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Exterior clear coat over paint and raw wood

3K views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  Brushjockey 
#1 ·
I have built a wooden balance bike for my grandchildren and am painting a design on the body. The body is made of pine while the handlebars and front fork is made from oak. I want to paint the design with paint and cover the whole bike in an exterior clear coat. What are my best choice of paint and clear coat materials?
 
#2 ·
Cool, I want to build a balance bike for my daughter soon. Did you follow any plans that you could share?

As for paint, I think that spray paint would be ideal. No primer on wood, and a nice glossy and durable finish. Clear coat it with spray poly as well.

If you're wanting to brush on a design I think that a good oil-base paint would work, maybe you could find small amounts at a hobby store. I would clear coat with spray polyurethane still.
 
#3 · (Edited)
I would use a nice alkyd sealer/primer for the wood. Something like Benjamin Moore's Fresh Start Alkyd would be one choice. You could also use a mix of 1:1 mineral spirits and processed lindseed oil but it will take longer to dry.

Shellac any knot holes in the pine to prevent bleed through into the paint.

You could then use rattle cans for the overall paint color. You don't want to skip sealing the new wood---especially the pine.

For the design, I would use One Shot sign painters colors. They are nice, solvent based alkyds designed to flow nicely and not crawl. They are great to run through airbrushes or for use with quality artists brushes. They come in small to quart cans in a rainbow of vibrant colors that mix well together to make others. Cover with an oil based urethane or use one shot clear.





Over a nice sealed surface and alkyd primer or waterbased rattle can enamel you could also use artists acrylics for your design and a polycrylic gloss or matte clear coat. Only thing with acrylics is you may have to add a retarding medium to increase your working time as they dry fast.
 
#5 ·
An oil poly over the top will amber the colors- sometimes horribly.
I would suggest using a waterborne top coat poly like Zar's exterior poly ( I think ace hdwre carries it- some paint stores might- not box stores.
 
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