How to create a custom paintjob (very detailed)

[Roger Federer 95]

cool!!!!
I wish my mom would let me paint my babolat!

[Josherer]

I'd love to give my racket a paint job..

I don't think im talented enough theough

[strictref]

Nice paint job, thanks for the info.

[CGMemphis]

No pics now, apparently the customer, in very bad form, backed out of the deal without saying a word.

Great thread none the less, my own pj's will be posted sometime in May, after my wedding.

[Loco4Tennis]

ive painted 2 racquets so far,
the last one i am still letting it dry (need pattiense, and lots of it), even on my secod racquet i still learned a couple of things i could ahve done better,
so, if your thinking about doing this to your racquets, i would practise on some cheap ones first, like i mentioned, 1 practise racquet does not seem to be enough to get it right, also it's a lot of work, but well worth it when you finish

[Loco4Tennis]

Originally Posted by User Name

Chris_in_japan-It would be great if you could make a section that i could add on adding the lettering and details, including masking off areas and adding lettering and logos. You know more about that than anyone on TT. If you could just go a little in depth on that sort of stuff, that would be great.

diredesire- Whatever you think most appropriate. How does merging it with racquet FAQ work? I just want something like this to be easy to find, since it is becoming a more popular topic of interest. Also, when something is stickied, it can still be discussed right? Thanks for the help and getting it stickied.

Aeropro master- It took me about a month because i was working little by little and waiting for different supplies to be shipped... grommets, strings, etc. Total work including dry time would most likely come out to two weeks, but i could have been more careful.

Warning to everyone, this is a big project and does take a lot of time.
I would recommend doing it on an old back up frame to get an idea of it. Then go after your frame if your confident.

once again, enjoy it.

good post and good advise, i also mentioned trying on a practise frame first

one thing about the lettering i found out on my lattest frame its that you can buy stickers at the store with different size letters and all,
one of the parts i messed up on and will not do again is paint arround the letter like a stencil, i would intead suggest painting the sticker letters the color you want and then sticking them on the racquet for good, otherwise when not stuck on right it will bleed under the letter and it looks bad when you pull them off
also the sticker on the letters does not come off easy, so it can leave residue on the racquet as well, or pulls the paint underneath off

on my next racquet i plan to stick the painted letters at almost the end,
thats about when i apply the 2 layers of clear cote to seal in the paint job

[doublefault2008]

Does the paint come off or scratches whenever being clamped by a stringer?

[Loco4Tennis]

Originally Posted by doublefault2008

Does the paint come off or scratches whenever being clamped by a stringer?

yes,,, i hate it, what i have done to minimize this is use masking tape on the contact point, so basically i will tape up the machine before i clamp it down on the stringing maunting points, i also got in the havit of using a cardboard where the string will rub the frame "Y" section when pulling, this has left marks on the racquet for me as well

[User Name]

yeah ive used cardboard and towel where the string rubs. i waited a few weeks before stringing and that allowed the paint to cure. Loco could we see some pic of the seconds one? Thanks.

[Loco4Tennis]

sorry for the wait, here are the pics of my second racquet i painted

[Loco4Tennis]

here are some strung up picture, came out pretty good i think, looks good too IMO, not bad for a home job

[Loco4Tennis]

these pictures are some issues ive run into, either because of the stringing mahcine touching the frame, the paint i choose mosttly i think, and or the lettering issue i mentioned above
while these look ugly at close, at arms lenght their almost not notisable,

[Loco4Tennis]

for the minor scratshes, i ended up using a black sharpie, which was surprisingly easy, quick touch up for the blue i was using
the red arrows on the above picture is showing the touch ups i did to the letters after the paint bleed happened when i removed the letter stencil stickers, i mentioned on my previous post how i would change that next time i do it again to prevent this

[Loco4Tennis]

i'll say one more thing
while the racquet played as cheap as it did the day i bought it, and it has the monalisa issue (great from far away, but close up is a big ol mess) going on from all the scratsches ive shown,
it really looks awsome in the sunlight and while hitting and ofcourse you get the added feeling of having painted a one of a kind racquet

[Loco4Tennis]

Originally Posted by User Name

yeah ive used cardboard and towel where the string rubs. i waited a few weeks before stringing and that allowed the paint to cure. Loco could we see some pic of the seconds one? Thanks.

now that i think about the issue i ran into, i think i should have waited like you to let the paint dry completely
the first racquet i painted months ago, i had to recenttly restring, and the paint did not get messedup like the lattest one i did, i'll have to keep that in mind next time i do this

[my_forehand]

I don't think I've ever posted in this section, mainly because I have a racquet, and feel no need to adjust it (looking forward to changing it in the summer; might be here soon lol).

Anyways, I don't know where to post so here goes;

Isn't it illegal? It's false advertising if you say for example Federer is using his old racquet (nCode, was it?), with a PJ to make it look like his K(Six-One Tour)90

The company could ultimately get sued, couldn't they?

Sorry if it's been discussed before, just wondering.

[Mansewerz]

Any pics of PJ's u guys have done?

[my_forehand]

BTW, my question was about pro's, so please don't confused.

[User Name]

nice paintjob loco also, i would think that that would be a hard racquet to paint since it has a sort of drop in where the strings go

mansewerz if you seach TT collection should find you the paintjobs that tennis talkers have done

[rosenstar]

For those of you who pj a frame and the paint came off when you placed it in a stringer or whatever, did you put a sealent layer or something to that effect to finish the pj, or did you just let the paint dry?