I spent the last week renting a paintbooth... ended up blocking the entire car a few more times and finally sprayed metallic silver on the last day of booth rental. The jams are painted and cleared, but I had a few boo boos on the silver....

I am using Dupont Chromabase, bc/cc... bought another quart to do entire car again. Is this enough?

One large run, one area with pinholes in the fiberglass rear bumper and one area where you can see outlines of bare fiberglass and some dry spray. I used sealer first, waited 30 mins for flash and painted silver.

Now, I am planning on sanding the uncleared silver with 1000 grit, gouging and using filler on the pinholes (1/16" dia max X 5 in a 2" area) and spraying another topcoat, then clear. Sound like the right thing to do?

 

Skip the 1000-grit. Wet sand the whole thing with 600. Make sure you use a catalyzed urethane filler on the pinholes and not any of the "spot filler" stuff that comes in a tube. You can't topcoat over filler, even if it's just pinholes - you have to prime first. Also, if you can see outlines of 'glass, you haven't primed the car adequately. No, a quart is not enough to paint the car - you're going to have to put 3 coats on it (tack coat and 2 wets - metallics will often also require a "drop coat" in the end to eliminate "tiger striping.").

Lars

 

Thanks a lot Lars, I appreciate it.

I have read a lot (including your paper) and watched Paintucation countless times but I realized spraying colour requires a little practice...

I am assuming your "tack coat" is a light coat that is not meant to provide full coverage in order to not put on too much... I tried for full coverage on the first coat.

2 wet coats - I had the hood and doors in place with the jams and hood surround painted, cleared and masked. The hood and fenders were too long to maintain a consistent and parallel gun travel. This is where I got 3 tiger stripes and a large sag on the horizontal portion of the DS front corner. I was worried about "metallic matching" on this portion so I thought the hood in place was a good idea.

Drop coat - Would this be the same technique as the tack coat?

Filler - I have used a good quality catalyst filler and fiberglass/kitty hair for all repairs. I found that a razor blade works well for applying small amounts of filler too. I didn't think you could topcoat over filler, somebody told me I could. I don't need to use sealer over the primer again do I? The sealer I am using is just high build primer mixed with 4-1 for primer and add 2(urethane grade reducer).

I have 600 grit paper and am planning on wet sanding the entire car again with it, and I now have 2 quarts of light silver and 1 quart of dark silver (if I decide to two tone it).

 

I found I needed about a gallon to cover the car properly, especially the silver,
you have to get good coverage or your silver will leave stripes in it.
good Luck,

 

Leave it alone, if you intend to drive the car it will never be perfect. I think the rule of thumb if you don't recoat within the 24 hours, you need to wait two weeks for the paint to cure before wetsanding and repray.

I'm with Lars, don't waste time with 1K. It will take forever just to take down the orange peel with 1K. I'd prob use 800. But anything 600-1K should be fine for adhesion. Realistically, you could probably even hide 400 grit scratches with clear.

 

I use to have that problem.. along with orange peel, To solve it
1>I put a pressure gauge/regulator at the gun inlet and sprayed according to product sheet for the paint (PPG BC/CC) I was way too low on my pressure and adjusted it to 45-50psi for my old Binks model 18, (much lower for HVLP)
2> Used a robot like motion to keep the gun at a consistant distance from the surface and maintained a constant speed, start/release of trigger before/after panel.
3>Mixed paint in proper measured container and sprayed with a 50% overlap
4> used proper flash times(on product sheet) between coats to
Prevent solvent popping

5> Ensure cleanliness of everything, use tack rags, clean booth etc

 

Its hard to shoot metallic, sort of like shooting candy. You need to lay it down like ordinary paint, then quickly do a few mist coats while it's still wet to even it out.

 

Thanks for the replies guys.

I shot 3 quarts on it already and there is a good base already. A whole gallon? Crap... I was hoping since there is already a good base, I could put another 1 or 2 coats on it and it would be good.

I am using a Devilbiss Finishline HVLP gun with 50 - 75% overlap with a pressure regulator at the gun inlet set at 30 psi.

I swept the booth and wet down the floor and walls, also wiped down the car with solvent and a tack rag.

I am spending a bit of time practicing with the gun trying the Robotic motion you mentioned. More practice needed...

I can't just leave it the way it is... I spent hundreds of hours stripping, sanding, filling, blocking... etc. The seamless bumpers took quite a while...

Realistically, I won't spray it again for another few weeks.

I can do the mist coats after full coverage is required, right?

 

DO NOT put another gallon on there. I put 4 coats of clear on mine starting with a gallon and had a 1/3 of a gallon left over. Your car won't handle more than 4 coats of clear, it will make it more prone to chipping. I believe the consensus is 3 coats is the strongest. I did 4 to allow for color sanding.

A quart of clear with reducer and activator is more like 1/2 a gallon anyways, easily enough. Just do another coat, 2 if you have to to make sure you get full coverage and don't see any overspray.