Disappointing results with my finish coat

[MAKZ06]

Man, what a learning process… I’m not sure I have enough years left to get good with laying down the paint, but maybe I’ll at least improve with the old Cougar next. I hope to get another garage space built by then so I’m not working in a portable tent and can get some decent lighting around me to be able to see the paint going on…
I sprayed the first 3 color coats of single-stage Motocryl back in May. Flattened all the orange peel and abundant dust nibs with 600 to a nice consistent surface and sprayed the final 3 coats this past week. On the plus side, I got a far cleaner spray each day as I worked through the various panels. I was careful to remember to wipe-off the hose between the coats, and hung the hood vertical instead of flat like before. I also sprayed the hood in a different session from the cab so I wasn’t stirring up as much dust moving back and forth, climbing around, and juggling step-stools, etc. Also did all my staging the night before along with blowing off and wiping down so the dust had more time to settle.
Orange-peel on the other hand unfortunately turned out worse than last time on some of the panels. I think the gun is probably adjusted correctly, and distance is correct, and I just need to slow down. I guess I’ve got a fear of getting a bunch of runs and sags and make the passes too fast. More experience or someone watching that actually knows what they are doing would I’m sure be able to make some fluid adjustments and suggestions to deal with the speed. I’m clueless, maybe the fluid control and/or pressure is still off. Lack of good lighting and really being able to see what’s happening doesn’t help….
What I find odd is the difference I got from one morning to the next with the results. Four morning sessions, each at the same temps and humidity levels with best I could tell using the same settings, speed and distance. Fifty percent overlap. Looked the same going down but then would notice the texture after the final coat was down. The front fenders, doors and valence/ bumper guards on the first day came out the best. They looked slightly better than my results for the first 3 coats in May, with a light peel similar I guess to some factory jobs I’ve seen. The hood is the worst. It came out with much more texture. Maybe closer to a dry spray where it didn’t flow together as well. The bed is similar but not as bad. The cab finish is slightly better but not nearly as good as the doors and fenders.
Hard to see in the photos. It actually looks worse in the pics than it is, but still not good. Hopefully will be able to get it all looking nice after the next round of sanding and buffing. Guess I’ll start with 1000 and see how that seems to handle the texture. I may not have learned to spray but I have sure learned more of an appreciation for the skill and abilities of a painter…

 

[MAKZ06]

A couple more trying to show the texture…

 

[texasking]

Looks great. That will buff out easily.

 

[shine]

sags are easier to fix than a whole panel. slow down or open up a half turn.

plus it's hot as hell so use 95 reducer and very slow acc.

 

[MAKZ06]

sags are easier to fix than a whole panel. slow down or open up a half turn.

plus it's hot as hell so use 95 reducer and very slow acc.

I’ll try slower some and opening the fluid control some next time. Next time even as expensive as it is, I’ll get an extra gallon of paint so I can practice more and not worry I’ll run out of the current color batch….
I was using the 895 slow spi reducer but had already purchased the regular hardener from Motocryl.
Also staged my stuff ready for paint the might before so I was spraying between 10:00 and 11:00 each morning when it was 68-72 and not heated-up yet. One advantage to the N Ga mountains…

 

[MAKZ06]

Looks great. That will buff out easily.

Thanks, but I won’t get my feelings hurt when someone tells me it looks like a drunk, blind guy sprayed it… I know I don’t have the skills yet, and it is what it is.

 

[AAE]

Thanks, but I won’t get my feelings hurt when someone tells me it looks like a drunk, blind guy sprayed it… I know I don’t have the skills yet, and it is what it is.

I wasn't anywhere near you.

 

[dhutton01]

Looks good to me. After cut and buff it will look awesome. You have lots of material to work with. Don’t be so hard on yourself.

Don

 

[MAKZ06]

Looks good to me. After cut and buff it will look awesome. You have lots of material to work with. Don’t be so hard on yourself.

Don

Thank you. The texture is a little more than I was expecting this time. Helps to get some reassurance that it will also cut and buff without a problem. I expected to be doing a lot more sanding due to my spray environment and lack of experience. I was just afraid it was too bad to even smooth-out properly without breaking through to primer…

 

[dhutton01]

Thank you. The texture is a little more than I was expecting this time. Helps to get some reassurance that it will also cut and buff without a problem. I expected to be doing a lot more sanding due to my spray environment and lack of experience. I was just afraid it was too bad to even smooth-out properly without breaking through to primer…

I would start with 1000 dry and take it from there. Dry lets you easily see when the texture is gone.

Don

 

[RosharonRooster]

What I've learned in this hobby (hobby for me) is that, the way you execute whatever step you are on, determines how hard you have to work on the next step. Starting with the quality/condition of the project you buy. Metal work leads to filler work,..the way you spread leads to how hard you have to block sand, leads to how many times you have to do it...leads to how many rounds of primer...leads to how much build up you have....leads to how flat the panel is. Leads to how it looks when sprayed....how you spray leads to how much sanding and polishing. ...alot of steps in there and plenty of room for mistakes. I wish I could see the first car I painted with the eye I have today. I would be embarrassed. At that time i didnt even know what epoxy was. I knew zero about paint and body....now i know about 25%..I think the paint looks fine and like Don said, plenty of stuff to knock down. .

 

[MAKZ06]

I would start with 1000 dry and take it from there. Dry lets you easily see when the texture is gone.

