My beetle has alot of great paint checking on the top of the guards, however I just replaced and repainted the front passenger side guard due to some irreparable damage. So now I have one bright shiny guard.
Is there any tricks or techniques to make fresh paint get those small little cracks in it??
I Don't want to have to park it in the sun for the next 20 years either!!!
Any tips or ideas would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers
Matthew

Paint the rest of the car. Haha

Fresh paint is lame!!

What if I heat it with a heat gun, let if cool, and keep repeating this??
Will that crack the paint up??

did you use a flattening agent in the paint,so its not so shiny??

paint it 3 or 4 times more with different colors then re topcoat it then just sand through the different layers

Is it the stock acrylic paint?

If so put 2k paint over it, that will check in no time. Failing that, use acylac thinners and add acetone...

Hope this helps, I usually relic guitars this way.

Hot/cold treatment works well also.

Yeah its acrylic, good idea with the 2pak
I could 2pak clear it over the top
The rest of the car is still pretty shiny, it's just got alot of crazing in the paint
I'm just after the cracking effect, not dull or different color painting effects
If I heat gun it, will it crack as I'm doing it, or will it start to crack a few weeks later or something??

go to a craft shop and get the crazing stuff paint the guard than put it on instant crease

Undoetunaly the guard is already painted and I can't be tossed painting it again
I didn't think it'd stand out as much as it does, but at the moment it just looks like dogs balls!

lay a coat of air dry enamel down let it dry then top coat in acrylic then watch it fry.

As a few people have mentioned using different based materials (acrylic, enamel , 2k, etc) on top of each other would create it frying up. Using the heat gun would only soften the acrylic paint and most likely seperate it from the metal panel causing bubbles and pealling off.

Hope that helps

Using a clear coat of different paint such as 2k etc
as they don't like each other and reacts...

also putting too much paint on will cause crazing etc...

practice on a coke can etc... let the first coat dry in the sun for a day and then see what happens... when You apply another kind of auto paint..
it only happens to Me when I don't want it to.. lol

LEE