I finally got some warm days with low humidity and got a chance to work on this!
While I was waiting, I talked to both Diablo Cycle (paint mask manufacturer) and 66 Auto Color (paint supplier) about my predicament. Diablo advised me to apply the mask directly to the basecoat, no clear. I should add that they were a great bunch of people to deal with. The 2K clear had to be applied within 8 hours of the base coat and that window had passed due to my indecision, so I had to contact the paint supplier and ask what to do. I was advised to lightly sand the white base with 800 grit paper to get the white ready for the next coat of base/clear. After sanding, I blew off the tank, ran a tack cloth over it, and tried to put on the paint mask.
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This was hard. Really hard... The good news is that no soap or heat is required, the mask had a very gentle adhesive, which is able to be reapplied several times. This was a good thing, as I had to reposition these about a thousand times. It is definitely best to start at the sharpest point of the curve at the front of the tank. Once you get the transfer paper off you still have to work down the mask with a applicator (I used a credit card).
Once applied it was back into the paint tent for the kandy gold. I started with a couple of very light coats over the mask to help prevent any bleeding, gradually working up to a few heavy coats. I took the mask off as soon as I was finished with the last coat of gold and it was a white knuckle process, but it turned out pretty good!
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From here I did four coats of clear, one light, two medium, and one heavy. 24 hours later...
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I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!