I set everything out to paint and thought. Why the hell not, maybe in a decade someone will search for how to paint a tippmann and come across this thread.
Sorry there's no photos for the first section though
1) So, painting a 98c today, I take my paint jobs somewhat serious so I start with full disassembly. If that's too much for you then this is not the tutorial for you. Take everything, and I mean everything off of the shells. The pins, yes even the nuts come out of the right side shell, on the newer tippmanns some of the pins are knurled on one side and you have to grab them and wiggle them out with pliers
2) Next step, get out those dollar bills because we are stripping! The powder coat that tippmann used is fine for a while but especially if paint sits on it for a long time it can start to wrinkle and peel off the aluminum
There's a few methods of stripping it off I've tried, none of them are fun though. If you want to find an easy route I've had success with some paint strippers in the past but you really need to submerge the body in the stripping solution so it's not the most cost effective way if you want a repeatable process. I found submerging it and letting it sit for most of a day seemed to work decent. Remember you are stripping off powder coat not paint so following the paint stripping directions may not work the best.
If you have an air compressor the most cost effective way I've found is a small bucket sand blaster from harbor freight and spray into something like a storage bin so you can recycle the sand. Again, this is the most cost effective way if you want a repeatable process. If you are only doing 1 or 2 markers the paint stripper is probably a better option
For sand blasting, go slow! Unless you have a pretty serious compressor (240v) this process is pretty hard on your compressor. Take lots of breaks to let it cool down.
I also use a paint stripping disk on a flex shaft (more powerful Dremel) so what I do is sand blast the hard to get areas and while my compressor is recharging and cooling down I'm still working on the flex shaft getting the flatter and easier to reach spots. I trade back and forth. It took about 2 hours but I did get it to a spot I was happy with.
3) Next, assuming you have the tools for it, Polish the internals. Not a needed step but easy to do while everything is broken down and later on it will actually help anyway.
4) clean that thing! Acetone is my go to for this. Make sure and get all the crap off.
5) set up for paint, I use a small TV dinner tray which is like the perfect size for painting tippmanns. A few things to notice here. I didn't mask anything at all, the reason there is even with masking I was finding that I would get some overspray typically in the front through the barrel threads and down the feedneck. I found it was way easier to polish the internals before painting and then when done touch up the internals with a final polish which removes the overspray at the same time.
I'm also placing the top of the marker on the very edge of the stand, this is so I can spray up and get paint inside the rear sight
The keen observer will also notice the screws I've used to prop the body off of the stand slightly. I used to place it directly on the surface but what I found happened was right where the body touched the surface often got less paint and sometimes left a missed spot. My theory here is when you are spraying down towards the surface there's a pocket of air that gets trapped against the body, surface and paint coming at it. This pocket of air prevents the paint from reaching the body because it can't get out of the way. So, I prop the marker up just barely off the surface to allow the air to travel under the marker and get out of the way
One thing I am doing is applying heat. Mainly because I'm a dad and have a busy schedule, I don't have a full 12 hours to paint this but also I'm in the Pacific Northwest and today is an average day of cool wetness so I want to make sure the paint sticks to the surface. There's one thing I think the heat does at the end I'm not huge on but it's up to you if it's worth it or not.
Next, primer! Body nice and warm the first coat should be very light
I'm keeping the body warm in-between coats and can basically see the paint drying on contact. I'm using a dark primer because of the paint I'm using next needs it
After 3 layers of primer you should have full coverage
Next first layer of paint. I'm using a color shift paint from Rust-Oleum, I've used it in the past and it's really fun stuff, the down side is it's around $25 a can.
First coat
Second, with the can if you want to see it
And 3 coats
Here's where I said there's a difference if you use heat. I'm hopeful this will go away when I apply the clear coat at the end but the paint looks almost "fuzzy" if it comes through in the photos. It typically doesn't do this when I do not use heat it's much more glossy. Even still I can only see it because I've worked with this paint so much and I'm also not sure it's NOT because of the primer I'm using. It's a new primer so could be that as well.
The keen observer will notice I'm only painting the front half. There's 2 reasons for this
1) I'm out of money for more of the color shifting paint
2) the pattern I'm doing will have the back half white. The reason it will be white is because I'm trying something new, this choice was forced on me because of reason number 1
So right now it's going to sit for almost 24 hours before I even touch it. I HIGHLY recommend waiting this 24h before handling anything as it's a really easy way to screw up your work if you are impatient and go try to assemble it and end up leaving smudges and finger prints all over it
Next I'll be doing some masking for the pattern I want.
