advice on painting cowl

[BillOhio]

I am having trouble getting my cowl white to look right. I didnt like what the painter did and now struggling myself! I want to have a natural overspray without a tape line. So far I drifted too much down on the firewall black and the next time I backtaped to where I was happy with drift and it looked good but the tape caught enough drift, it directed paint back to the firewall and left a faint line under my nice edge. So I am ready for my next and hopefully last attempt. I have the gun at a 45° angle to the cowl and spraying from the windshield  to the front of the car.
has anyone found a neat trick to spray the cowl and not have a tape line or overspray all over the firewall?
I am thinking I might try a piece of cardboard in front of the cowl and hold it like 1/8 of an inch from the firewall. this might be like my back tape but if the cardboard is angled away from the firewall it shouldnt leave a line. I will add a couple pictures. one of how I hold the gun the other of my cardboard idea. if anyone has a good idea I am ready! 

[BillOhio]

This was my attempt today. paint is thinner as it goes down firewall but still looks like a line. I think I am trying to be too neat with a job that wasn't. Thinking of trying to do the top then using airbrush to just fog the corner. I have a feeling the over spray that drifts down the firewall might be ugly. 

[cook_dw]

Was the paint fade that way originally?  Meaning was the line that far down the firewall? 

[Hans L]

What kind of paint are you using? 

[BillOhio]

the firewall had a brush taken to it with black years ago. You could see the white was to the edge but no idea how far down it went. I didnt intend for it to be that far this time but didnt like the edge at the corner and after misting the edge thats what I got.
Paint is PPG DCC single stage enamel

[cook_dw]

Have you tried flipping the tape paper over so that you taped edge is on the bottom and have the paper fold over the taped edge?  Ignore my poor drawing..  I didn't feel like going into great detail with AutoCAD.

[69Z28-RS]

That's a good drawing Darrell...        If Bill 'rolls' the paper over just right, it should soften that edge exactly the way he wants (if he doesn't spray directly into the fold over..)..

Bill?  you are spraying the white overspray on the top of the cowl AFTER painting the firewall?   is this the order that it was done in the factory??

[Mike S]

Hi Bill,

  When I sprayed my firewall during blackout I tried to emulate a freehand method the line painter may have done as well as performing it in a fast paced environment. I put a thick harbor freight moving blanket on the top of the cowl to substitute as the "cardboard" John Z. stated was used (and when it was used) to mask it, plugged the hole for the wiper (Mark stated this was done) and then making a few practice dry passes to get the "feel". After adjusting for a tight fan on the gun I then made two freehand passes for blackout and along the top stopping short. I don't recall how far up it went originally when I first restored my car back in the mid-80's but from the many pictures of original pictures I have seen as well as my unrestored LOS, I decided to leave the last few inches only with overspray.
  For what you have now you can back tape the existing parts of the firewall and just redo the top part. Unless you can get the DCC mixed the same (this is what I used too, BTW for 30% gloss) so as to avoid a noticeable gloss change, then I recommend to back-tape along the sealer line.
  Below are two pictures showing how the top was left.

Happy soon-to-be New Years!
Mike

[cook_dw]

Mike that looks really good..  Did your tag have white on it originally?  I'm referring to the white that was used to brighten the tag for line workers..  Also what black are you using on the firewall?

[BillOhio]

from what I understand, the black out was done prior to the white since all cars didnt get a white cowl. I tried to back tape it once and the edge I had still caught some drift and pulled it back to where the tape was stuck and made a line. so I had a nice soft line and then this goofy faint line under it.  I was excited until I pulled the tape off. if you guys havent seen this, its Eddies low mile Z. Shows poor blackout but white definitely drifted down the black. In my previous attempts, they didnt look like this

[Mike S]

Mike that looks really good..  Did your tag have white on it originally?  I'm referring to the white that was used to brighten the tag for line workers..  Also what black are you using on the firewall?

Hi Darrell,
   Thanks  I am not sure if the tag had white paint originally. When I first did the car in the 80's I used paint remover to strip paint off the firewall and trim tag and didn't take note. I have see other 05B NOR cars with a white sprayed tag so it must have been done during that time too. I'm on the fence if I should add it or not.
  For paint I am using PPG black DCC mixed to eggshell for the approximate 30% gloss.

Mike

[Mike S]

Bill,

  The white was done after the blackout on your car? I didn't realize that when I replied. In that case I'm not sure if the firewall was masked or the cowl top was done freehand with no firewall masking. IMO, just imagining how the worker would have done that, I suspect maybe he held the gun shooting towards the cowl top front but downward thereby allowing whatever overspray to shoot past the firewall top edge and not on the firewall. Just a thought.

Mike

[BillOhio]

I tried something similar to what Mike did and got this done. I got a detail gun at harbor freight that does a decent job. I can turn the gun down enough that it took 2 passes to get enough on the edge.  I wonder on the cars I have seen with white overspray, if they just had a poor job of blackout.

[HawkX66]

I tried something similar to what Mike did and got this done. I got a detail gun at harbor freight that does a decent job. I can turn the gun down enough that it took 2 passes to get enough on the edge.  I wonder on the cars I have seen with white overspray, if they just had a poor job of blackout.

That looks really good Bill. That's what I'm going to go for on mine. I have a couple detail guns that I'll try out.

[BillOhio]

Thanks Dave. heres what I did first. I let this dry long enough that I could lay paper across the top and taped to the fenders. the paper was right to the edge of the corner. Then I took the black and started at the bottom and worked up. when I got to the seam I watched I didn't get too close to the corner. then turned gun down until I barely put anything out. I did hold the gun toward the ground so I didnt mess up right off and had the air down but you dont want so little air it isnt atomizing.  I dont have a real steady hand but when the gun was on such low volume, I could hit it with a couple passes to make it even. whats nice is you can practice how much your putting on toward the bottom to get a feel for it.