ry57pont

I'm painting a couple of pieces on my 64 silverblue, car will be painted next. . I noticed on the valance it seems a bit "blotchy" in the right light. I know silverblue is a high metallic and I am a novice painter. Any tips to prevent "blotchy" all help is appreciated, thanks.

ry57pont

Not sure if I can capture the blotchyness in a pic..

DUB

I see the 'blotchy' effect.

But unless you EXACTLY describe what you did...and what products you used....and I mean as EXACTLY as possible. I can not tell you what you did to cause this.

And I need to know flash times and air temperatures. Grade of reducer you used and how you thinned it and what type of needle you are using when you sprayed it....and if it is basecoat/clearcoat or single stage metallic.

To be honest and NOT wanting to be a smart a$$...when that panel is installed... and the angle it is installed at...I seriously doubt you would see it.

But I will do all I can to tell you what you did wrong...or what caused this.

Not saying that you can't spray this color....and like I often tell people...TEST, TEST, TEST ...before you go and spray the paint so you KNOW what to expect. This is not an easy color for me...and I have been painting for over 30+ years. It commands lot of respect and attention. This silver/blue metallic is MURDER for even the best of us to get PERFECT. Technique and KNOWING your products and equipment is what can come into play here.

DUB

ry57pont

Thanks for the response, i know it was going to be a tough to anwser question, kind of like " why is my wife mad" (hard to figure out)

i shot it with PPG DBC using dt870 reducer. garage temp was a pretty constant 70 deg and i kept checking the parts with a IR temp gun, parts ranged from 68 to 75 depending on how close they were to my halogen lights.

the DBC was mixed 1:1 with dt870, shot it with a 1.3 tip and te10 air cap using a devilbiss tenka gun. dynamic pressure set to 25psi. i tried to keep the gun about 7" away from the panel.

one thing i noticed is even after 15 minutes of mixing in a machine the base seemed to "marble" or seperate, so i was not sure if i need to be shaking the gun between passes to keep it suspended.



i cant remember in detail about how i sprayed, like if i just hit that area on the last pass, just not sure.

i will be spraying the hood, doors next so any technique help is very appricated, for example, would a final "fog coat" eliminate this? i have only painted 2 cars so i am inexpierenced when issues like this come up.

it did not seem to appear on any of the other parts, underside of the decklid or headlight buckets. but maybe they were to small to notice?





thanks again, and have a great christmas!

DUB

The effect of the metallic paint that you showed in a photo when you were mixing it is normal.

Applying fog coat and stop this BUT it all depends on if you do it while the base is still wet or not...AND....if you spray pattern is not right and you have heavy streaks...then the 'fogging' coat will not work well due to the metallics will lay down in the wet paint but not so much in the flashed paint.

All I can 'say' is that you have HUGE B@LLS. If you are painting these parts separate and at different times. I would be totally amazed that the metallics all match when parts are put together as a whole. This silver/blue metallic does not play around. It can 'bite' you really fast.

Not that you asked...but I will write this. If your car where in my shop and I had it in the booth for painting. When I went to apply the final coat of paint to get the metallics to blend and match from panel to panel. Even though I might have had the car apart to get compete coverage of all panels....when I get to that final coat...the car is reassembled and then the final coat is applied...I allow it to flash...then take it back apart so I can clear coat it and not have any tape lines.

From the time you started painting this car and up to now....it is SO IMPORTANT that the base color that is not thinned down is THOROUGHLY MIXED VERY WELL...because if you don't do that. Then EVERY time you go and get more paint out of your bulk supply of paint...the color is NOT the same....and if this bad practice keeps going on and on. Eventually what you have left in the can does not match what you started with initially.

You ahve to watch your 'fogging' process if you do that BECAUSE when you do this you are actually lightening the color a bit. WHICH is why doing parts all separately can be a huge risk. Also...teh fogging technique and cause the metallics to stand up and if you are not careful...they can fall down when you apply the clear and get these blotches or even patches of disturbed metallics. If your fogging gets so out of hand that when you look across the surface and you can actually see a fuzzy/dusty texture....you might have a problem because if you go in with a tack rag and try to remove it...if when you tack rag that fuzzy overspray off...and you miss a spot...TRUST ME...when you clear it...it will show up....or at least....someone like myself knows what to look for and I can spot it.