Sent from my motorola edge 2024 using Tapatalk
Sorry there's no photos for the first section though
1) So, painting a 98c today, I take my paint jobs somewhat serious so I start with full disassembly. If that's too much for you then this is not the tutorial for you. Take everything, and I mean everything off of the shells. The pins, yes even the nuts come out of the right side shell, on the newer tippmanns some of the pins are knurled on one side and you have to grab them and wiggle them out with pliers
2) Next step, get out those dollar bills because we are stripping! The powder coat that tippmann used is fine for a while but especially if paint sits on it for a long time it can start to wrinkle and peel off the aluminum
There's a few methods of stripping it off I've tried, none of them are fun though. If you want to find an easy route I've had success with some paint strippers in the past but you really need to submerge the body in the stripping solution so it's not the most cost effective way if you want a repeatable process. I found submerging it and letting it sit for most of a day seemed to work decent. Remember you are stripping off powder coat not paint so following the paint stripping directions may not work the best.
If you have an air compressor the most cost effective way I've found is a small bucket sand blaster from harbor freight and spray into something like a storage bin so you can recycle the sand. Again, this is the most cost effective way if you want a repeatable process. If you are only doing 1 or 2 markers the paint stripper is probably a better option
For sand blasting, go slow! Unless you have a pretty serious compressor (240v) this process is pretty hard on your compressor. Take lots of breaks to let it cool down.
I also use a paint stripping disk on a flex shaft (more powerful Dremel) so what I do is sand blast the hard to get areas and while my compressor is recharging and cooling down I'm still working on the flex shaft getting the flatter and easier to reach spots. I trade back and forth. It took about 2 hours but I did get it to a spot I was happy with.
3) Next, assuming you have the tools for it, Polish the internals. Not a needed step but easy to do while everything is broken down and later on it will actually help anyway.
4) clean that thing! Acetone is my go to for this. Make sure and get all the crap off.
5) set up for paint, I use a small TV dinner tray which is like the perfect size for painting tippmanns. A few things to notice here. I didn't mask anything at all, the reason there is even with masking I was finding that I would get some overspray typically in the front through the barrel threads and down the feedneck. I found it was way easier to polish the internals before painting and then when done touch up the internals with a final polish which removes the overspray at the same time.
I'm also placing the top of the marker on the very edge of the stand, this is so I can spray up and get paint inside the rear sight
The keen observer will also notice the screws I've used to prop the body off of the stand slightly. I used to place it directly on the surface but what I found happened was right where the body touched the surface often got less paint and sometimes left a missed spot. My theory here is when you are spraying down towards the surface there's a pocket of air that gets trapped against the body, surface and paint coming at it. This pocket of air prevents the paint from reaching the body because it can't get out of the way. So, I prop the marker up just barely off the surface to allow the air to travel under the marker and get out of the way
One thing I am doing is applying heat. Mainly because I'm a dad and have a busy schedule, I don't have a full 12 hours to paint this but also I'm in the Pacific Northwest and today is an average day of cool wetness so I want to make sure the paint sticks to the surface. There's one thing I think the heat does at the end I'm not huge on but it's up to you if it's worth it or not.
Next, primer! Body nice and warm the first coat should be very light
I'm keeping the body warm in-between coats and can basically see the paint drying on contact. I'm using a dark primer because of the paint I'm using next needs it
After 3 layers of primer you should have full coverage
Next first layer of paint. I'm using a color shift paint from Rust-Oleum, I've used it in the past and it's really fun stuff, the down side is it's around $25 a can.
First coat
Second, with the can if you want to see it
And 3 coats
Here's where I said there's a difference if you use heat. I'm hopeful this will go away when I apply the clear coat at the end but the paint looks almost "fuzzy" if it comes through in the photos. It typically doesn't do this when I do not use heat it's much more glossy. Even still I can only see it because I've worked with this paint so much and I'm also not sure it's NOT because of the primer I'm using. It's a new primer so could be that as well.
The keen observer will notice I'm only painting the front half. There's 2 reasons for this
1) I'm out of money for more of the color shifting paint
2) the pattern I'm doing will have the back half white. The reason it will be white is because I'm trying something new, this choice was forced on me because of reason number 1
So right now it's going to sit for almost 24 hours before I even touch it. I HIGHLY recommend waiting this 24h before handling anything as it's a really easy way to screw up your work if you are impatient and go try to assemble it and end up leaving smudges and finger prints all over it
Next I'll be doing some masking for the pattern I want.
Sent from my motorola edge 2024 using Tapatalk
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