Is there a way to verify you have total coverage with basecoat when painting parts?

ebaypdllc

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I've been experimenting around with different basecoats. The Motobase LV covered really well. I tried using another brand of basecoat called Yatu Perfecoat. The paint is very cheap. I was paying about $70 dollars for Motobase LV for a quart of some popular Ford Colors. The Perfecoat I am getting for about $45 shipped to my door and the color match has been very good, however the coverage is awful...

I was using a spray out card to verify the color match that has the different color primers on the spray card. This color I was trying to spray Ford Velocity Blue covered over black quickly, but it took about 6 coats to cover the white primer...

I painted some parts that I primer sealed black. I put about 2-3 coats on and I noticed that all my jobs are coming back darker, i'm assuming I am not getting total coverage because the spray out card is a perfect match. On this job I sprayed about 6 coats on the key fob and the color match is perfect.

Any tricks or tips to verify that you have complete coverage? I can't even tell the difference, maybe its my lighting ?






 
The spray out cards are what you use to determine how many coats to complete coverage. The whole card should be 1 color, verified by shining a light from the back side of the card. Most cheap bases are not cheap for the reason you are experiencing.
 
You mentioned a sprayout card, that is how to determine the number of coats for any given mix. Sprayout cards have a black and white pattern on them that should disappear after a certain number of coats when viewed in strong light. Usually the side tone is where you will see lack of coverage.
Also, spraying all parts starting with a uniform gray shade will help consistency. E7 Velocity Blue calls for a gray groundcoat color that, if made with SPI epoxy, would be made with approximately 2 parts white and 1 part black, a medium gray.
 
I not only use sprayout cards but also small scrap pieces of bare metal. Spray them with leftover epoxy, sand epoxy when needed to check a color and spray color on it. The metal gives a little different " look " than the paper cards do. Set them aside till needed. Sometimes a customer has a difficult time picking a color until they see it sprayed on a piece of metal. Has been beneficial for me in the past.
 
Most of the differnce between budget paint lines and the better ones is just pigment load. 20 years ago I was a Matrix jobber and they offered MSB (Matrix standard basecoat) and MPB (Matrix Premium Basecoat). The MSB had more binder and a little solvent and the MPB had less binder (same toners). The cheap one had about half pigment load and took twice as many coats. Basecoat is the absolutely weakest point in your finish. Less coats of a higher pigment load is a superior finish compared to a lot of coats of poor hiding basecoat.
 
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