First Alclad venture!

Looks nice, Squatch.

Which Alclad shade is that, and did you spray it over primer, or bare plastic?  I ask because I have not had too bad of an issue with tape lifting.

Looks great Squatch.  The blue is very convincing too.  What did you use for it?

Joe

Looks good.

I've had tape lifting happen with alclad. Drying time doesn't seem to matter as much, as I had it happen a week later. A clear coat over the aluminum finish helps a lot. Also, sanding the primer coat really well seems to help the alclad stick better. The good news, at least for me, is areas where tape lift occurred were very easy to fix, and not very noticable.

That's weird that it lifted as I have heard many say it is virtually bullet proof. The thing with Alclad  is surface prep must be as perfect as possible as any little scratch or bump will show. I have used Alclad with excellent results but have never taped over it, so it's something to look out for then. One thing I learned with Alclad is that the underlying paint must be as smooth as possible in order to get that smooth metallic finish, otherwise it may come out pebbly or grainy.

Another method I have used and works well is spraying different shades of primer by masking off panels and shooting black, grey, darkening or lightening the shades then spray on the Alclad which will result in multiple metallic shades. The glossier the under paint, the shinier the Alclad comes out, flat paint produces weathered or oxidized panels.  

Try gloss enamel instead. I use the Testors in the small square bottle. Don't know if using acrylic is a good combo with the Alclad. I had acrylic paint lift up when removing masking tape so that may be the issue here.

Normally I dont have any issue with the acrylic paint lifting up when I mask. I'll try the enamel though, I think I have some in my stash. I may try a lacquer as well since the alclad is a lacquer.