Spotting in the clear as in localized spraying will be a problem if not now sometime in the future. When you spot in clear the edge is very thin and will break back which will show up. This is done all the time by the pros but is not endorsed by the paint companies. The shops are banking on the customer selling the car before the clear edge starts to show.

To do a bulletproof job you should clear entire panels.

I must say for a first time painter you have done a great job and you should be proud and I know you want to make it perfect because you are very close.

 

Actually, this is not my first paint job, but it is the first time I have SERIOUSLY tried to do something resembling a first-rate base/clear job on a car that I really cared about. A couple years ago I shot my son's car (see post #127) and the I lacquered the orange Mustang next to the Vette in so many frames 21 years ago. And the Vette was painted by me (lacquer also) ten years ago. This base/clear business is a whole 'nother animal, though, and not nearly as forgiving...

Suppose I mask the rear deck at the fender crease, and respray all but the reverse side of the rollover, leaving only the radius at the inner base of the sail panels to be 'blended'...think that might work?

 

As much as I would hate to say Dave, if you're going to go to that much trouble, I would re-shoot the rear half of the car again... Block everything down with 600-800 and re-clear the back half in its entirety... I know that's a lot of work, but I wouldn't suggest only doing half...

Just my humble opinion...

Rogman

P.S. Glad you shot your car before I shot mine... I am wishing right now that I ordered Duracryl Lacquer instead of bc/cc... Sure I'm going to screw something up bad too...

 

yep, this is why I said I would live with. cuzz this is really the only alternative. photos can be deceiving too though.

I gotta take issue with first coat of clear NOT being a dry coat. that first coat sets up the rest, gives good adhesion. CF6873, do you have some kind of link showing different, either a you tube video or website? thanks

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7jFNUGUhIs

here's a good video, I know the test/lesson piece is a fridge door, but principles are the same

 

Hi Bird,
Very little to NO experience here, BUT, I believe your brain is approaching this from it's background of lacquer painting..... repair a problem but keep the repair as small as possible... from what I'm reading here it sounds like with bc/cc you need to think of repairs in complete but confined panels... in this case the whole rear clip.
Not a pleasant thought, (it makes my stomach turn just to type the words), but the right thing to do for what YOU want THIS CAR to be.
Regards,
Alan

We're all crazy or we wouldn't be doing what we're doing to 40 year old cars.

 

Well said, Alan!! Dave, we need to hear from you sometime today or I'm gonna call the paramedics to check on you!!!

Nothing says Christmas like spraying another couple of coats of clear on the Vette right after Christmas breakfast!!! Couldn't think of a better way to spend Christmas...

All kidding aside, let us know what you decide... Wish I was there to help you sand it down...

Rogman

 

Hi Rog,
You're right about painting after Christmas breakfast..... for about 10 years I did some of my best work while the Thanksgiving turkey was in the oven.
Also cracked the windshield one year... try not to remember it, but I can still hear the little popping noise it made any time I think about it.
Regards,
Alan

 

Well, I was gonna wait until this thing was at its end, but insofar as it led directly to the problem I'm dealing with now...

When I shot the base, I somehow only reduced it 50-60% vs. mixing it 1:1, which created some orange peel in the base. Must have been the Norwegian in me...Not a lot, mind you, but enough in a couple critical places to set up a chain reaction when the clear was applied in two places that kind of 'snowballed'. It also caused me to have to go down to the paint store in mid-job and buy more base, when if I had reduced it sufficiently to begin with I think I could have made three quarts of base last the whole car, and reducer is certainly cheaper than basecoat.

Actually, the thought of respraying the rear clip isn't all that daunting at this point. The whole car is nice and flat now, so sanding it isn't any big deal, and with the car as flat as it is now I'd really be able to get away with two coats vs. three. I found on the driver's door that reducing the clear about 25% really helped it flow; it was literally so smooth right out of the gun that I was tempted to just leave it...for about a minute!

There are also a couple 'mystery dings' on the rear deck; I could drop a bit of basecoat onto those before re-applying the clear. At any rate I think I will go ahead and color sand/polish the rest of the car before I do any more clearcoat. That way, if I find any problems up front I can address those at the same time...

 

Great plan, Dave... Please keep us posted on your progress... You are doing a fantastic job and know how much work is going into this... Keep your head up, and keep moving forward...

Rogman

 

Dave:

Just to clarify, you feel the root problem starts with orange peel in the base? So if you don't have enough clear to fill the valleys, too much sanding will cut completely through the clear first. Is that the source of the mottling?

You're getting excellent advice here about the clear. Do you already know you hit the base in this area? The test is whether any color starts to show up in the sanding residue and with your color that is pretty obvious. In my experience a very decent amount of clear is deposited in the area you are concerned about just due to the geometry of the car there.

 

I just verified that I went into the base in two places; one on top of each fender. I just sanded on each spot some more to see if they would level out, and by the time they were flat I was down to the base, so for some reason the clear never properly 'fused' with the base in those two spots. I think it had more to do with gun pressure/ angle/ pattern in those two spots than anything else. Even though I went around the car four times I wasn't getting a good application of clear in those two narrow spots.

I'm looking into a blending procedure with my paint vendor right now; but if it sounds like something that's gonna exceed my skill/intelligence level I'll just wrap up the front end and re- clear the back half of the car.

 

http://www.pc.dupont.com/dpc/en/US/h...omasystem.html

Doug, I welcome you to check out Dupont tech sheets for any of their clears and they all state apply 2 medium wet coats.

I don't see how a dry 1st coat helps with adhesion. It may help against runs but an even medium wet coat will not run. When I see a dry 1st coat it will appear to have holes in the surface and will not be slicked over. When you try to fill in these holes with the 2nd coat you just magnified the peel.

I'm not trying to argue and I know painting is not an exact science. There are many different techniques that will work for certain painters, but working in the industry for 40+ years I have a pretty good handle on what the pros do.

 

Maybe not necessarily "adhesion" as we tend to think of it. But it allows for a "half coat" helps get you started with applying layers of clear and like you said, knowing there won't be any runs, at least not from the first coat, lol. whether a first dry coat sets up problems for orange peel even after later heavier coats, I don't know, theory says "no" experience often contradicts theory, so you may be right.
I will certainly explore more and the following the labels can be critical to getting the desired finish. thanks

I just looked on a cheap can of clear I have by a company called "Pro Form", directions say "2 full wet coats" so there you go

 

this probably effected drying time more then flow

 

your car looks great!, love the color.

Hope to be doing mine this spring, I have to use water base due to the regulations around here. My friend owns a body shop and offered loan of his spray booth to me and assistance where required. I have painted a few dozen cars in the past but it's been a few years since my last paint job.

Keep up the great work, its another one of those jobs that freak people out when you say you did it yourself :-)

 

My son's been home from college for a few days now and brought his own car problems home with him, so to get away from MY car problems I've been working on his for awhile. This morning, though, I decided to get back on the Vette for awhile, so I did the right front corner...





I tried not to get in too much of a hurry this time, and I think it paid off. Also, it seems that I had plenty of clear on everything, so none of the problems that I ran into on the back end. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the way this part turned out.

I plan to do the left front tomorrow, then the door jambs, and hopefully there won't be any more mistakes to correct at that point. My paint vendor sold me some "Blendz-all" type chemical a couple days ago and gave me a procedure for repairing the boo-boos on the rear fenders, so I will take a stab at those last.

After that, I will be trolling for help putting the new carpet in...

 

that finish looks like glass!

 

Dave, that looks great... The door hinges look like they are red??? Is that just the flash messing with the picture???

Rogman

 

those are to match the calipers....