Thankfully, it was a straight forward basecoat-airbrush-clearcoat process.
First, once I knew I was buying nitrous, I began thinking of what I would want on it so it would not be a rushed process on my end and a waste of good money.
Once my decision on a piece was firm, I took the bottle to a local reputable auto painter who was not too "busy" to sand it down in a reasonable amount of time. Once sanded and cleaned, he applied 2 coats of self etching primer and a basecoat of standard black urethane. That was actually done in one day. I waited an additional 24 hours before picking up.
**Important....DO NOT handle base coat with bare hands(oils). Cover with a soft, clean tee shirt. The bottle was then taken to the airbrusher with a picture of what I wanted and equally importantly, communication as to what side of the bottle was the "up" side. For those not aware, there is a certain direction the main nitrous line nozzle has to be installed in a car so making sure the airbrusher knows, and verifies, the up side is critical.
In my case, the airbrusher stays pretty busy so he had the the bottle a week. In addition to airbrushing, he he wraps vans for local businesses that use him for advertising. The call saying the bottle was complete came Thursday. I picked it up (clean tee shirt time again) that day and immediately took it back to the auto painter for 2 good coats of clear. The call from the auto painter stating it was done came Saturday morning.
**Keep in mind, airbrush paint is water based so one does not want it laying too long around unprotected by clear coat. Doing so is an accident waiting to happen.
I will wait about 30 days before waxing and polishing.
Cost for this project is going to vary based on what those local charge for their services. My total investment is $140 as I have long standing business relationships with both of the businesses used. For some, such work may be more toward the $200-$250 range.
looks amazing though
