Painting tips

When you are painting and you wetsand the coats before placing the next coat...does this include your final color coat?

In other words, do you wetsand that last coat of color before placing the first coat of clear? And if so, will you not be able to see that you wetsanded through the clear? Or do you just leave the last coat of color unsanded then place the first coat of clear on that...and if so how do you get all the imperfections outta that last coat of color?

As you can probably tell....I am ready to put on clear coat but not sure what, if anything I need to do next....but I do know I need to get those imperfections (aka dust particles, small hairs, overspray, etc, outta that last coat.

If you use a high grit sand paper (1000 and up) you should be fine I think because the clear should smooth it out just fine, but you might want some other opinions, I'm not an expert with wet sanding.

thats what I was thinking just wanted another opinion....well its time to go to walmart i guess :D

Pick up some 2000 grit. It works better for the final color layer, and clear coats.

My rule of thumb 2-3 coats primer then wetsand with 1000, 2-3 coats of color then wet with 1000, 1 top coat of color wetsand with 2000 (lightly you just want to smooth out the orange peel), then 3 coats of clear wetsand with 2000, then 1 light coat of clear, buff and polish NO WAX. Let it sit for 30-45 days Then wax.


Hope it helps!

Crazybillybob


If the Item being painted is going to be moved/used alot (more likly to be scratched) you can double the color and clear coats but wetsand ever 2 layers.

it moves about 1 every 2 months or so (or 1 month or less pending on how busy i am) when I got to lans so I did plan on putting an extra layer of clear coat

also...can you wax it after just a week or so IF you use breathable wax designed for new paint jobs? or do you still have to wait the full 30-45 days?

The breathable wax should be Ok. But as a rule of thumb it's best just not to wax it for the 30-45 days (I say that because most people have no clue that that Turtle wax or Mothers etc. aren't breathable (unless you get a special kind of them)). Plus if you buff and polish it you will not need to wax it for that time (It will be nice and ShinY !)

Good Luck,

Crazybillybob

ok

so to summarize...use 2000 grit LIGHTLY on that last color coat then use 1000-2000grit maybe as low as 800 on the first 2-3 layers of clear then work my way up to 2000 then rubbing compound for the final layer of clear then let it dry for a long time and maybe hit it with some breathable wax if it needs it

Wet-sand where possible though - gives a much smoother finish - using wet-n-dry sandpaper....

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. 8)

thx for the info.....now...what exactly is hand glaze?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Myrdhyn

thx for the info.....now...what exactly is hand glaze?

---

It's the final PimpCream polish to bring out that glossy shine :D

woot! and nice wording.....anyway yeah between work and class I decided to kill some time by going to books a million and checking our your book....and ended up becoming so engrossed that I missed class :P....anyway I discovered this in your book (which I now plan to buy asap but this month i've got WAY too many expenses including 2 bdays and 2 lan parties (1 is out of town))

ok so where can i find hand glaze? lol i looked and all i could find was rubbing compound...and right next to it something called finish restorer...but it didn't say hand glaze anywhere on the bottle and i didnt see anything else called hand glaze ...

Go down to a good auto parts store like Pepboys and look in the car care section with the wax and soap and stuff. I use 3m Imperial Hand Glaze. it is wax free and silicone free and safe for clearcoats. Or go to the 3m website and look up part# 051131. It is the best all around glaze for fresh paint jobs. 8)

well i had got my paint job done and it looked GREAT......then about 5 days later came the lan party.....i put my carrying strap on...went to the lan...then when i came home and took the strap off to my complete and utter horror i discovered my last three weeks worth of painting had been pretty much destroyed by that stupid strap b/c for some reason it bit into the paint leaving horrible scuffs,scratches, and large bumps on it....
if i leave the strap on you can barely tell up close and cant tell from a distance but I know its there :\ oh well i wont have to tolerate it TOO long as i plan on starting a new rig at the first of the year...but moral of the story....lan party (and especially carrying straps) is french for death to paint jobs (especially new ones)

That sucks about the paintjob. The issue might have been residual solvents in the paint. it happened a couple of times on some mods that i thought were dry and when i remounted the HDDs and tightened up the screws the paint just turned to mush around the screws. The best way to fix that damage is to lightly wet sand it down and reapply the clear coat and let it dry for awhile and possibly not use it to LAN with.

are there any spary-on bases?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Slatter

are there any spary-on bases?

---

What do you mean by bases?

Are you thinking primer (goes on baremetal so the paint has something to adhear too). Or Base color (the primary color that details and or candies (top coats) are appied)? If you tell us which your thinking of we can give you eamples of them.


Crazybillybob

Many tips are there in for paint...
1.you can go to lows and get a paint edger,if you get any on it have a wet cloth to wipe it off
2.do not bend your hand into the paint