Not liking color preserver, I have had the thought of painting the area under the wraps on dark blanks. As you know, most thread wraps tend to disappear on dark blanks. I tried a metalic silver paint under royal blue wraps on a practice blank and it turned out very nice. Has anyone ever tried this and how did it turn out?

I often do it when working with light colored thread even though I use CP 99.5% of the time.

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

i know drew thompson paints over his guide wraps. pretty wild stuff

Other than something like an automotive lacquer, what kind of paint is good for this?

I have thought about paint as under wraps on my light rods. Any larger rod that requires true under wraps I always use a light metallic color like gold or whatever and it looks awesome. Not being a CP person I have been thinking alot about paint lately. The last rod I did I used met. gold under and red nylon over which gives you a candy apple red finish, and it does look awesome! I love the way you can clearly see the guide feet through the nylon.............Kyle

Ps, Would you use something like Testors model paint underneath? Thanks

I've used everything from enamel to testor's

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

phillipson did this on a number of his glass rods. Just out of curiosity have any of you used reflective mylar tape instead of paint? seems it would be more accurate and less messy and fiddley to apply. its available in silver and gold and probably some other colors. back in the
50s and 60s you saw this on a lot of glass rods of the day.
l

Larry, I`ve used the chrome tape from pep boys under wraps for the candy effect.Much easier that painting.

Freddwhy (Rapt-Ryte)

phillipson did this on a number of his glass rods. Just out of curiosity have any of you used reflective mylar tape instead of paint? seems it would be more accurate and less messy and fiddley to apply. its available in silver and gold and probably some other colors. back in the
50s and 60s you saw this on a lot of glass rods of the day. some of it was quite gaudy but i think it would work as an undercoat in a pleasing way.
l

Hi Gang,

I have been using white paint under white thread for a long time. My white thread looks great next to a black or graphite colored blank. What I do also is to coat the 2 or 3 coats of white paint with Flex Coat CS/CP.

What this does is place a hard coat over the paint so that when you pull the loop thru to lock the thread you do not leave a line behind. With just paint the pull thru loop scores the paint.

I do suggest using a close color to the thread as the paint.

I have read recently of builders wrapping silver thread under the underwrap. They say it looks great. I am surprised that I did not think to try that as my father taught me to use silver paint over a stain when I needed to hide the stain. I would place a coat of finish over the silver thread and then dry brush the excess finish off the wraps.

Capt Neil Faulkner

I do FW rods, most of them light, so I've gotten away from underwraps entirely. If I want the look, I do false underwraps. Like Mike B though, it is a rare wrap that doesn't get CP and that is only if I want a transluscent effect (after a couple of years of testing with water intrusion and strength, I've found that there is really no downside to using CP.. numbers, not word of mouth theory... including the idea that epoxy penetrates thread... it doesn't). If I I am using lighter thread, I paint the wrap area with a quick spray of white. I have also used white-out tape with good effect in a pinch, and have also used silver and gold mylar wrapping paper. They all work well. If you are using light thread, the point is to lighten the blank that you are wrapping over, no matter what the technique.