Gold leaf size and celly compatability.

[tifrap]

I decided to play around with a gronky old petrol tank that I had spare.
stripped it bare and really liked the look of the steel, so decided to silver leaf it, over a primer.

Primed it with u-pol acid etch - and then work forced me to put it aside for a bit.
A few months later, in a rash moment I thought oh hell just spray it, so it got a blue celly basecoat and a couple of coats of celly lacquer.

Work took over again, and 3 months later, knowing that next chance I'd get to put it on the bike would be the end of summer, I decided to revisit the silver leaf idea.

I have done quite a lot of gold leaf work, but never on a vehicle, so the process wasn't a problem, just the compatability of the paints and size.

After a bit of light abrasion I used a thinned Lymmitt 4 hour size, like you do, and schlag metal silver leaf (aluminium really) for the bottom half of the tank. It looked lovely and shiney, and was set to get a few months to cure nicely.

After about a week, i noticed that the leaf had developed that tell tale swirly pattern that says something under there is still fluid. Sure enough the leaf scratched off far too easily and the size underneath was still sticky.

I did the usual research online, watched loads of youtube videos hoping to see which size worked over celly, and according to most sources, any size will work OVER celly (but not under it). But not my size - so I tried another size, windsor and newtons japan gold size - same effect.

Don't forget that this is a gronky old tank, and I'm doing it more for my own amusement than anything else.
Anyway I washed the whole lot off with white spirit and decided to try something else, as an experiment. I sprayed a bit of bare steel with cellulose lacquer and laid the leaf directly onto it, using the celly as size - It worked brilliantly, even if the working time was measured in minutes or seconds rather than hours.

So I did the same on the tank, let the celly degass and laid the leaf. A few days later I tried the surface and the celly had also refused to cure.
Now I'm frustrated, but also really curious about what might work, I've been eying up tins of hammerite and humbrol, even thought about trying a thinned acrylic resin. Next though I'm going to try using a catalysed cellulose (not pre-cat) in the hope that the sheet of aluminium doesn't act like putting the lid on the can of paint, like it seems to have so far.

one upshot of doing the same tank so many times is that I have finally come up with a simple layout that I really like. When it works I might even post an image.

Any Ideas would be really welcome, especially if you have ever done any guilding 'properly' on a petrol tank, if so what base, size and topcoat did you use?

[Taught2BCauti...]

I have seen gilding done over a normal paint finish, so presumably, you need a neutralising coat between the base metal and the primer.

Does your cellulose coat cure better in direct sunlight or under UV light?

My daughters use some kind of cellulose primer on their nails, that only cures under UV. Without the UV, it remains tacky and goes cloudy when wet, but 10 minutes of UV, and it hardens like glass.
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[stinkwheel]

I'm no expert but I wonder if an epoxy paint would be your friend here? Or even a straight epoxy resin direct onto the metal? They generally either cure fully or don't cure at all.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[tifrap]

Thanks Taugh2BCautious, never heard of UV activated cellulose, but I have used a UV activated glass adhesive, snag is the metal layer is completely light tight.

Stinkwheel - now there is a thought, epoxy - I think I know someone with an epoxy spraying rig for polystyrene - Thats definately on the list then.