ATC speaker paint finish

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Texturing depends on spray gun pressure, can be easily varied from quite fine droplets to what you could throw with a spoon, no kidding.

So dilute the base material ( if necessary) to something comfortable and start experimenting.

Of course you need a uniform base coat first , let it dry/harden a little, and then lower air pressure and start playing.
 
Ok yes I understand
So it's essentially large globules of paint after base coat
Can this be done with other types of paint or does it have to be Duratex or Tuff Cab etc textured paint? Reason I ask is because the base coat looks like a very smooth auto style paint. I've heard that it's very difficult to get anything like that out of speaker cab textured paint!
 
Excuse the ignorant
why would underbody guns or schutz guns be good?

They are intended to spray a thick textured paint, I have used these for 'spatter' coats with great success. Just use a roller or spray gun for the smooth coat first. Your finish will be more coarse than the ATC one pictured above though. Great for PA cabs or when a thick,tough finish is required.
 
There are 2 basic kinds of spray paint guns.

Most common used by car paint shops are suction feed, you see the unencumbered gun it the painter's hand, one tube feeds it compressed air and a thinner one sucks paint from a paint tank, which may be in the floor or over a table.
Main air flux creates vacuum which sucks paint fron the tank.
Since you need relativcely high "mai" pressure, droplets re very thing, so it's better for smooth surface paint jobs, whichn are easier to polish, it's also quite economic, that's why it's the most popular one.

There are others which are gravity fed, so they need a (necessarily smaller) tank on top,
31ZilUG-UIL._SY300_.jpg

so paint can drop on its own weight (vacuum helps, but is not indispensable) , in general produce a somewhat coarser grain, use lower pressure, and it's easier to make a mess: if pressure drops (somebody trying to "help" steps on the air hose or it bends sharply) paint will continue to flow on its own, low pressure will not break it down into tiny droplets but will spatter in large drops all over the work surface, etc.

Get the picture? ;)

You first paint the background, let it dry/cure somewhat and then lower dramatically air pressure ... the gun will spit large drops all over the place.

Just practice first on something expendable, old wood leftovers.
Practice makes perfect.

Car underchassis protector guns,
under-chassis-gun-250x250.jpg


or the ones to apply coarse finish to walls are *designed* to do that , but even a regular (thick nozzle) paint gun can do if you find the sweet spot ... just practice a little.

Why do I insist on having the background quite dry?

Because if it's still wet, it will partly dissolve and absorb decorative drops, remember paints in general consider "self leveling" to be a virtue.

Another option is to get a shop which builds/repairs fiberglass boats or pickup truck covers or rolling homes to spray it with "naval" polyester resin of various thicknesses, they are used to it.

They even specialize on a rough surface splattered 3 colour scheme: white background, then large grey drops, then small black ones, popular for boat insides.
Ask them, they'll know what you are talking about, of course ask for black background instead.
 
Great info thanks very much
So you can do spattering with most guns just find the right amount of pressure
But underbody guns and gravity feed lend themselves to this more!

Next question. I presume you can make large splatter droplets from most spray paints but won't be as tough as Duratex or TuffCab droplets and would be easier to ruin the finish?
I figure it might be easier to do a basic smooth spray with a regular auto style paint and then do the spatter with Duratex or TuffCab
But will these textured paints stick to auto paints?
I've read that the textured paints sometimes have problems sticking to some high build primers, fillers and other treatments.
 
Ok so the question if like to ask is
Can normal acrylics and cellulose paints be used to splatter?
Will it work well? Does it have to be pretty hard wearing ie otherwise it will smudge and break off etc

So gel coat is basically fibreglass resin I discovered
You get pigments to dye it whatever colour you want
Would this be the thing to do??
And do you need a special gun or will standard guns work?
 
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