Hi guys, I would like some advice. I do custom bicycle paint work and am getting into gold leaf. I’ve done one or two jobs after some testing and use an acrylic size which I found locally but this stuff does not have great adhesion. I apply it directly onto basecoat which has vinyl stencils applied to it for the lettering of the bike. I’m worried that if I were to do a bike where large surfaces are done in leaf, the leaf together with the clear coat would scrape off too easily if it gets a bump or scratch.
From what I’ve read, you guys use oil based size(Dux) followed up by an adhesion promoter then clear. With this process, I think I’d need to first clear over my base coat as one can’t leave basecoat for more than a day as to ensure good adhesion between the clear and the base. Obviously flat the clear down before applying the size and leaf. Correct?
My main question is if the size and leaf are applied over a large area, will this Dux size with adpro over the leaf provide really good adhesion between all layers (primer, base, clear, size, leaf, adpro, clear)? Similar adhesion as I’d get from the usual base clear process(primer, base, clear)?
Another thing, I live in South Africa where Dux and SPI (for the adpro) is not available. Any thoughts on how the heck I’d be able to airfreight this stuff over to me from the US?
Thanks in advance for any feedback!
