stick and am worried to scratch it.
For car paint there is a 2 component clear coat that should be pretty scratch resistant. Will lacquer (resin based paint as opposed to acrylic enamel) as you use it be just as fine?
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It just depends on what stage you are on right now. If you have any more coats of anything to go on just use 400. Only the very last coat getās finer paper. On the last coat you sand with everything. First 400, then 600, 1000, 1500, 2000, etc, moving up progressively. This sounds worse than it is, although itās definitely very time consuming. The good thing is that every time you move to finer paper it gets easier and easier because the finer paper is not used to get it flat, itās just to remove the scratches left by each previous sanding.
Itās pretty durable. I doubt a rough finish would be more durable, it would just hide the scratches better. If you put on a couple coats of primer, a couple color, and a clear, while making sure all dirt or oils are wiped off in between and you donāt use the stick for 30 days after the last coat went on it will be very durable.
You donāt have to use lacquer though. If you want to use acrylic you can do that too and get the same results. Itās the work that goes into it that gives the mirror finish, not so much the type of paint.
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When painting/priming, do you just spray the top sides, let it dry, then flip over to paint the other sideā¦ or is there a way to spray all sides in one pass? You would have to let the top part dry first before spraying the bottom side, right?
Well for this tutorial Iām not painting the other side at all, but yeah if I were I would probably do as you said.
On my case that I made I just made stands and rested the box by itās inner supports and painted the whole thing in one pass.
Heres a pic of my first coat
Now heres a pic after i wetsanded (used 320 cuz its all i had)
This is what the case looks like all around pretty much. my question is is this how it is supposed to look or is this the result of maybe the sandpaper not being wet enough or too much sanding or the grit being too low (320).
Thanks for your help
Hmm. It seems as though your first coat doesnāt look like it really coated everything completely. It shouldnāt look like yours when itās done. It should all be a uniform gray color. It shouldnāt have marks and uneven coloration, and it should feel very flat to the touch with no noticeable texture.
320 is too low though. Get some 400. And is your sandpaper designed to be used wet? Some arenāt. The other thing is that maybe you just sanded way too much without wiping off the surface and/or using a fresh piece of sandpaper. When you wetsand the residue will foam up and the paper will start catching and kind of tugging on the surface. As soon as that happens you have to stop, wipe off the surface, and get a new piece of sandpaper. If you keep sanding after that point it will do nothing but start stripping off paint quickly and leaving marks. And it definitely needs to be totally wet on the surface that you are sanding. There shouldnāt be any dry spots at all. You should also use very light pressure. You donāt really need to press on it, just let it glide over the work piece. Iām going to sand my project tomorrow a day early since Iām off of work so you can wait until then and see how it should look.
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Great tutorial. Good work.
So i was wondering if i put a heater around the paint would it make it so i do not to have to wait so long before i wetsand again
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Must have patience grasshopper. 
But yeah the hotter it is the faster it will cure.
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Haha i know i just want to finish so i can start using it i have been out of commision for like a week and im startin to feel it 
Bump for update. Will update again later today.
I know what you mean. Itās hard to go slowly when you want to use it right away.