How long to leave paint before applying masking tape?

[Grifter]

How long would you leave new paint before applying masking tape on top of it? I’m going to paint some coach lines and have had good success with frog tape in the past. It’ll have to be on for 24 hours as i’ll be doing two coats. The paint is Epifanes Yatch Enamel. Don’t want to pull it off when I remove the tape.

 

Cheers,

Joe

[luggsy]

I would stick with the frog tape

[Guest]

6 hours ago, Grifter said:

How long would you leave new paint before applying masking tape on top of it? I’m going to paint some coach lines and have had good success with frog tape in the past. It’ll have to be on for 24 hours as i’ll be doing two coats. The paint is Epifanes Yatch Enamel. Don’t want to pull it off when I remove the tape.

 

Cheers,

Joe

That rather depends on the 'tackiness'.

 

Frog tape comes in two degrees of 'tackiness' I think from memory the yellow version is low tack. Green is higher in tackiness. (Could be the other way around so check)

 

As above stick (no pun intended) with that. It's expensive but a good product.

[Higgs]

Without being able to see the paint job, I would have to say, leave 24hrs or even a bit longer. I used Epifanes for about 8 years, as a boat painter, and used Scotch-Blue 2090 all the time. It isn't really that warm yet. The paint is going to take longer to cure enough to be able to apply tape, without the tape leaving an impression of its texture on the surface.

 

Hopefully, you will have keyed up the paintwork enough before applying a final coat, prior to taping on it. Your two problems will be - lifting the paint, when you want to remove the tape, due to poor keying up and, leaving tape mark impressions in the paint, if it hadn't cured enough before applying tape.

 

The time to wait, before applying tape, is dependent on various factors. A safe time varies . Where conditions have been consistently warm, and the coats of paint not too thick, the next day would be safe enough. 

Edited May 12, 2018 by Higgs

[matty40s]

We always leave 2 days before masking over new paint.

 If you are painting outdoors take the tape off same day(you can probably get 2 coats of coach lines on in one day at this time of year), don't  let the dew or weather get to it.

[Dr Bob]

3 hours ago, matty40s said:

We always leave 2 days before masking over new paint.

 If you are painting outdoors take the tape off same day(you can probably get 2 coats of coach lines on in one day at this time of year), don't  let the dew or weather get to it.

Yes, leave it at least a couple of days before masking over it. Paint is still soft 24 hrs after application even if it feels 'dry'.

[Grifter]

Thanks for the responses. Job done!

 

The paint had been on for 5 days. Tape was on for just less than a day and came off fine. Pressing the tape on with a credit card is a good tip, and left a good clean edge.