DUB

ry57pont

Thanks DUB for the explanation, it does make sense. I have really been wrestling with painting all the parts at once, but I'm doing it in a 3 car garage and it's really tight in there with the car in pieces. I showed the blotchy panel to my ppg rep today, his explanation was improper gun distance ( or varying my distance across the panel) that could be the case,

I do have a industrial paint mixer and I thought I could replicate the paint as I was painting the pieces in the same orientation as they would be on the car, but now you have me thinking I should make another effort to paint in one day. Starting to realize why professionals get big bucks to spray, but I have to be able to say I did it myself in the end.

Fogging sounds to tricky for a novice so I will avoid that and hope for the best. Again thanks for all your help!

DUB

And THIS is why I write and tell forum members who call me is to STOP and take time to practice with color on something they do not care about....so....when they go and paint their car...they have some knowledge of what they can expect.

Funny thing is that often times they seem to not to want to spend the money on paint just for practicing...but have no problem in buying more paint due to them messing something up that could have been easily corrected if they had only practiced.

The rep only mentioned one of many things that can cause the 'blotchy' effect.

For what this is worth:

I will take a full 8 hour fay gettign a Corvette set up in my booth and all masked off and ready for me to paint the next day. Then I it will literally take me all day to paint it. Extended flash times so when I handle parts that are going back on and coming back off do not get damaged. The extended basecoat flash times also help out in the overall cure out time of the paint job.

DUB

ry57pont

I bought a gallon of dbc, not sure how much I would need for a complete paint job. Would a gallon provide me more than enough to practice on panels?

DUB

I guess a gallon would because when it is thinned...it makes 2 gallons of spray able paint.

I do not know what your game plan is other than getting your technique down and feeling better when you have the paint gun in your hand while painting.

I do know that if you use a quart out of the gallon of paint you have you will have 2 quarts of spray able paint to test with....BUT....depending on how many coats it will take to achieve full coverage....you might run short with the 3 quarts of un-thinned paint you still have. And if you go out and buy another quart....you will want to either USE IT for your FIRST COAT ( and NOT worry if it prefect to the other paint because it is going to be covered up)....and then the rest of the paint out of your gallon for all other coats so it is from the same batch.

Keep in mind....IF you plan on saving some of the original raw/un-thinned paint you are using for future touch ups. The amount of touch up paint will be up to you. What I do is usually take out a full pint. AND some may think a pint is not a lot of paint. BUT REMEMBER....all I need this pint of touch up paint hat matches what I sprayed it in is for the FINAL COAT to get it right. When I do touch-ups on my paint jobs...I mix some more paint and use it for my first two or three coats to get it to coverage and THEN I use the mix that matched, That way...the original paint can be sparingly used.

At the paint store...they should have what is called a 'spray out card'...or 'color evaluation card'. It is a paper card that has black and white checkers on it so something like that. What this spray out card will do.....is when you get your paint gun properly adjusted on fluid volume control and air pressure...distance from the card when spraying it and TRAVEL SPEED of your gun. You paint this spray out card JUST LIKE you would a panel on your car.

SO...no double coating it...or soaking it down in paint. What this card will tell you is that when you paint it...and allow for correct flash time and all that. IS how many coats it takes to make the card ALL ONE COLOR and you can not see the black and white checkers. THUS this will let you know that to get FULL COVERAGE...it will take 'X' amount of coats in how YOU spray it and you gun set-up and so on.

And knowing that black and white are complete opposites....getting the color to make them BOTH not be seen will confirm that you have full saturation of your color. Doing THIS will make it so you are NOT wasting a lot of paint 'guessing' if you have enough on it.

NOW...if you applied a gray sealer on the panel prior to the silver/blue begin applied...you can also spray this same gray sealer on another spray out card and treat it EXACTLY the same and the other spray out card with the black and white checkers or whatever on it. Painting on a gray sealer of different color values has become a curretn standard now-a-days because painting some colors on gray actually will aid in taking less paint. BUT ...it is always good to know what it takes to completely cover black and white checkers on the card.

PLEASE PM ME ( I will give you my shop phone number so you can call me)...if you would like to talk with me so I can further fill you in on some of 'things' that you will need to know. Talking will go MUCH faster than me typing it out til my fingers bleed. I know you have painted before...but I do not know if YOU know how you can set your paint gun up for failure or success. And as Like I mentioned....all the help/advice you can get when painting this silver/blue it to YOUR Advantage.

DUB