This is a close-up view of the 1932 Packard showing the grill, especially the lines in the grill. There are horizontal, vertical, and diagonal white lines. This was one of the first things that was painted on the car because I knew it may be very difficult to paint those straight uniform lines. Actually they turned out to be very easy.
Here is what I did:
First, put down 2 coats of white paint fairly thick and let each coat dry til very hard.
Second, put down 2 coats of Ivory Black (one coat did not cover well – too transparent) and let dry until semi-hard, slightly soft.
Third, Found a draftmans triangle that was clear plastic and scratched a line about 1/8 inch from the edge. Using a steel 6″ ruler and scraping the sharp edge, about 1/32 thick, along the edge of the triangle just hard enough to take off the black paint but not through the white paint, scratched a straight line.
Fourth, moving the triangle over until the scratched line aligned with the new white line, scratched the black paint off.
Rembrandt had used this technique to paint(make) the curls in the hair of his self-portraits. It is said he used a painter’s knife to scratch-off the upper layer exposing the undercoat.