Rhea Megashift | Gloss Liquid Wrap
RHEA MEGASHIFT
We liquid wrapped this Toyota Tundra in a Gloss Clear Coat for a scratch resistant, gas resistant, more durable finish. This peel-able auto paint will last 5+ years, protect the factory paint, and peel off easier than vinyl. Here’s how we did it.
WASH
First things first, a quick wash with dish soap and water then we take the air hose to it and let it dry over night. We use Dawn Dish Soap because its readily available, inexpensive, and doesn’t contain any wax like some automotive soaps.
MASK
Next morning we mask it up with solvent resistant paper, tape, and plazmask. The trim is going black so we leave it unmasked at first. Since I had some extra hands in the building I decided to take a few parts off the truck to make spraying easier. This isn’t necessary but it can help to get into those tricky areas. Once everything was masked off, we wiped the truck down with water and denatured alcohol to remove any grease, oil, or fingerprints!
BASE
We are using black base here and spraying out of the Spectrum Black Widow HVLP (1.8mm tip) hooked up to the compressor. For the basecoat we are using about 24psi. This trucks pretty big so we need to make sure it gets enough product to ensure peel-ability as well as durability. I put down 4 gallons of black base on the truck with about a 10min flash time in-between coats. The truck is going to get 7 gallons of product total after color and gloss. After the base is done we mask up the trim so it stays black.
COLOR
When Shawn and Kevin saw Rhea Megashift sprayed out on a speedshape in person, they decided there was a little too much purple for their liking. Luckily we have an easy fix for that and we actually recommend using when spraying any pearl. Color boosters to the rescue. In this case we used a blue booster to pull more blue out of the pearl and mute the other colors. This is extremely helpful for white pigments which are prone to striping. We also decided to add some C-Blue Pearl for even more vibrancy. This mixture gets blended into Basecoat Clear and we spray about 2 gallons over the black. Once we are happy with the color we give it about an hour to dry before moving on to the gloss.
CLEARCOAT
The gloss comes with an activator. This activator is mixed in at a 1:1 ratio at which point the liquid will start to harden. You have about 20min before the activated gloss starts to harden in your pot so we only mix about 1 hopper at a time just to be safe. For this I bust out a clean HVLP gun with 1.3mm tip and turn the psi up a little to around 28. After I dial in my gun settings on the test hood, I hit the truck with 1 medium wet coat with the intention of flow coating tomorrow.
FLOWCOAT
After 24hrs the gloss is hard enough to wet sand carefully which will create a smooth surface for our last coat of clear. I use 800-1000 grit sandpaper on a foam pad with my DA sander and some water and dish soap as lubricant. Once the truck is smoothed out, I wipe it down with water and denatured alcohol, make sure the surrounding area is clean, and apply one last coat of gloss. In a paint booth there would be much less overspray and debris to worry about but, until I win the lottery, this shop will work.
UNMASK
After about six hours, we unmask the truck and put it back together. Any overspray can be wiped of with a towel and some mineral spirits and its good to go. In a week or so the coating will be hard enough to buff, polish, spray wax, or run through the car wash no problem. Needless to say, Shawn and Kevin loved the new look so we took it out for a photoshoot. If you are looking to get your car done, give me a call!
