Dieback, shrinkage, or something else

Drag racer

Drag racer

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I painted my car about 3 years ago. For the first year it looked perfect. After that i noticed the clear wasn't as shiny and looked kind of hazy. If you look really close it looks textured. It mostly looks like that on the roof and hood, sides still look pretty good. Not sure what i did wrong that might have caused this. I followed " The perfect paint job" to a tee. I used all SPI products except the 2k high build was UPOL. Slow reducer for everything and slow activator with a little bit of retarder for the Universal clear. I used motobase from Chads paint supply
 

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You probably did nothing wrong.
Though that does look excessive, all paint jobs down
the road shrink a little. you can reduce it a lot by waiting longer
for the primer to cure before paint and the same thing waiting
longer for clear to cure before buffing.
Some may argue but when I was at the street rod show and I asked the owners
of the best show cars out there "did you have to re-buff after a year or two"
every one said yes.
Most times it's so little shrinkage that the average guy wouldn't notice the difference,
but a painter does.
If you cut and buff it again it'll hold much better.
 
ive experienced the same. all i can add is that, the longer you wait for every step of the way, the better. it helps to sand the clear and let it gas out for a week, or as long as possible, before proceeding with finer grits and polishing.
 
Thanks guys for the response!. Ill let my sealer and base flash longer next time and see if that helps. Here is the last two cars i panted with SPI stuff. Very happy with it. Just ordered enough stuff to 2 more cars this winter. Going to try the Turbo 2K this time
 

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I like to let my primer dry at least 2 days before sanding it.
Most jobs don't allow enough time to let it sit longer.
I have noticed a difference if I let it sit a week but it gets really hard
to sand waiting that long.
 
Looks like you've painted some nice stuff! In addition to all the above, sometimes slower is faster with basecoat, meaning you might try a slower reducer and see how it works. It will allow the use of thinner coats that stay open longer, allowing the solvents that tried to go down into the sealer and primer to go up and out into the air instead. Thin coats of base are what you want.
 
Probably that upol primer have sprayed a couple gallons on some projects at a shop thats what they wanted to use … let it sit as long as I could but was on a timeline with the projects I’d be curious what they will look like in a year or so. I haven’t tried the turbo 2k I’m not sure how it shrinks. Other 2k I have used always seem to shrink up some
 
imo the #1 best thing you can do for a paintjob is let the base flash 24hrs before you clear it. when you spray base 1/2 flashes off and the other 1/2 soaks into the bottom layers.....in most cases. some primers are better at resisting that but some arent. it takes a long time for those solvents that soak into the lower layers to come out as well as the tail solvents to flash. after base, time is your friend and 24hrs is what you want to shoot for.
 
Jim C said:
imo the #1 best thing you can do for a paintjob is let the base flash 24hrs before you clear it. when you spray base 1/2 flashes off and the other 1/2 soaks into the bottom layers.....in most cases. some primers are better at resisting that but some arent. it takes a long time for those solvents that soak into the lower layers to come out as well as the tail solvents to flash. after base, time is your friend and 24hrs is what you want to shoot for.
Click to expand...
Do you find using a med/shortwave lamp for a few minutes an acceptable option if waiting a day isn't feasible?
 
anything to help purge the solvents is a big help. im pretty sure a few minutes wont be the same as sitting overnight but its something anyway. getting the solvents out of the paint film is really the ultimate goal so whatever works.
 
I think I am going to let it sit longer after the base. I might raise the temp up another 5 degrees while the base sits too. Last time i did let it sit about 14 hours before clear. I did seal it and only let the sealer sit 4.5 hours before i started the base. Maybe the sealer was holding solvents?
 
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