This is one in progress. two one sided signfoam 4 signs with gold leaf. It will be installed between two posts. The best way to do this is make two one sided signs, run two horizontal channels on the back side of each sign where we place a metal tube that will enclose a 6ft long threaded rod that will go through the posts to hold the sign. the two signs are laminated together. this method does two things: 1. strengthen the sign 2. make it easier to remove than routing a slot in the posts. This sign we shot with a 2 stage urethane auto paint with a 2 stage urethane sealer ( not primer). This will last much longer than a latex or plain enamel sign. For the gold we used a thicker 24kt leaf rather than the 23 kt which makes it last longer.
i have about $200 in paint and approx. $600 in gold. what i like about the urethane is the stencil does not lift it ever.
the urethane sealer is not really a pure primer. it sticks better than a primer and will last longer. there is about 6 coats of blue on this. i had bought one quart of sealer and color plus the hardener and reducer. the sealer you shoot straight using about 30 more pounds on the hvlp than they recommend.
the selling price was $5,000.
this was my first use of the the paint system myself so i made some mistakes in shooting the sealer at too low a pressure (12psi at tip) plus i did not put enough reducer in the first coat of blue and the proceeding coats chased that problem to try to melt the issues i had.
overall for us this is the way to go. you can shoot everything in one day, let dry a day, then put the yellow stencil mask on and rout. we got busy and left the stencil on for about 2 weeks but the urethane is so hard the stencil did not lift anything.
One shot enamel, latex, etc is really too slow for us for any production value and we do have problems with the stencil lifting paint on the other paints. plus the cost is not bad and the durability is amazing.
you do not need a clear coat with the urethane system. this is a nason product. We do have a spray booth and a air fed mask however. Don't try this without those.