Fisheyes in Production Clear?

motoxnate

Promoted Users
Hi everybody, I'm new here and just completing my first spray job.

I have two plastic side skirts for my car and after a lot of research I did the following:
- Sanded old paint down to plastic
- Applied flexible plastic filler to scratches
- Sprayed 3 coats of Epoxy Primer
- Block sanded with 220 / 320 until smooth
- Filled small indentations with finishing putty

- Sprayed a guide coat of Epoxy Primer
- Sanded out any dust with 320 lightly and finished with 400 (I should have gone to 600+)

- Sprayed Cromax Basecoat (Subaru Java Black Pearl)

Now the problem came when I applied Production Clear. I waited 2 days (48hrs) between base and clear.
- I tack clothed off the skirts
- Mixed clear 4:1
- Tacked again

When I sprayed the clear, the first coat went on great, wet and smooth. But after sitting for a couple minutes pinholes started to appear. I will attach pics. Does anybody know what these could be from? I had a water separator inline with the gun which caught a little moisture but it appears to be stopping it all. Any help would be greatly appreciated, I have done all of this by hand.

Thanks so much for any advice and how to proceed!
 

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How many coats of base? Flash time between coats?

Is that your only water separator? You should not be seeing that much moisture at your gun imho.

Don
 
Thanks for the replies guys, @dhutton01 I sprayed 2 coats of base, ~30-40 min between coats.

@metalman will a little bit of that water get through the separator and cause those fisheyes? It's very uniform which tells me it's either from the base coat underneath or from the gun itself, not putties etc.
And I'm spraying in Weston, CT!
 
Thank you for your input @Dan Trimbach , do you have any recommendations for a good budget drier? I'm just doing small parts as a hobby and not looking for super expensive equipment just yet :)

As for fixing this... Can I just sand the clear a bit and spray more over it? Will it fill in the pores once the moisture is eliminated?
 
I would also suspect silicone contamination in the environment. There are dozens of car products and self-care products that can cause this. Hopefully it is your air supply, because environmental contamination issues can sometimes be very hard to pin down.
 
I'm betting on moisture in the air supply. I can see it in your separator. Ask me how I know...

I use a 40-year old version of this Sharpe 880A air filter, and nothing else:

https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200349695_200349695?cm_mmc=Google-pla&utm_source=Google_PLA&utm_medium=Air Tools + Compressors >%20Air%20Compressor%20Parts%20%2B%20Maintenance%20>%20Air%20Compressor%20Filters,%20Lubricator&utm_campaign=Sharpe%20Manufacturing&utm_content=406950&gclid=CjwKCAjw0On8BRAgEiwAincsHMq2dnq-OQnQVnA4Bkm3C611inebK4dWRwfRoxnInjQ3TxXWpaKwtRoC15wQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

$169.99. I have about 60 feet of copper air line between it and the compressor to cool the compressed air, with two drains for moisture in that line. I have no contamination problems at the gun with this setup, and I hardly get a drop of water in the separator. I get plenty of moisture out of the system from the two drain drops, however.
 
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Thanks @crashtech I hope you're not right though for my sake.. I'm painting in the basement and nobody really goes down there so it should be pretty settled when I'm not there. Definitely no car wax or spray in the air. I'll try finding a desiccant drier and see if that helps at all, then I suppose we will see
 
This is a recommended system, link

What is your air system like? You might want to redesign it as well to try and get atleast some of the water to condense before it hits a desiccant system.
I had mentioned the Sharpe unit, but if I had it to do over again I'd go with the Arrow mentioned in the link. That desiccant system sounds like the bomb!
 
I used theCheap Chinese 1/2 in desiccant drier on Amazon. Nowhere near as good as that arrow unit The biggest down side is that it doesn’t really hold that much desiccant so I had to keep changing it /. Microwaving it etc. I wouldn’t really recommend it for an all over paint job but I am painting one panel at a time so it was fine for me. I also used a Devilbiss whirlwind filter at the gun.


I had to sand out the defects with 600 wet and re spray the whole panel.
 
I used theCheap Chinese 1/2 in desiccant drier on Amazon. Nowhere near as good as that arrow unit The biggest down side is that it doesn’t really hold that much desiccant so I had to keep changing it /. Microwaving it etc. I wouldn’t really recommend it for an all over paint job but I am painting one panel at a time so it was fine for me. I also used a Devilbiss whirlwind filter at the gun.


I had to sand out the defects with 600 wet and re spray the whole panel.
Hmmmm...I never touch my Sharpe unit. It just works, for the last 40 years.
 
I have an Arrow one gallon desiccant followed by a motor guard M60 and then a gage before my hose, Your problem looks awful familiar to me before I got the system I have now. Moisture wreaks havoc on base and clear, I would'nt spray expensive paint products until you get a handle on your air supply. Good luck and I hope you get things taken care of.
 
Thanks for the replies guys, @dhutton01 I sprayed 2 coats of base, ~30-40 min between coats.

@metalman will a little bit of that water get through the separator and cause those fisheyes? It's very uniform which tells me it's either from the base coat underneath or from the gun itself, not putties etc.
And I'm spraying in Weston, CT!
The fact that the fisheyes are uniform lends itself to a problem with the air- water. I had it happen when my air system was grossly neglected and I knew it going in. Didn't have time to fix the problem but had to make time to do it over;)!
You need to stop it before the regulator and paint hose any way you can. A .01 micron coalescing type final filter would also help with any oil from the compressor. Lots of ways to go about filtering air to be clean enough for painting.
If its not in the budget to also get a new paint hose then clean out the one your using.
 
Thank you all for the replies! All I have right now is a small old air compressor because I need it to be portable, and I’m only powering a mini gun so it’s enough. Sounds like I have a clear way forward now at least!

- Buy a coalescing / desiccant Filter probably coalescing to help with oil as well and get the air cleaner before the gun. I have a better hose I can use as well. Should I put my water separator before the coalescing filter to help get out the majority of the water first?

- wetsand the clearcoat with defects all the way back down. Will 600 grit be enough that more clear will fill in the sanding scratches and it will look good without having to redo the basecoat?

Thanks again!
 
I'll give it a shot and report back, hopefully it works out! Thanks everyone for helping out a first timer
 
Hi Guys, so I built myself a triple filtration system and sanded the clear off these, then resprayed the base and re cleared.

For my first paint job they came out pretty good, with the exception of a couple dry spots that I couldn't see due to really bad lighting when I was painting. I'm a little upset about those as they kind of ruin the finish of the piece. Is there any way to fix that? I think I'd have to spray more clear, as I'm assuming the texture is from not having enough clear, so sanding it would probably go right through?
Do I have to scuff the whole thing to spray more clear and paint everything?

If it's that much more work to redo it I might just roll with it until I feel like painting again..

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