today I glassed a fish for my dad. I completed the lam and then the hotcoat, but was wondering if it was to late to do a pinline. I was thinking of using a water based sharpie to draw the pinline, then gloss coat over, or use a high grade acrylic paint to paint the line on, then gloss coat over. Has anyone had any problems with gloss coats smearing the acrylic paint on a hotcoat? or does anyone have a better method/ idea??? Any ideas would be much appreciated...
You are actually at the correct point in sequence for doing pinlines. Fine sand the pin area and lay down your tape. That's the hard part. It takes a good eye to get the tape lines down in a smooth curve.
On the actual coloring agent, it's best to run a test on whatever method you are considering to make sure there are no issues with gloss. If you have an old board or even a smooth piece of glass you can apply your pinline color and smear some epoxy on it to see if it runs, bleeds or separates.
I have used polyester resin to do pinlines, lightly scuffed them with a buff pad and a quick wipe with an acetone rag before applying the gloss coat.
There are lots of different ways to do it and even a little thing like timing when you pull the tape is something to consider. If you do it with poly and mix it fairly hot you can pull the tape immediately. A razor blade on edge can be used to scratch away boo boos.
I keep it simple and use pigmented epoxy for pinlines. Fine sand to 320, tape off and brush in the epoxy. If you use "fast" hardener, let it start to heat up in the cup before you lay it down. Pull the tape when it starts to gel, this takes some finesse and timing so lay down some practice lines before you go for it. No drama with paint bleed, separation of your gloss coat etc.