Earlier this summer, I had the itch to paint one of my reels just for challenge and the fun of it.  To do this, I carefully planned out my steps and followed through as best as I could realizing a couple things that were against me:

1)      I am not skilled at taking a reel apart without a schematic to say the least and I didn't have one.

2)      I can't paint worth a darn, but hey, it's spray paint.

3)      Zero experience, but I had to start somewhere.

I decided that my Trion LP was the reel (i.e., victim) of choice to experiment with.  I was going to paint it purple on the outsides with a metallic silver inside.  Ooohhh, the excitement was unbearable.

I am normally a very patient person, but for some reason, I couldn't wait for Pflueger to send me the schematics.

The first step was priming the parts of the reel that were going to be painted.

Promising Prospects

Laying on the purple; I was getting really excited here. Things were looking great.

Then the metallic silver

At this time, it sure was looking good.  

From Promising to Uh Oh to Disturbing

But we all know that just because something looks good doesn't always mean that it is good.  I do not know why, but the Metallic Silver (Rustoleum metallic silver) would not adhere to the primer.  Anything that touched the paint damaged it, from napkins to fingerprints.  The bonding was so weak that the Goo Gone I used to remove the fingerprints actually removed the silver paint!! Unbelievable.  I guessed perhaps the primer I used and the silver paint didn't mixed so I removed the primer and painted the silver metallic paint without it.  Fortunately the silver covered the original paint job nicely.  Unfortunately, the result was the same.  To say the least, I was very disappointed.  The silver looked so crappy that I didn't even bother to take photos.

I also tried multiple times to apply the silver and all attempts yielded the same poor results.

My art consultant (my 8 year old daughter) told me that she too was disappointed since the color scheme was her idea.  She recommended that of all the colors we had in the garage, only yellow would somewhat match the purple.  Huh Oh well Kind of Husky (University of Washington, but they use gold) colors.

I was so upset.  All this hard work; carefully taping, removing tape and paint, re-taping and I have to settle with yellow for now.  At least the yellow stuck well.  But I am not satisfied.  I am going need to find a shade of gold to make it a truer Husky reel, perhaps a shade that also matches the handle.

-ib

Nice LSU colors

GO TIGERS

Island Bass,

Don't quit.

Don't be like my grandfather.

He invented a soft drink that he called 1-Up.

It was not that good so he changed the formula named the new drink 2-Up.

He kept inproving on the drink until he got to 6-Up and quit.

Just a word to the wise.  ;D   ;D   ;D

P.S.

Great color combination.

Keep it as it is.  

Did you sand the reel before priming?

Did you wet-sand the reel after priming?

Spray paint is probably not a great choice to paint small delicate things. Applying many very thing layers with an airbrush is probably the only way to undertake such a project and avoid runs.

If you can't get ideas from ppl in this forum, look around modeling forums and such. Miniature modellers know a lot about this subject.

Did you sand the reel before priming?

Did you wet-sand the reel after priming?

Spray paint is probably not a great choice to paint small delicate things. Applying many very thing layers with an airbrush is probably the only way to undertake such a project and avoid runs.

If you can't get ideas from ppl in this forum, look around modeling forums and such. Miniature modellers know a lot about this subject.

Took the words right out of my mouth.  ASK FIRST

That's what we're here for

Don't quit.

Silver and gold are notoriously difficult colors to work with either from a spray can or a jar, they just are more "watery" than other colors. Take the advice about surface prep and priming, maybe pick another color scheme ??? Good luck.

Unfortunately, I didn't sand first and I can kick myself in the fanny for totally overlooking that. I should have known better.

I appreciate all of the advice and received simialr input from real painters.

I might suck at painting be I will not quit. I will have to come back to this come winter time.