Paint Roller Question

[Oswego John]

The way that Steve tapes his boot top works real well if you are used to handling and applying masking tape. I often use his method. If you aren't too adept at it, a second person, even a child, will help out a lot by supporting the long, loose tape end while you are applying it to the contour. The loose end has a way of sticking to the itself.

There is another way to apply tape to curves, used by those that are not too versatile at taping. You will need a flat piece of wood about 18" long, a razor knife or similar cutting tool, a pencil and a straight edge about 12" or longer. I generally use a metal rule.

How I do this is by laying the metal on the board and making a long pencil mark onto the wood. I then tear off about a foot of 1/2" masking tape and stick it on the board following the pencil mark.

Next, I make a pencil mark at each end of the tape a 1/4" in from the tape edge. I lay the straight edge on each pencil mark and cut the tape down the middle, resulting in two pieces of 1/4" tape. Peel the tape from the wood and apply to the paint line. The 1/4" tape will be much easier to follow the curve than 1/2" would. Then you can follow with a second full width piece of tape.

After taping an edge, I use a wallpaper joint roller to press the edge of the tape down flat, leaving little or no voids in the edge.

Good luck,
O J

[Tom Keevil]

When we did our bootstripe last year, we used a light green 3M tape that was a plastic rather than a paper product. Sorry, but I don't recall the number. It had some flexibility that allowed it to follow the curve quite well. It was fairly expensive, but definitely worth it. In the past we had used the blue paper tape with results similar to yours.

[Kurt]

Plastic electricians tape makes an EXCELLENT masking tape. It's flexible and goes around curves quite easily. It leaves an extremely clean line as long as its put down properly on a clean surfce. It's also resistent to solvents.

[Dick Barthel]

I've been putting off the boot stripe for years always rationalizing -what the heck it looks good enough. But each year more paint disappears. This thread has inspired me to "get er done."

Steve I could use some help holding the long end of the tape. Let's see, why don't I hold the tape and you do the taping!

Great thread boys. I think you've out done Mr. Casey.

Dick