maltesechicken

I'm wonder how do you finish a box to have extremely high gloss.
I've painted boxes before with several coats of high gloss paint, and they look alright. But I want to make my box finish to be as smooth and shiny as a bassworx box. I love the way these boxes look, and I want to give my own boxes that kind of look. How do they do that? urethane? laminate? Something else?

ChinaMan

iTrader: (4)

You can use gel coat for that hard piano gloss look, but you might need to go over the mdf with a coat of polyester/epoxy resin first.

Father Yuli

iTrader: (17)

you always resin the box before you paint it if you want gloss.

MadGreen

wet sanding...2000 grit.
i just built this for my car.every coat should be wet sanded.

maltesechicken

Nice work Madgreen - How did you apply the paint? Regular spray can or do you have a nice electric spray system?

maltesechicken

China man,
I saw what Yuli posted saying to resin first - When would paint be applied in your suggestion? And do you have specific product names for the gel coat? Ie - where would I find that?

ChinaMan

iTrader: (4)

Paint would be after the resin. If you can spray the resin on the box, I'd say that would be ideal so you don't get any waves or brush strokes. What you need to do is seal off the porous nature of the MDF and get it as smooth as possible before applying the gel coat. Gel coat can then be applied by brush, but ideally it should be sprayed. Afterwards you can get the high gloss by use of a cream buffing compound.

I know Welland is quite far, but you can look into this place:

http://www.compositescanada.com/contact.php

They're located in Mississauga and stock a great range of products from fiberglass, honeycomb cores, carbon/kevlar fabrics, vacuum bagging equipment to gel coats. I haven't been in a while, but the guys there are very knowledgeable and helpful. Whatever goals you're aiming for and they'll be able point you in the proper direction.

Gel coat is popular with the marine/boat hobbyists. If there are places that supply fiberglass and other composites in your area, they should be able to source what you need. As for colours, you have the entire spectrum... the Dupont catalog is quite amazing.

Hope this helps!

MadGreen

no i used refillable cans.
all layers are done with 1500 and 2000 wet sands.
DuPont paints and products seem to work well for small jobs.any thing big i do in the paint booth.

the ends of the dash are under the rear pillars so i didn't bother putting the work into makeing then look clean.
this is the stuff i do for a living.custom fab work.stealth is my specialty.

oakley1984

having previous expeirience working in a body shop... personally id say a couple coats of high build 2 part epoxy primer followed by a good sanding with 400, then throw down a couple coats of acrylic enamal... wet sand @ 400, 800, 1000, mix up a batch of acrylic enamal/clear coat mix, repeat sanding process upto 2000 grit this time then spray a final coat of clear

_HeC_

iTrader: (2)

my buddy owns/works at a body shop in london and he painted his box, as far as i remember he jsut primed and painted it but the MDF soaked up so much primer, i forget how much he used but it was alot lol