slick paint

okay for all of you guys out there that are making some nice paint pieces i wanna hear from you. cody and i have painted a few vehicles some coming out better than others. the thing that gets us is it having texture to it. i know you can wet sand and buff it and make it nice and slick. we havent tried any of this yet and i was wanting to talk with some of you guys to see just how yaull are getting these super slick reflection bearing paint jobs. should i be wetsanding the base coats before clear or just the clear? should i make the clear as thin as i can without running it during spray or what? like i said ive got a little experience but im ready to start trying to take it to the next level and make a really nice piece. Ill listen to any and all advice to help me in doing this. thanks in advance.





-justin

just make sure you put alot of clear on, sounds like your getting a dry clear job 9not enough clear), you want enough clear so that it's just about on the verge of having runs, it'll flatten out real nice, runs aren't a bad thing they are just signs of good flow, although it is nice to avoid then, but even if you have runs allow the clear to cure for like a couple of days then hit the runs with a razor blade and cut them off then wet sand the run areas with 800 then wetsand with 1000, 1500, and 2000 then polish.

polishing is a pain in the ass, its messy and its just time comsuming to get it lookin right,

tyler is dead on!...just adjust the gun so you either have less air or more material and get your wetsanding muscles strong!..it will be worth all the work in the end...

exactly what the guys above said. Don't freak out about a run, there are thing to do to fix them. You can even buy a run removal tool that holds a razor blade. I've sprayed a lot of PPG clear over Auto Air colors. The Auto air tends to be textured with the high solid water based pigments. The PPG spec sheets say 2 medium coats. I spray 1 light coat first, followed by 2 wet coats with flash time in between. I get a nice leveled finish.

Make some test panels to experiment on. I've painted several mail boxes for practice as well.

If you block the truck right and spray with correct tip size,correct pressure the basecoat/clear should lay out slick everytime. 3 things can cause pocketed/spotty clearcoat. Not enough pressure to gun,clearcoat not reduced properly and spraying to fast.

If this is an existing car, I would recommed blocking truck out with 1000-1500 and just re-clearing complete truck. You should be able to achieve flatter clear this way.

Now the way I have always done it was spray heavy coats of clear. Give it a bit of time to dry. I will then use a special sandpaper on a watersanding DA called TRIZACT p1500 and p3000 to level clear out. Since you hit it with p3000 the compounding step is all but eliminated since the scratches are so fine. The cost of this sandpaper is about 90-100 a box of 15 pieces, but once you have used it you will never go back. 1 piece of paper will do a complete truck usually. You will then get the matching trizact 3m pad and compounds/glazes.

Your truck came out nice, but like mine I am sure it was a pain in the ass for whoever buffed it out. Look up 3m Trizact sanding/buffing system. Once you have tried this you will never go back to the old school buffing way. It cuts the time in half. The p3000 paper is so fine and lasts forever that you all but eliminate the compounding step.

thanks, i rubbed it and buffed it all myself and it suck, i i used liquid ice and it was allover the place, and friend of mine said frecla is also a good polish

i have a wetsanding D.A too but that thing wasn't cheap!..most of us are trying to do this because 1: we wanna learn! and 2: cuz we're too broke to pay someone to do it!..lol...these are the reasons why i started to paint..as i got better then i got the nice fun easy work tools but i did learn the oldschool way first..

I can understand broke for sure, but you cannot expect quality with inferior products. The trizact kit is not what I used, but you can purchase that kit for $100 flat from any paint store or online. It comes with Compound,Swirl polish,Glaze, P3000 and P1500 sandpaper enough to do 1-2 cars. Microfiber rags and a DA sanding pad with Soft interface pad which stop the DA from burning through paint edges. Add a little water to the pad and your set. Comes with directions if needed.

Now for the do it yourself budget guy, I still am that way for anything other then paint work. You will need 3m swirl removed,compound perferably Perfect III or 3000 and some finishing glaze. You will also need 4-6 Microfiber rags. Terry cloths work but scratch. A compounding pad,polishing pad and a Glazing pad. Now for Sandpaper I would recommend never allowing 800-1000 touching your truck unless over a large paint run. I use 1500 and 2000 only. Costs of all this is around 100-120 on Ebay.

No matter what way you go, you will need a variable speed Polisher/buffer. 1800RPM is the perfect setting. Now if money is an issue, go to home-depot buy a buffer and return it when done lol.

I forgot to mention the Trizact comes with a Soft backing pad for the DA so you do not need to stop on edge,grooves etc. I have wetsanded and buffed a few cars and never again will I bother doing it by hand.
Liquid Ice is pretty good, I use 3m Perfect-3000 usually. The 3000 extra cut when I have wetsanded by hand.
The compound is the worst in hot weather. You allow that to sit baking you will never get it off with wax/grease removed and even then it leaves a fog. I always go panel to panel. On the bed I will do it in one shot however.