Doing a blend, some best practices please?

B

Bentrustynail

I need to do a blend on my sons Mazda 3. Please remind me of the best practices, I paint about every three years and always an all over so this is new to me. I'm going to blend the basecoat (I have SPI intercoat) and clear the whole panel.

q1: If I'm using universal clear, what is the appropriate amount of clear hardener to use in the (Omni - sorry, all that's available around here!) basecoat to make it "activated".

q2: Should I sand the clear on to which the basecoat will extend out to 1000 grit or higher? It's that typical mazda blue grey metallic color.

q3: filler over epoxy, or epoxy over filler?

thanks!
 
Gone into a lot of detail on multiple threads.




He has what I consider to be a very good and effective method of blending.


Nothing against you AAE but that vid is so backasswards. Paint it once, wait to dry, prep it again, put it on and do it again? Lol. No one blends like this, day in, day out. Wastes too much time and materials for one thing. Silly. Might work ok but what works better is learning the correct technique and using correct technique. Blending color over fresh clear???? Why?
 
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Watched it again and there is just so many things wrong with this. If you are new and trying to learn how to blend DON'T use this video as reference. Guy has a good personality and camera prescence but he is self taught.....at least this technique is no one teaches this or does this.
Waste of time and materials. He extends the blend to almost the front fender.....after having already painted the door...WTF? Dead giveaway right there. Proper technique you are in the middle of the door no farther. If you are good you are only a foot at most into the door doing it the correct way. Clearing the panel he is lazy, stopping clearing in the middle of the panel. That is terrible technique and can lead to issues. Plus it's lazy.
Another youtube video where someone who really doesn't know what they are doing tries to come across as an expert for whatever reason. I gotta call a spade a spade. If you are trying to learn don't learn from this please. Being able to paint and being able to blend are two different things.
 
Watched it again and there is just so many things wrong with this. If you are new and trying to learn how to blend DON'T use this video as reference. Guy has a good personality and camera prescence but he is self taught.....at least this technique is no one teaches this or does this.
Waste of time and materials. He extends the blend to almost the front fender.....after having already painted the door...WTF? Dead giveaway right there. Proper technique you are in the middle of the door no farther. If you are good you are only a foot at most into the door doing it the correct way. Clearing the panel he is lazy, stopping clearing in the middle of the panel. That is terrible technique and can lead to issues. Plus it's lazy.
Another youtube video where someone who really doesn't know what they are doing tries to come across as an expert for whatever reason. I gotta call a spade a spade. If you are trying to learn don't learn from this please. Being able to paint and being able to blend are two different things.
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I've done it this way and I don't see any waste of product. The extension into the fender, best I can remember, is with the droplet coat. I use Standox solvent and this is almost verbatim of how their TDS explains. The use of the intercoat is a great way to get a great blend. Even Barry says his intercoat is good for blending. Standox suggests using the 599 toner as a wet bed. It works for me and I'll keep doing it. I've never had a halo since employing these ideas. I respect you but I have to do what works for me.
 
I'll agree about huge blend. Usually, if the color has decent match, I stop my blend around door handle.
But don't see too bad on clear. I always split big part, like side on truck bed in half. Don't have any problem with that
 
I am no pro painter for sure, I try to keep my blends away from the ends of the panels I am trying to blend. I have read Chris's how to and try to copy what is being expressed as the best way to blend panels, Everything I know about painting and body repairs are from this site and by learning myself as I go.
 
Another reason to have blend close as possible, is if you are gonna have some problem later on clear coat and you will need to redo, you will still have a room for another blend and do not move to the next part. I would say 1/3 of the part for the blend is perfect, again, if the color decent . If you trying to match white with light grey, then yeah, you need the whole part. Remember one color on Cadillac, some green color, with changing color under different angle. I had to paint just a front end, blends on front doors. Went to Sherwin Williams to get base coat, got estimated something around 300$ a pint(not sure). After little talk with owner of the car, we decided to do a Texas blend(painting both sides up to trunk lid and bumper cover) with a cheap 90$ a quart
 
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