Painted the cab neck this afternoon. Masked off the areas around the neck that need to remain white, and also cut out some cardboard to fit in and block the neck hole into the cab to prevent black specs of overspray from getting into the now-pristine gloss white interior.
I'm sure lots of people are going to think this is overkill, but it works for me and makes things easier: at this stage, I also wrap the entire cabinet with shipping stretch wrap (large roll, about 2' wide). I'll wrap the cab longways with several passes so it's nice and thick, and then wrap continuously around the sides with several passes so it's nice and thick. Why? Protection, protection, protection.
- Protection #1 - overspray, of course.
- Protection #2 - keeps the fresh new exterior cab paint getting nicked or scratched in my garage as I move it around while stenciling. Learned that the hard way with Mata Hari a couple years ago - picked up the empty cab to move it into position for the first stencil and the cabinet rubbed up against my chest. I was wearing my work apron which holds tools and what-not, and sure enough a screw driver in one of my holders made a nice scratch on the new base paint that I had to repair.
- Protection #3 - once stenciling is done and I'm happy the painting is as close to perfect as I can get it without going insane, it's time to move it to my basement rec room to put back on all of the hardware and reassemble the pin. It's a narrow, winding staircase of 24 steps down to my basement and inevitably my son and I will bump a wall or a handrail on the way down (or up). The wrap guards against any mishaps to the cabinet (and the walls).
How do I stencil with the wrap on? I'll provide some pics in the coming weeks as I enter this stage. But a quick description would be: using an Xacto and/or scissors, I cut along the bottom of the cabinet side I'm working on. The tape at the top of the cabinet side acts as a hinge. I left up the "window" and drape it over the back to expose the side I'm working on/stenciling. Once both stencil colors are down, I "close" the wrap window and re-tape it down along the bottom, rearrange the cabinet position, and work on the next side. This does mean I stencil one color, one side at a time. Folks may balk with that method as this does adds time, but IMO it makes for a better end result. By stenciling the cabinet laying on it's side, it prevents drips and, at least for me, it makes it much easier to remove the stencil itself.
Cab should be ready/cured enough for the first stencil color by the weekend if I can find the time.
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