taras0000

Either way (paint w/clear, or clear only), it's the clearcoat that will give you any problems if you have any. If you get any runs in the paint, you can always to to buff it down and get it smooth again. With clearcoat, this is tougher to fix.

The old adage of "two light coats are better than one heavier coat" is truest when dealing with clearcoats. Really pay attention to the application instructions. Some have varying degrees of "distance" that you can shoot from. Painting curved surfaces isn't that hard as long as you are consistently spraying at (relatively) perpendicular angles to the surface once you have laid down a base coat and allowed it to "tack". The base coat can be really light, and doesn't need to have full coverage (80-90% is good). It allows the droplets of subsequent coats something to grab and bond to. You alter the weight of a coat by how fast your pass over the object is (if you're rattlecanning it). Make sure that your passes go well past the object as you're sweeping side to side. It's at the end of a pass where people tend to slow down in anticipation of going back, and end up with runs because the paint goes on too thick. Edges/corners are the hardest parts to paint. so be careful at the edges. Again, going light, many times is what helps here.

Use some corks with eye hooks in the ends of the bars to suspend the bars. Suspend from both sides, as you don't want something spinning in a manner that isn't allowing you to coat evenly. 3-4 LIGHT coats should do it.