My experiment with gold-leafing

Got the tank and side panels back from the tank-painter and I'm really happy with the results. This was my first attempt to work with gold leaf, and it wasn't easy. Huge amount of patience, lots of manual dexterity, and an aptitude for tricky projects are all prerequisites! The big difference between the gold leaf and gold paint is the amount of reflection. It's quite stunning. Here's the process I went through:

1) stripped the tank with paint strippers and eventually sand paper.
2) Painter put a base coat of black (he uses Glasurit), plus a clear coat sanded with 600 grit.
3) I had premeasured/drawn/photographed the location of the script and the stripes--yes, measured with the horizon for the scripts with the tank on the bike and off the stand.
4) Stripes taped on using 'FBS Proband Fineline' tapes designed for pin-stripers. I had to slice some of the tape to be create gaps the same width as original.
5) The 'Norton' and '850 Commando' scripts, plus the stripes on the side panels, were stencils made for me by B+Bogus, here on the forum. His stencils were BRILLIANT! Thanks Andy!
6) Applied the gold leaf
7) Spent a day repairing tiny imperfections on the leaf along the edges to make them as sharp as possible. Largely done with a very fine paint brush and tiny amounts of mineral spirits. Typically, areas of gold leaf have a pin-stripe line along the edges, either as an accent, or to hid imperfections. I didn't want that line--which was why I spent so much time 'cleaning' the gold leaf edges.
8) back to the painter for the final clear coat.

Incidentally, I learned that the purer the gold you use, the finer the edges you get. Thus I used 23 karat. Sounds expensive but it wasn't. I used, both for a bunch of practice stripes, and the actual work, less than $40 of gold leaf.

I took lessons on gold-leafing from Youtube. Two by Steve Kafka were particularly helpful. He also talks about materials and where to get them. Thanks to Steve for that.

I bought two sets of stencils from Andy, fearing that I would likely screw one up--but I didn't. Thus happy to pass along the spare set for the price I paid: 15 Pounds Sterling ($23 US will do). Send me a PM.

Beautiful work. I'm sure the pictures don't do the gold leaf justice.

That looks outstanding! Gotta be a first.

The painter works out of his house and had the tank and side panels sitting on his picnic table in the sunshine when I arrived. It was simply dazzling--but somehow without being blingy, which I didn't want. Gold paint has the same colour as leaf, but without that sparkle. It is really nice to have the stripes and the script consistent too, without one being paint and the other decals.

good job! But the photos show the gold kind of dull, it must be hard to photograph? To get the gold shiny after you apply it, does it need to be polished?

I think I'd would clear coat over the leaf to protect it. Oooops. Sorry. I see it did get a clear coat. Duh

Looks great!

jimbo said:

good job! But the photos show the gold kind of dull, it must be hard to photograph? To get the gold shiny after you apply it, does it need to be polished?

Click to expand...

It's only really shiny and sparkly with sunshine. Under indoor light it looks sort of like paint, but not consistent and uniform as paint would be. Some people apparently burnish the gold a little by giving it an engine-turned effect. I didn't want that because I feared it would look blingy. I made three or four burnishing tools and tried them on practice stripes, but they weren't what I wanted. You have to be really careful with touching the gold because it is so thin.

That looks fantastic! Much better than the stripe job I got from a popular Norton painter....

Nielsen said:

Some people apparently burnish the gold a little by giving it an engine-turned effect. I didn't want that because I feared it would look blingy.

Click to expand...

Thank you for following the narrow non-bling road.

That's absolutely gorgeous! I'm with you in not liking the difference between the stripes and decal. I hadn't thought of gold leaf for the accents. 'Something to look into for next winter.

Nathan

Gold leaf is very hard to photograph well, both for color and luster to be accurate. When I was a photographer I had an elaborate reflector setup to do paintings with gold leaf. I think you have done well with these as is, they look lovely.

I don't know why it is so hard to photograph, but I just can't get the colours and the sparkle with my camera. This is perhaps a bit closer.... (those are just flecks of dust on the black parts).

Outstanding, now you just got to stop the dickheads from touching your tank, don't know why poeple do that, nice shinny tank and they got to touch it with their fingers and they can't work out why you stick it into them when you catch them doing it.
The only problem with the black paint jobs is it seems to attract dust, but suck a good colour.

Ashley

But SUCH a good color.

Bit of a typo creeping in there, makes a fair difference.... !

Nielsen said:

I don't know why it is so hard to photograph, but I just can't get the colours and the sparkle with my camera. This is perhaps a bit closer.... (those are just flecks of dust on the black parts).

Click to expand...

It has to do with the type of lighting (natural, incandescent and sunshine work well) , the directionality (oblique, with some reflected fill) and the background colors (black being just about the worst). Being s very lustrous metal, gold shows up all the imperfections of both application and lighting, which are often smoothed over by the brain in real life, but in a photo we seem to pick them out more readily. Like I said, very hard to do very well. Yours look great even if not just like you see them at home.

Simply put, Brilliant.

I have been practicing with Copper leaf on various mediums just to get confident.

You can purchase the Copper leaf from Craft shops for $4.00 or a little more for 25 4" x 4" sheets.

The Tank and covers will get the Gold treatment when my ability hopefully meets the standard you have set.

Ian

+2 Great job .using gold , i have never done it,but i believe ist's hard...well done...can i give B.bogus a pat as well.Andy. good work.
Velocettes just painted the lines in size.and dabbed the foil on!

Thanks for the affirmation. It's very gratifying to hear that you old pros think we newbs can sometimes do a reasonable job.

Interesting explanation on photographing black and gold. And here I thought it was the gold leafing that was hard to do.