I Custom Painted a Bentley! Well, Sort of...
So, I custom painted a car! Nevermind that anyone over the age of three wouldn’t fit inside it! A Bentley is a Bentley...am I right?!
It doesn’t get much fancier than custom painting a Bentley.
Ok, so maybe it would have been a little bit fancier if it was a full-size car and not a remote control car built for toddlers, but, still...
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Miniature car or not, this project ended up taking much longer than I anticipated. Mostly because there was a lot of layering that went into painting this car.
First, there was the primer, then coats of spray paint, followed by some matte medium and acrylic paint, and finished off with several coats of varnish. Needless to say, a lot of time was spent waiting for these layers to dry!
What was the first step in custom painting the car?
Before I could even start painting the car, I needed to disassemble as much as I could and then tape off and cover anything I didn’t want to get paint on.
This LITERALLY took me hours to do and there’s a good chance I enlisted my wife to help with this part.
What other prep work needed to be done on the car before custom painting it?
Because the car was a super shiny plastic, I ended up doing a little sanding with a fine grit paper.
I did use a primer that said it could bond to difficult surfaces, but given how slick the car was I figured making the surface a little extra grippy wouldn't hurt.
Creating the Design for the Custom Painted Car
So, when it came to deciding what to paint on the car, I knew I wanted to do an animal. And, more specifically an animal with a cool print.
While I briefly considered zebra, I ended up on big cats pretty quickly. In the end, it was a battle between leopard and tiger.
I went with a tiger because… who doesn't think tigers are cool? A classic big cat with cool colors. Perfect for this project.
What kind of paint did I use to paint the car?
So, after the primer dried I used spray paints for my base layer and created a kind of blended, ombre look on the car using various shades of orange with a pop of yellow.
I tried out a water-based spray paint line from Montana. I gotta say I love me some water-based paint and they had a decent selection of vibrant colors to choose from. Another selling point for this particular line is they emit less odor than typical spray paints.
For the actual design, I went with Golden Fluid Acrylic Paints. I love the flexibility of this particular paint. It goes on smooth, mixes well, and a little goes a long way.
While I definitely like how the tiger’s face turned out, I have to say painting in the stripes was way more satisfying.
Finishing up the Custom Paint Job
Once the design was done, it was time to seal it in. Montana also has a water-based varnish, which I liked a lot at the time.
It was extremely fast drying and seems pretty durable, but now that some time has passed, unfortunately, some of the white fur areas have started to yellow. The rest of the colors seem to be holding up well though.
But… it’s done! I’ve officially custom painted my first car.
