Bare wood paint recommendations

cleverlyj

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So, I'm sanding down my wizard of wor to bare wood and repainting it. I haven't had luck with oil paint the times I've used that, and am wondering, will latex or enamel paint adhere well and not chip off. What would you all suggest? And what nap of roller is the best to use for the smoothest finish?

The main reason I don't want to use oil is because the last time I did all these bubbles came through the paint and dried like that all shitty. But if I did use oil do I have to wait a long time between coats to prevent that? And does oil paint have to be thinned if it's being rolled on?
 
If you are going down to bare wood I would prime it. Sand smooth. Prime again. Sand smooth. Then put on a top coat. You shouldn't have to thin oil for a roller. Use a foam roller and roll on thin coats. Let each coat dry 24 hrs And sand with 300 grit between coats. A good paint job is all prep and sanding.


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No idea why you would have had bubbles, but I don't think it was using oil paint as much as an application problem (possibly using a roller) or prep (fisheyes). No offense. I wouldn't recommend latex. It has come along way and is a GOOD finish, and on my DK Jr. cab, it worked near perfectly.. However, on a pinball project I sprayed with latex, it still has a tackiness to it. If using latex with stencils, forget it..

Must use a primer. I doubt some of the factory jobs used primer, but they were in a factory setting, spraying lacquer on a brand new cabinet. With restorations and this old stuff, you get dings, scratches in the wood, sometimes something gets into the wood or you have pinholes on the surface that cause fisheyes. If you have your primer down, slick, finish sand it, wipe it down with Naptha, you know you have a perfect surface to spray the basecoat on.

If using oil base with a roller, then yeah, you might have to wait between coats. If spraying oil based like I did, I waited about 15min between coats - 1st coat a mist coat - didn't fully cover. 2nd coat, full wet coat. 3rd coat, full wet coat. That's it. If you have a compressor or access to one, get a cheap spray gun, buy oil based RustOleum, thin with 15-20% acetone as instructed on the can. It's like spraying with a giant rattle can that doesn't run out quick and if done right, no overlap marks. I can't recommend it enough, but it does take some practice on a scrap piece of wood, more setup/cleanup time, etc..
 
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I think part of the oil issue was that it was cold when I did it in January and the paint went on thick. Jimkirk said somethIng about the oil paint lettIng out gas bubbles which dried causing the issue.

Now what type of primer is recommended, and also, are the oil based rattle can rustoleums worth it or am I better off rolling?
 
Oil tends to seem runny, but with spraying you need to thin it. I would think that if using a foam roller, you wouldn't need to thin it, but I could be wrong.

For primer, I've used rattle can Krylon, rattle can Rustoleum, and more recently Kilz rolled with a foam roller. After rolling it, I find you have to sand it with 220 grit to flatten it out.

Thing with rattle cans vs spraying from a gun vs rolling is.. with rattle can finish, I have a hard time not seeing overlap marks. With a gun, I don't have that problem. I'd think with rolling you'd have to color sand and polish the finish.
 
I will be painting mine before winter I hope. I am learning from your questions. Do you or does anyone have a color code for the wizard of wor cab? I just picked mine up yesterday. It has black speckles all over it. At first I thought it was overspray from someone's project, but it is only on the white parts of the cab. Nothing else. I want mine to be as original as possible. Is this how they were? If I find any info on paint, I will pass it on. From past experience, I will NOT be using latex paint! Good luck!
 
I will be painting mine before winter I hope. I am learning from your questions. Do you or does anyone have a color code for the wizard of wor cab? I just picked mine up yesterday. It has black speckles all over it. At first I thought it was overspray from someone's project, but it is only on the white parts of the cab. Nothing else. I want mine to be as original as possible. Is this how they were? If I find any info on paint, I will pass it on. From past experience, I will NOT be using latex paint! Good luck!

It's been discussed a bit how to get that speckle effect. It was used a lot on pinball cabinets, I think in a way to make a large solid color area look less dull, but to also mask grain and knots in the wood.

Do a google search for "pinball cabinet splatter"

and here's some info from pinballpal-

Applying a spatter effect
Many pinball machine cabinets received a paint spatter effect from the factory. This
involved spraying the base coat with a contrasting color with a random pattern of paint
droplets in a contrasting color. This has the effect of not only making the paint job look
more complex and interesting, but it also helps to distract the eye from minor
imperfections on the base coat or cabinet defects. The original spatter effect was
probably achieved with an air-powered spray gun, but a similar effect can be obtained
with nothing more than a toothbrush or an old paint brush.
The first thing that you need to do is determine the color of the paint spattering effect that
you wish to use. Appendix A lists what we have observed for spatter color for the games
that we have checked out. There's no guarantee that every game of a particular title
received the same color of spattering, and there's always the possibility that someone
reapplied a spattering pattern at some point in the past. Here's one easy way to tell: The
factory spattering always went on after the base coat but before the stencil colors. So, the
stencil colors should cover up any spattering and you should be able to see the bumps of
the paint, but not the color. If the spattering is on top of the stencil colors, the spattering
was added later.
Since the spatter dots are so small, color match is not critical. We've seen black, white,
brown or gold and silver spattering. To apply the spattering, the thicker the paint the
better. Straight out of the can should be fine. Get some scrap cardboard to practice with
and either an old toothbrush or paintbrush. The stiffer the bristles, the better. If you're
using a paintbrush, you may get better results if you cut the bristles down to an inch or
less. Now simply dip the brush lightly in the paint, and drag your finger across the top of
the bristles to flick the paint onto the surface. Experiment with distance, the amount of
paint on the brush, and finger pressure to get a pattern that closely resembles the original.
In most cases, less is more. You may be tempted to apply more spattering than on the
original, but it's likely that the end result will look better with less rather than more
spattering.
 
Excellent ideas. I will do some sampling when I get to that point. Thank you very much! I will be posting pics during my progress. Plenty of people have helped me and I like to give a little back.
 
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