Painting disaster, "gator skin" when clearcoating.

[jreffy]

So...I've been cruising along with my custom mod, installing my parts into my case, and pretty much the only thing left to do is get my panels painted and put my PC together. I've been itching at getting this beast up and running (worklog in my sig), and I've even got all my components installed in my rig save for the rad.

I get my color-coats and wet-sanding done, everything is looking great, and I go to apply a clearcoat. After about 5 minutes I notice "gator-skinning" on all my parts. The effect didn't happen instantaenously, so I ended up clear-coating ALL MY PARTS, which means I have gator-skin EVERYWHERE =/.

I understand that I need to ensure that my clearcoat and my spray paint are both enamel or both acrylic. I'm using enamel paint and an enamel clearcoat and I got this problem. Both paint cans are made by the same company and both have the same exact label. Anyone have any insight as to why this happened? =/

Just curious as to what to do. I've already sanded down all my parts and reapplied colorcoats. Although it looks like I'll have to do some more sanding because some of the gatorskin is still showing up. I plan on calling the paint company today at lunch and asking what the deal is.

[jreffy]

NEVERMIND.


Got off the phone with the company just now...problem solved. I was apparently using a "non-sandable" paint, and not giving it enough time to cure (I was giving it 2 days) to cure.

I'm a dumbass, CS, I am not worthy =P



I'm trying to find a wet-sandable paint, but everything is coming up empty =/

[SgtM]

jreffy, have a look at this post from Gregory in this thread.
http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1358



From years of painting cars for a living, I have found that if you wax a fresh paint job you will seal in the solvents under the unbreathable wax. This will lead to bubbles forming under the wax and and cause the paint to come right off the metal. as far as wetsanding... it has 2 benefits. 1st is that it keeps you from having to clean up a whole bunch of dust that would ruin the paint. 2nd it helps the sanding block glide over the surface better, since you are only trying to remove extremely small imperfections in the color coat. (wet sanding color coats is much more important for dark colors like black as those colors will show every tiny imperfection)

as for primer... the standard for primer is 2 coats. you wet sand with 600grit paper to create a good surface for the paint to stick to. You must make very sure that the primer is dry before applying any color coats to it. Primer is very pourous (that's why paint is able to stick so well to it) and will hold moisture very well. the best thing to do with standard spray paint is to spray the primer outside in the morning wet sand when its dry to the touch (doesnt have to be perfect just evenly sanded). Then let it sit in the sun and really dry out for a couple of hours. Then apply color coats as directed on the product label on the side of the can.

The clear coat is the most important coat since this is the one that is going to exposed to your fingerprints, dings, small scratchs etc. This is also the coat that will give the paint job its shine. ***Take your time on these coats*** Make sure that the clear coat is compatible with the color coats (laquer with laquer, Enamel with enamal, etc) other wise the clear will strip the color coat right off. (CrimsonSky's Maximum PC guide to Extreme PC Mods has a great section on how to do a full paint job from start to finish.)

The main reason for applying wax to a Car would be to help protect the paint from corrosion from the general exposure to the outside environment. This is not needed if you have the pc inside (i hope that you do). Hand Glaze works better and allows the paint to breath and evaporate all of the solvents and harden correctly.

I hope that this helped. This is just some personal experience. But you cant learn unless you just do it.

[jreffy]

jreffy, have a look at this post from Gregory in this thread.
http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1358

Yes, I've read that and many other posts before beginning painting, as well as buying Crimson's book. I did everything fine. Enamel with Enamel, etc. etc. Again, apparently I just didn't give the paint enough time to cure because when I did a 1000-2000grit quick sanding before laying the clear coat it opened up the paint and exposed some of the solvents that had not cured yet. THAT was what was messing with my clearcoat. At least that's what the lady on the phone told me.

[SgtM]

Cool. Hope the rest of your project goes without issues.