Well, today was a nightmare of biblical proportions.
Firstly, if you are considering my lead and using photocopy labels as a stencil or template, DON'T. It's a really crap idea. Don't do it. You have been warned.
I'll start at the begining....
I realised yesterday that I hadn't any flat black for the background of the TAC sign, so I bought what I could find quickly. A 'generic' brand at that. Fortunately I had the brains to spray a test piece on a metal offcut to see paint performance. It looked great. Then I placed several strips of the label stock across the panel and sprayed the flat white over these. They also looked great and the label strips came off neatly. Hooray!!!!! BUT, and it's a doozey of a but, as I watched, the white paint took on a very crazed appearance. At that point....so did I. The black paint was not allowing the white to melt into it, and as it dried it took on the presentation of a fresco from Pompei. Only not that good.
Armed with this alarming discovery, the importance of correct spray technique became a scary thought. That being a larger number of light coats instead of the 3-4 medium to heavy ones I was planning. I'm not saying I was in any way worried, but I did find two bricks in my underpants later on!
Expecting more trouble from the label itself, I masked every bit I could manage before going near it with the white paint. I was quite confident that I had virtually eliminated any prospect of bleed through leaving visible damage on the black beneath or soaking through the label, causing glue to come off.
I was bloody well wrong on the second part. While last white coat was still tacking off I started to remove the masking and label..............or so I thought. Approximately half of the label glue remained on the fresh black paint, while the paper of the label was now on the floor.
Several outbursts of verbal abuse ensued. It took me a
whole hour to gently prise the glue off the black areas. A fine pair of forceps came in very handy, as by now I had chewed my nails to bloodied stumps!
One brief shaft of light in this bucket of detritus was that I used some normal tack masking tape to lift off numerous very small sections of glue residue and it did NOT lift any of either colors. I fully expected it would come away in sheets, but it held fast! That means both colors are sound and should not give any further trouble in future. Not sure I am that lucky, but the final result is acceptable in light of the issues encountered.
As I said, DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME, try it at someone elses home.
More to come...