After getting my 2 good base coats down and smoothed out with some 600 grit I applied the clearcoat. I'm using a medium reducer, and I'm getting pits and orange peel. Should I go to a faster reducer? It was around 70 degrees when I did the clear. Could this be caused by humidy around 40%? What about moisture in the compressor itself? I lay the base coat down very nicely. I'm using a 1.4 , but have a 2.0 setup as well. Should I switch setups for the clearcoat? OH YEAH, sanding is FUN.

 

u will get orange peel no matter what...... lay about 5 coats of clear and wet sand...usually wet sanding will take about 2 coats of........ then buff.........

b

 

With medium reducer and 70' and 1.4 nozzle you should be fine. If you're getting orangepeel or a dry appearance, you're either spraying too dry, too far away, or need to add some slower reducer to allow the paint to flow out more before evaporating. You should spray with a disposable filter right at the gun. Make sure your pressure at the gun is as recommended. I use a regulator/gage right at the gun. Also make sure the surface that you're painting is spotlessly clean. Use a tack cloth on the base coat after it drys before shooting the clear. As final insurance you could add what it called "fish eye" remover to the clear coat. This breaks the surface tension in the paint down a bit so that it flows out better and doesn't repel away from some areas or dirt spots that cause the pits to develop.

The orange peel should wet sand out. Keep going until there are no shiny areas left (which are the low spots). Start with 1000 grit to level everything. Then work your way up to 1500 and then 2000 grit to progressively reduce the depth of the sanding scratches. Before you buff, the surface should have a bit of a dull shine already after the sanding. Also, sand in one direction only. I go parallel to the length of the car following the body lines. Stay off of the body creases (like along the tops of the fenders) completely. It's much harder to buff out the scratches if they are in random directions rather than all in a single direction.

Oh yeah, wetsanding is work, but when you start buffing the shine and depth of your new paint will be outstanding! Post pics when you're done.

 

guy knows what hes talking about,is gun 8 " from the panel with a consistant movement with 50% overlap?that seems to be the best way for somone who doesnt do it a hole lot,Darryl

 

The clearcoat should lay down just as smooth as the base coat. THe orange peel is due to an improper application. I too use a gauge/regulator valve at the gun. That helps quite a bit. If your clearcoat is smooth, you will not have to sand too much.

And like he said, the shine will prove that all that hard work is more than worth it.

 

Thanks for the replys. If all goes well, there be some pics comming after this weekend. I have reg. & sep. all hooked up to the gun now. Tank's all been drained and cleaned. New hose and connections, gun absolutely clean and working fine. Time will tell now....

 

You might want to thin out the clear a little more. Just watch out for the runs. Put on a couple of extra coats of the clear the colar sand and polish. Thats what I did.

 

If you are going to apply more coats of clear over existing clear that has hardened more than 24 hours, you should rough the existing clear coat with 600 grit paper and spray adhesion promoter everywhere you intend to paint prior to applying more clear. This will keep the new clear from peeling off of what is currently there from lack of adhesion. Also, I'd apply at least 3 more coats of the new clear so that when you color sand, you avoid sanding into the old clear coat. You'll see a faint difference between the old and the new clear coats if you sand through. It may be subtle but will be there, nonetheless (of course I'm very **** retentive about details like this ). If you can spray an entire panel with the new clear or end at a body line you can hide the break between where the new clear coat ends and the old clear begins.

 

It's my understanding that you are not supposed to sand the base coat.

 

True - unless you screwed up and plan to shoot another coat over the area you sanded.

 

Orange Peel can come from 2 things. 1 improper spray technique and 2 not using prep-sol or a degreaser before you spray. Nobody mentioned #2 yet, so I thought I'd toss it in. Also, if you let your last coat of basecoat dry for too long (see the paint sheet) your clear will be a mess. You only have cartain window of time between primer and base and between base and clear.

 

 

Well, after a bit of a struggle and some trial and error. Here it is, finally!

First attempt at posting a PIC....

 

That looks good.