Don

Thanks. That’s what I was planning. I’ve been doing a lot of online “window shopping“ trying to decide on which specific abrasive sheets. Kovax, Sumlight, Unigrit, etc. Can’t make up my mind which way to go. I think I’ve talked myself out of using my Dynabrade DA… better to play it safe and go hand sanding, at least until I get up to 2500 Buflex and 8000 Trizact. None of the sheets seem to be in sizes that fit the standard width blocks I have, even cut in halfs or thirds. This will be a lot easier the second time around.

 

[MAKZ06]

What I've learned in this hobby (hobby for me) is that, the way you execute whatever step you are on, determines how hard you have to work on the next step. Starting with the quality/condition of the project you buy. Metal work leads to filler work,..the way you spread leads to how hard you have to block sand, leads to how many times you have to do it...leads to how many rounds of primer...leads to how much build up you have....leads to how flat the panel is. Leads to how it looks when sprayed....how you spray leads to how much sanding and polishing. ...alot of steps in there and plenty of room for mistakes. I wish I could see the first car I painted with the eye I have today. I would be embarrassed. At that time i didnt even know what epoxy was. I knew zero about paint and body....now i know about 25%..I think the paint looks fine and like Don said, plenty of stuff to knock down. .

Thanks. I definitely spent more time than I would care to admit on the welding and metalwork to make sure I would not have any filler over 1/8”, and then the block sanding is where it really gets embarrassing. I literally sanded off gallons upon gallons of epoxy with resprays, blocking, breaking through spraying again, finding new highs and lows, repeating over and over. Learned a ton though and the next projects will go a lot easier.

 

[dhutton01]

Thanks. That’s what I was planning. I’ve been doing a lot of online “window shopping“ trying to decide on which specific abrasive sheets. Kovax, Sumlight, Unigrit, etc. Can’t make up my mind which way to go. I think I’ve talked myself out of using my Dynabrade DA… better to play it safe and go hand sanding, at least until I get up to 2500 Buflex and 8000 Trizact. None of the sheets seem to be in sizes that fit the standard width blocks I have, even cut in halfs or thirds. This will be a lot easier the second time around.

I’m a DA/RO guy so I can’t help you there. Hopefully one of the hand sanding guys will chime in.

Don

 

[dhutton01]

Sometimes if I have to do a little hand sanding I use these because they use the same 6” discs as my sander. Not sure I’d do a whole car with them.

3M Hookit Disc Hand Pad - 05791

Use with 6 diameter Hookit discs Made with soft foam for conformability and spreading out finger pressure Strap holds pad on hand Soft foam rubber spreads out sanding pressure Thickness: 0.25 Diameter: 6

www.autobodytoolmart.com

3M Hookit 6

Use with 6 diameter Hookit discs With disc wrapped around the pad the 1/4 radius edge allows for sanding in hard-to-reach areas

www.autobodytoolmart.com

Don

 

[MAKZ06]

Sometimes if I have to do a little hand sanding I use these because they use the same 6” discs as my sander. Not sure I’d do a whole car with them.

3M Hookit Disc Hand Pad - 05791

Use with 6 diameter Hookit discs Made with soft foam for conformability and spreading out finger pressure Strap holds pad on hand Soft foam rubber spreads out sanding pressure Thickness: 0.25 Diameter: 6

www.autobodytoolmart.com

3M Hookit 6

Use with 6 diameter Hookit discs With disc wrapped around the pad the 1/4 radius edge allows for sanding in hard-to-reach areas

www.autobodytoolmart.com

Don

I had been looking at those half-round pads thinking I could go with the discs and then switch to the hand pads for certain areas or if I decided using the DA wasn’t going as planned.

 

[dhutton01]

I think it depends on how flat you want it to be. Acrylic blocks will get it dead flat.

 

[JimKueneman]

My opinion is as a hobbiest if you only paint a car once in a while expecting to lay the clear down without needing to cut and buff it is unrealistic. I just cut and buffed a friends car that was painted by a shop. It was worse than that with orange peel. Maybe with a bit more experience you would have recognized the what was going on and you could have laid the last coat or two on heavier to help lay it out better but it still it is very hard to lay it down to the point where I would be happy with it without cutting and buffing it.

Lots of those mirror finished you see on Youtube are someone who has already painted 10 cars earlier in the day and has finally got everything dialed in for the conditions of that day.

 

[MAKZ06]

My opinion is as a hobbiest if you only paint a car once in a while expecting to lay the clear down without needing to cut and buff it is unrealistic. I just cut and buffed a friends car that was painted by a shop. It was worse than that with orange peel. Maybe with a bit more experience you would have recognized the what was going on and you could have laid the last coat or two on heavier to help lay it out better but it still it is very hard to lay it down to the point where I would be happy with it without cutting and buffing it.

Lots of those mirror finished you see on Youtube are someone who has already painted 10 cars earlier in the day and has finally got everything dialed in for the conditions of that day.

Thanks, yeah, I certainly wasn’t expecting perfect results. I’ll be happy as long as I can get most of the peel out and don’t break through…. I’m actually not even sure I want to sand all the peel out . I don’t mind some of the factory looking peel. What I was most surprised by was the different results one day to the next. Had they all come out like the doors, fenders, and valence panels I would have been thrilled. Definitely not perfect but significantly better than the hood and bed.

 

[shine]

stay off edges and places you cant buff.