paint question, need advice...

i've painted cars/panels in my day, but i've never tried shooting heavy flake. i wanna do the roof of my '51 chevy. i've been given quotes by painters that i could see myself paying, but then there's always some issue about time (on their end). i don't wanna have the whole summer sneak by and still not have the roof flaked.

with that said, my question is (keeping in mind i just want the flake suspended in the clear, the roof is already painted) should i try this myself? of course, i can shoot a test panel first, but i've got to go thru a lot of effort to set up a 'booth' in my garage; what with the plastic curtains and wetting the floor and walls, etc. i don't want to set this all up just to ruin the roof of my car. is this something i should just pay to have done?
if not, is there any good advice when shooting flake? any pitfalls to look for? how should i treat it different from a regular base coat?

any help is greatly appreciated.

tred.

 

I'm no expert, but it always looks strange to me when flake is added to clear, then just sprayed over existing paint. It looks like the flake is sitting on the surface, as opposed to being "deep."

The painter types I've known lay their flake down over a silver or gold metallic base, then color over that, then clear. This seems to give that deep look.

If you're going to the trouble of building a spray booth, prepping your car, etc., you might as well go the distance and have it turn out the way you'd like for it to.

Oh, and spray some test panels to practice before attacking the roof

 

that's half my question, how else should i do it if not suspend the flake in the clear? the base coat is already there, don't wanna re-do any of that...

 

Pm'd ya tredboy.... to bad your not closer or I'd tell ya to just bring it to the shop and we'd flake the **** outta it!

 

i know a guy in ****ord that i'm sure could get you fixed up.

george

 

what color is roof now?what color flake ya gonna use?Are ya gonna kandy it?Well any way just sand your roof ,you can put down a coat of clear.Then shoot more clear with flake until you got the look you want.Then just straight clear.Let dry overnight sand 600 hun,,spray you final few coats of clear.IF your flake leveled out with that clear cut a buff .The more flake ya got the more clear its gonna take to level out.