You all remember early this month I refinished the left Ford GT coil cover that got brake fluid on it? Well I didn’t like the result compared to what it used to be, the wrinkles were kind of inconsistent and retained a very dark glossy look that doesn’t match the main valve cover well….
I’m kind of over the GT coil covers anyway (at least in this finish, subtle coolness aside they’re kind of wasted just black) so today I decided to use up the can of wrinkle paint on a regular set of coil covers with a better technique, which I now suspect I did on the valve covers originally back then, and the result is pretty excellent
My recommendation, DO NOT follow the instructions on the can directly. The horizontal - vertical - diagonal pattern for each coat does work better than one direction only but do it backwards, it is way more likely to tiger stripe ending on a diagonal IME.
The can says thick coats… don’t do thick coats. Light for the first and light to moderate for the next two results in much tighter wrinkles and a more matte finish in the end. I also suggest waiting 10 minutes rather than 5 minutes between
Heat up the can. I have found this to really help avoid spatter from rattlecans and I tend to get better coats from it in general, but with this thick wrinkle paint it helps a ton for keeping the nozzle flowing. All you do is fill up a bucket with hot tap water and submerge the can in it with a weight on top for about 20 minutes.
After your last coat wait 30 minutes and hit it with a heat gun. Just go around it fairly evenly and just focus on getting the metal warm rather than worry about what the paint’s doing(don’t just point it at a stubborn spot that’s not wrinkling). Once it’s mostly wrinkled just stop and wait and the heat still in the metal will usually pop the areas that weren’t wrinkling eventually.
If there are areas that don’t wrinkle after this, don’t follow the cans instructions about touching up just the stubborn spot, it looks like crap trust me, instead just hit it with another full coat on the piece. The paint melts back into itself and it’ll rewrinkle evenly as long as you’re doing this within an hour or two of the last coat
