Paint question. Please help.

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Badart

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This is my first time shooting a metallic. It is a summit paint acrylic urethane metallic and the color is a dark candy apple red metallic. I will be shooting their clear tommorrow. I sprayed this this morning and it is baking right now. The paint shot great with no runs, but I do have quite a few paint boogers on it. I am sure it is from me not cleaning the tip enough.

My question is normally I would wet sand this area the touch it up, but I have heard that you don't want to do that with a metallic. What would you do? Just shoot 3 coats of clear over it? Wet sand it with 400 then reshoot the whole car? Please help. Here is a pic.

Paint5.jpg
 
You could wet sand that with 1500 or better and probably be OK, it depends on how much metallic is in there. Why are you waiting till tomorrow to clear?
 
So I could sand it with 1500 and then shoot the clear without recoating? The only reason why I would wait until tommorrow morning is because it is cooler. It is hot hot hot outside right now. The paint has a recoat window of 18 hours so I should be alright.
 
yeah I would wetsand w/1500 and then clear it. What is it? just something in the paint? if it is noticeable you might want to reshoot that panel after you sand it.
 
I usually wait until it dries and wet sand with 600 or even 800,1000 and respray it.1500 or finer seems to clog up alot with base.Have you checked your air line?Air Line filters?I had this happen a few times and it was crap coming from the compressor.A filter on the spray gun helps also .I bought one of those filters that attatch to the spray gun and it solved it=)
 
Thanks for the input, but I am running a filter and dryer on my compressor so I don't think that is the issue. I did a test area on the car by wet sanding a bump and then shot a small spot of clear. It looks better when looking directly at it, but as soon as you look at it from an angle the spot appears quite a bit darker. Ugh. They are not that bad so I may just clear over them. Stupid pretty metallic paint.
 
Badart, keep in mind, if your filter / dryer is close to the compressor, the air comming out of the compressor is still hot or warm. If the air is still hot after leaving the dryer, condensation will form in the air lines. I run my dryer about 10 ft. from the compressor to prevent this. I'm by no means a paint expert, and dont know if that looks like moister in the paint, but thought it might help...
 
If you sand a metallic you need to put more base down. You will see it no matter what you sand it with. 1500 is far too fine. Hit it with some 600-800 and then recoat with your basecoat. If you are sanding metallic you are actually changing the amount of metallic on the car and it will be clearly visibly when you clear it.
 
P.S. the photo of the base looks very grainy. I suggest a good cleaning of your gun. Your air cap may be the problem. Even though a base is supposed to be sprayed "medium wet" coats it should still lay flat and be smooth. Pressure may be too low, air cap dirty, fluid tip dirty around perimeter. What size tip are you using?
 
Harbor Freight makes a dryer that you attach to your gun itself. The bad thing about special effects is that while they look good, they will change color depending on the angle you view it. It's the nature of the paint, what gives it that flash. If you try to remove the mark/blemish, try to remove as little as possible then sand as little as possible. You may not ever be able to save it. But clear over it just may save it. I know the professional can, but I'm not a pro. Why I went to an easier spray. Easier being quicker drying, not givint it time to pick up junk. I also don't use a filter with the effect paints. Thats because the filter tends to also filter out the pigments also. Just my opinion. Hope it works out for you!
 
67Dart440GT said:
P.S. the photo of the base looks very grainy. I suggest a good cleaning of your gun. Your air cap may be the problem. Even though a base is supposed to be sprayed "medium wet" coats it should still lay flat and be smooth. Pressure may be too low, air cap dirty, fluid tip dirty around perimeter. What size tip are you using?
Click to expand...

Thanks for your help. The paint is actually pretty smooth. I think my flash on my camera makes it look that way. Cheap camera. My tip is a 1.3
 
I think I will sand the most noticable spots with 1500 then clear it. It doesn't look that bad and the car will be a driver or get sold.
 
Just out of curiosity, is this a single stage paint or a double stage as I am sure we all know that real candy is triple stage. With that said, I would like to know at what temperature you are spraying in and how close you are holding the spray gun to the substrate? These questions answered could very well mean the difference between a decent and not so decent paint job.

My trip for the past 50 years is being a hand pinstriper and painter
 
HotLines said:
Just out of curiosity, is this a single stage paint or a double stage as I am sure we all know that real candy is triple stage. With that said, I would like to know at what temperature you are spraying in and how close you are holding the spray gun to the substrate? These questions answered could very well mean the difference between a decent and not so decent paint job.

My trip for the past 50 years is being a hand pinstriper and painter
Click to expand...

It is a single stage paint. This is only the 3rd car that I have painted. The other two have been race cars, so they didn't have to be perfect. The temperature was around 75 degrees when I shot the paint and my activator is rated for 70-80 degrees. My hvlp gun pressure was set at 10lbs according to the gauge and I was holding the gun 8"-10" from the panels. I may have sprayed it a bit dry, because I was scared of runs and I did not have one run on the body of the car. The small area that I sprayed with clear under the hood looks great, so I think it will look decent for a paint job that was done in a garage. LOL.
 
I would try to micro-sand just the raised bumps without disturbing the surrounding paint. Just knock the lump down with a very small block and sandpaper. Sanding a large area is going to expose more flakes, and it will change the color. Then scuff the rest and spot with base over the area with the paint volume turned way down so you are blowing only a small patch. Because you are waiting so long to clear, you are going to need to scuff and tack the entire car again.
 
I did end up wet sanding the entire car this morning and shooting another coat. I adjusted the gun like you guys recommended and shot one final wet coat then shot 3 coats of clear. Turned out great. :cheers: Looks really awesome in the sun. I will get pics tommorrow, before it gets cut and buffed. Thanks FABO.
 
EXCELLENT!!!!!!!!!!! Glad it worked out for you.
 
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