Gold Leaf

I am going to attempt and gold leaf the stipe and logos on the new steal interstate tank and side panels I purchased. I am going to use a urethane 2K base/clear paint and clear over the gold leaf. The gold leaf size (adhesive) that I have is enamel and have heard stories of the gold wrinkling under the clear as the chemical reaction of the two. My plan is to paint and clear all the parts and then apply the gold leaf and lay more clear over it. There have been success with using the the two incompatable chemicals by allowing the gold size dry for a few days after the leaf has been applied to fully cure then dry spraying the first coat of clear over the leaf and letting it flash off compleatly before spraying the wet coat. I will be applying the leaf over clear just incase there is a issue and I can sand it off and try again or apply vinyl decals if I choose. I will keep updates on the process for future referance.

That sounds like a good plan to me. That's how I did my Interstate back in the late '70s or early '80s, and it lasted for years. I believe I was using Imron urethane clear.



Ken

My dad was a master finisher. I still have his gold leaf kit. His mastery was with the use of all the old school materials. The compatibility of those materials was well known. Today's materials are so much more varied in their chemistry. I would say it's impossible to "know it all", given how much varied the modern chemistry is. I had my own problems painting a tank this year with unfamiliar materials....

... but I learned from my dad that when in doubt, you make samples and always test the next step of your process on a sample before you shoot the piece that will be the finished product. You only need a few test pieces, just so you can guage reactivity from one coat to the next. Recently, one of the issues on my own project that threw me for a loop was the "recoat windows" of the different paints I used. Old School lacquer didn't have a recoat window. Once a coat flashed off, you could shoot another coat. You really only had to worry about loading it up to much and having a run as a result, which isn't that hard to avoid.

So besides making a few test pieces, the other advise I would give you is to read the instructions carefully on each product before you use it. I made the mistake of not adhering to the directions regarding recoat times and had to strip my tank twice because the previous coat reacted when I didn't wait long enough for the previous coat to fully cure...

I used cheap rustoleum black gloss rattle cans for the backround color and Gold rustoleum for the pinstripe and norton logo. Then I bought some of that catylized clear from Eastwood which is fuel resistant and topcoated the whole thing with no reaction between the 2 different brands of paint. HTH. good luck

I have done several Gilded jobs on Norton tanks, you need 23KT Gold and a 3 hour gold size varnish, add hardener to the varnish to prevent wrinkling after top coating the finished job. After gilding the job brush clearing the graphics with something like PPG clear is advisable before spraying the final clear coats. Hope this helps, The job in the photo looks like variegated gold, which in fact contains no real gold just copper and alloys, that is how it appears anyway!....Vincent tanks are done with real 23KT gold leaf also.........

Yes, I did use variegated gold leaf. I liked the look of it in the larger size logos. I was into a bit more flashy look back then.

Ken

lcrken said:

That sounds like a good plan to me. That's how I did my Interstate back in the late '70s or early '80s, and it lasted for years. I believe I was using Imron urethane clear.

Ken

Click to expand...

Yes, I did use variegated gold leaf. I liked the look of it in the larger size logos. I was into a bit more flashy look back then.

Ken

....a bit more :shock: Shoot.... I like the look of your bike even now, Ken. :mrgreen:

You can't miss that Norton! :mrgreen:

Yes I will be testing all the products I am using before I do the final finnish. I am going to test with 24k gold as well as imitation gold first. If the imitation gold works and looks just as good as the 24k I may use it as the price will be a lot less. If not then 24k it will be. I will not be turning the leaf in any pattern as I just want a plain gold look.

Yeah, it was kind of fun.

I had one more try at gold leaf, this time on my PR, back in the '70s before I returned it to the original yellow. The color at the time was a Cadillac fireflake green. It went through a lot of iterations during its 20 year racing career.



Ken