Roll or Spray my DK red?

vicemikey

New member

Donor 2011
Joined
Apr 3, 2010
Messages
907
Reaction score
22
Location
Archbold, Ohio
So I'm having a hard time here - I can go the store and roll paint my DK today. Or, I can wait and secure a paint booth at work - hassle my boss into letting me borrow his equipment...Waiting for the booth could take me a month.
 
Depends on what's more important to you. Do you want it done NOW, or do you want it done perfectly? Rolling is a lost artform. You need the right roller, paint, technique and a little penetrol/floetrol. Spraying gives you a smooth finish easily. Rolling gives you a nearly smooth finish with a lot of work. It can also give you an annoying orange peel finish if you don't know what you're doing. I have always rolled my cabs, and some have turned out very nice, some have turned out OK. On the very nice ones, it took a lot of screwing around to get it right. On the so-so ones, I applied too many coats, used too much primer, or didn't use a low enough grit of sandpaper after the primer. On my nearly perfect ones, I didn't use any primer. On my ninty cabs that I did use primer, I got a slight orange peel. If I had access to a spray booth and spraying equipment, I'd spray. If that wasn't an option, I'd roll.

A nice finish on a Ninty cab requires:

-white foam roller
-no primer
-oil-based Sherwin Williams grade paint
-penetrol leveling agent
-sand 220 between coats.
-turtle wax and buffer to finish
 
Depends on what's more important to you. Do you want it done NOW, or do you want it done perfectly? Rolling is a lost artform. You need the right roller, paint, technique and a little penetrol/floetrol. Spraying gives you a smooth finish easily. Rolling gives you a nearly smooth finish with a lot of work. It can also give you an annoying orange peel finish if you don't know what you're doing. I have always rolled my cabs, and some have turned out very nice, some have turned out OK. On the very nice ones, it took a lot of screwing around to get it right. On the so-so ones, I applied too many coats, used too much primer, or didn't use a low enough grit of sandpaper after the primer. On my nearly perfect ones, I didn't use any primer. On my ninty cabs that I did use primer, I got a slight orange peel. If I had access to a spray booth and spraying equipment, I'd spray. If that wasn't an option, I'd roll.

A nice finish on a Ninty cab requires:

-white foam roller
-no primer
-oil-based Sherwin Williams grade paint
-penetrol leveling agent
-sand 220 between coats.
-turtle wax and buffer to finish

Phet....You have mastered the art of rolling. I've seen very few (even) get close to the finish you get. It takes a lot of practice to get to that level.

My vote is for spray :)

Edward
 
I'm far from an expert, but have gotten acceptable results spraying. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions!
 
Not to thread hijack but has anyone on here tried using the vinyl from thisoldgame? Didn't gregatron do a red DK restore with it?
 
For the melamine coated cabinets, neither paint nor vinyl would be original, so either works.

I painted my DK Jr and by some stroke of luck, it came out beyond my expectations. There's the slightest texture to the finish, but it's nearly slick. I took a chip of melamine from inside the cabinet and had it computer matched.

The vinyl would look great, but I almost feel like there would be MORE prep to doing vinyl, and not less - as far as filling, sanding, primer, wet sanding, etc.. If it's not slick as glass, like you'd prep a car primer job, it's going to show flaws under that vinyl. With paint, get a speck in the paint, you can wet sand/polish it out if it annoys you.

White primer, wet sanded slick. Olympic Premium semi-gloss latex, sprayed. Approximately 85% paint, 10% water, 5% Floetrol.

Some pics of my DK Jr spray job-

3851320014_1725550528_b.jpg


3850525049_00ff46d7c1_b.jpg


3851320736_5f42ab38fe_b.jpg
 
That looks great! Since I don't have a sprayer,it would either be rolled on or vinyl.I figured as long as you got the cab sides smooth,the vinyl would look great and presumably take less time.Something I will definitely have to ponder over before I start my own DK restore.
 
Original stuff is something like Formica. (at least on my Jap-built RS/MB cab).

That color is not available from any of this material making companies as far as I found.

Yesterday I saw my friend CKONG's DK and he rolled it and it looks PERFECT. Absolutely amazing, I couldn't find a single flaw....

http://www.dragonslairfans.com/smfor/index.php?topic=1059.msg10440#msg10440

(check out how he masked the original (perfect) side-art before painting...amazing job)
 
That looks great! Since I don't have a sprayer,it would either be rolled on or vinyl.I figured as long as you got the cab sides smooth,the vinyl would look great and presumably take less time.Something I will definitely have to ponder over before I start my own DK restore.

If you use vinyl then you still need to paint the cab as the vinyl is somewhat translucent. The cab also needs to be perfect because the vinyl shows any imperfections under it.
I made a makeshift paint booth in our open patio and spray my cabs and Sci Fi models in it.
I just hung plastic all around and on the floor.
You just need to use a good mask since there is no ventilation.
 
If you use vinyl then you still need to paint the cab as the vinyl is somewhat translucent. The cab also needs to be perfect because the vinyl shows any imperfections under it.
I made a makeshift paint booth in our open patio and spray my cabs and Sci Fi models in it.
I just hung plastic all around and on the floor.
You just need to use a good mask since there is no ventilation.

Ah,good to know! Now to search the forum for a thread with the red DK paint codes.I know they're on here somewhere.....I think.
 
How trashed is it? You might just consider cleaning it up and leaving it be. Because of the orginal paint finish being baked on you can remove a lot of dirt and non-factory paint by using graffiti remover. It won't hurt the original finish. My red DK has some chipping (especially along the back edge) and that's the sort of thing you can't clean up. I'm having a hard time deciding whether I want to mess with it. There was at least one post where the guy started cleaning his cab and it turned out he didn't need to paint.
 
Ah,good to know! Now to search the forum for a thread with the red DK paint codes.I know they're on here somewhere.....I think.

A paint code won't work well, the system isn't universal and different paints with the same code will look different. You need to match the color using a sample from your cab to get it right.
 
Hello and welcome to the forum. Yes, TOG sells vinyl. Check out this cab that was done using the TOG Red vinyl. It's exceptionally well done. If you have questions, you should contact the builder of this fine example.

SSL11476.jpg

Great looking cabinet. I heard it was for sale for $750.
 
Back
Top Bottom