Spraying clear coat onto bare metal

[mattmcss]

Alrite, I'm not sure where this belongs really, I'll just throw it here and mods can move it as they please.

I'm about to get a metal desk, old school, and I want to sand it down/strip the paint and give it some texture, maybe some swirls with a scotch pad / steel wool or something, than I want to shoot clear over it to keep the finish nice.

Any suggestions on how I go about doing this ? I've got a compressor, i will be spraying most likely with a HVLP gun ?

[ramos]

Just make sure the surface is absolutely 1000% free of anything . No grease, dirt, yada yada . Then get too it . The swirl pattern your planning will help you a lot. Gives the cc soemthing to hold onto

[mattmcss]

sweet, thats what I was thinking with the swirl pattern to help it adhere, I just found out the top is some other material, so the bottom is going to be this metal and maybe I'll have to paint the top black and than clear it, hopefully it should look pretty *****in when its done

[nYc.kablamO]

cool, working on furniture n stuff.
anyone ever consider building a glass tv stand?
if youre still gonna go for the swirl i would probably use a orbital sander real light and just pattern it. ive never really tried though
its always good to use a tack cloth for the final wipe
gl

[Trixter]

what you can do to make cool designs/effects on the metal is finish it so it's shiny (no scratches) and smooth. tape off a section, or possibly even use like some 1/4" hard board, to make a design/pattern...then use a wire wheel (that's why the hard board over tape) and go in one direction. you should get a sort of "grain" in your taped off area(s). you can you different directions and grades of wheel to achieve different patterns/effects.

honestly, for the top of the desk, i would use like an epoxy varnish....will stand up to a lot more abuse and also give that thick laquor look.

[Blazin_Jason]

We had a guy bring in an old round table that he wanted sandblasted and then powder coated clear. Looked like a$$ because the sandblasted metal under it.

[davidfre21]

get a 5-6"gringer and cut pieces out of it like a pizza, then hit the desk with it... makes a ****** swirl patern... then it hit it with a candy mid coat to make it pop and then clear it