Cast Mold/High Temp Paint

[Good Fishing]

Hey gang,

There was a post earlier this year that referenced using high-temp engine paint on Do-It Essentials molds to smooth out the finish on injected baits. I'd been wanting to try it for a while and finally got around to it last week. There's a great video about this on YouTube by That Guy Skimpy that I used as a starting point.  A few notes on my technique:

WARNING: DOING THIS WILL MOST LIKELY VOID ANY WARRANTIES ON YOUR MOLDS

• I used painters tape to mask off the hinge, pour spouts, and vents on the mold.
• Unlike That Guy Skimpy, I did not mask off the cavities and trim them out with an Exacto.  My blade skills are lacking and I was using a Finesse Crawler mold which has lots of small curve and corners, so I wanted to try a different approach.
• I sprayed the exposed surfaces with approximately 10 VERY LIGHT coats of high temp paint (in Ford BLUE, baby!) over a period of about three days. I tested the mold after two coats but I wasn't happy with the results, so I retaped the mold and sprayed another seven or so extremely light coats until the surfaces were extremely smooth. 
• Once the mold was dry, I used a razor scraper to remove the paint from the mold surface (leaving paint in just the cavities). The mold won't close properly if you don't do this. I followed this with a light sanding  using a sanding sponge to remove any remaining paint. Following this I made sure the vents were clear of debris, then I wiped the mold clean with a damp towel to remove any remaining dirt/dust.

My results are below. The bottom worm on each color is from an original, unpainted mold. The top worm is of the same color in a painted mold. The results are much more noticeable in person, but you can see the difference pretty well here. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the modified mold results. 

I'm curious how well the paint will hold up to multiple pours. I plan on shooting a number of rounds in the coming days to see if the paint peels or flakes. I'll post again with my results.

[Walking Dead]

Curious, did you just do the top on this worm or both sides?  Wonder if one could skip the spray and use a small brush and apply multiple coats with accuracy and less time?

 

nice work and great looking baits.

[Good Fishing]

I painted both sides. Here's a pic of the painted mold:

A brush would probably work, though I'd worry about the paint going on too thick. I compared the finished worms from my test with a micrometer and found a negligible difference in diameters b/w the unpainted and painted molds. 

[rockslide]

looks good to me! keep us updated on how long it holds up