Metallics strip during clear session??

RosharonRooster

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Did some painting the other week, using a pretty good quality basecoat. Lesonal. 2 coats of base. 30 mins between. Then waited 2 hours. It was 78 degrees then we moved to euro clear. Mixed 4 1 1. At 30psi using 1.4 iwata. All was well til we got to the hood that was hanging. (The entire car before the hood)...first coat. The hood striped? The stripes were not there until clear. Had 4 sets of eyes on it. It seems like the psi moved the metallics in the basecoat?? Does that happen?

When we respray we plan to use 1 coat of intercoat before clear coat. Is this a good method to correct? I haven't had this happen in about 5 yrs. And I never really understood the reason. Now I'd like to know why this happenee...anyone? Thank you
 
My thought is that more than likely the striping was already there, just hard to see it until you cleared it. Seen that happen a lot, including a few times to me in the past. I know you said you had two sets of eyes on it, but sometimes unless you are doing this day in day out, it's easy enough to miss. I would say this possibility is much more likely than spraying it wet enough to cause the base to re-wet and move. I've never had that happen.
I've used a lot of Lesonal at one particular Shop and I've never had that happen with that line. Being it was collision work I would clear within 30 minutes usually with it. Never that issue.

So how to correct? First no need for intercoat, you already have clear on the panel. Not what inter is for. Sand the panel 800 wet, spray two more medium (at most) coats on it. Use a slow reducer. SPI would be a good choice. If there is any doubt, you can use SPI intercoat or Lesonal's blender ( ) and spray one more coat diluted with either SPI Inter or the Lesonal blender. Follow the TDS if you choose the Lesonal. If you use SPI, you would reduce the Inter per the Tech manual and then add it to your RTS base at a 1:1 ratio. Spray one coat. If it looks good you're done.
Using a large light can help sometimes finding that type of strioing.
 
My thought is that more than likely the striping was already there, just hard to see it until you cleared it. Seen that happen a lot, including a few times to me in the past. I know you said you had two sets of eyes on it, but sometimes unless you are doing this day in day out, it's easy enough to miss. I would say this possibility is much more likely than spraying it wet enough to cause the base to re-wet and move. I've never had that happen.
I've used a lot of Lesonal at one particular Shop and I've never had that happen with that line. Being it was collision work I would clear within 30 minutes usually with it. Never that issue.

So how to correct? First no need for intercoat, you already have clear on the panel. Not what inter is for. Sand the panel 800 wet, spray two more medium (at most) coats on it. Use a slow reducer. SPI would be a good choice. If there is any doubt, you can use SPI intercoat or Lesonal's blender ( ) and spray one more coat diluted with either SPI Inter or the Lesonal blender. Follow the TDS if you choose the Lesonal. If you use SPI, you would reduce the Inter per the Tech manual and then add it to your RTS base at a 1:1 ratio. Spray one coat. If it looks good you're done.
Using a large light can help sometimes finding that type of strioing.
We went over the whole car with the lesonal blender before base. The color laid out great. So you don't think intercoat mixed 1:1 (spi) after 2 coats of base and before clear is a good idea?
 
We went over the whole car with the lesonal blender before base. The color laid out great. So you don't think intercoat mixed 1:1 (spi) after 2 coats of base and before clear is a good idea?
Intercoat used like I said above yes. But I don't think it is melting the base. Wouldn't hurt, but I don't think that's the issue. Like I said I used Lesonal at a collision shop for 3 years. Painted a lot of cars with it and never saw clear melt the base. Especially after 2 hours.

What color is it? A metallic beige, gold, or silver? You painting in a booth or or on the shop floor? How is the lighting?
 
Intercoat reduced has more solvent in it than clear does. So if the clear is doing it the Inter will too. What doe the striping look like. Typical or weird? If looks like typical striping that would back up what I said is the cause, If it looks kind of strange and splotchy in spots that would point to it melting the base in places.
 
Intercoat used like I said above yes. But I don't think it is melting the base. Wouldn't hurt, but I don't think that's the issue. Like I said I used Lesonal at a collision shop for 3 years. Painted a lot of cars with it and never saw clear melt the base. Especially after 2 hours.

What color is it? A metallic beige, gold, or silver? You painting in a booth or or on the shop floor? How is the lighting?
 

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I'm no
Intercoat reduced has more solvent in it than clear does. So if the clear is doing it the Inter will too. What doe the striping look like. Typical or weird? If looks like typical striping that would back up what I said is the cause, If it looks kind of strange and splotchy in spots that would point to it melting the base in places.
I'm not sure the stripe will show up. But they are in the direction and pattern the clear was being sprayed which leads me to believe the clear possibly went on too heavy and or moved the metallics. We have all the materials to redo it at no extra cost
 
Intercoat used like I said above yes. But I don't think it is melting the base. Wouldn't hurt, but I don't think that's the issue. Like I said I used Lesonal at a collision shop for 3 years. Painted a lot of cars with it and never saw clear melt the base. Especially after 2 hours.

What color is it? A metallic beige, gold, or silver? You painting in a booth or or on the shop floor? How is the lighting?
Painted in my shop. No booth. Had some 8 ft led lights. Have to spray it hanging because it's 25 Sq ft. Would get a bunch of nibs if it was flat.
 
I can tell you want to believe what you want to believe which is fine but I'll make a couple of points. . How do you spray clear correctly and not spray it wet? You spray clear like you want it to look so you are going to spray it wet. Too wet would mean runs all over and judging from your pic that is not the case. The striping is subtle is it not? That's the type that often gets overlooked until it is cleared. Seen it many many times and done it a few times myself. Lacquer it would be possible, modern acrylic or polyester basecoat I just don't see it. Years and years of doing this day in, day out, and having to push the re-coat limits, I've never seen it happen. Sub par lighting, that particular color, it would be easy to overlook or not see.
 
I can tell you want to believe what you want to believe which is fine but I'll make a couple of points. . How do you spray clear correctly and not spray it wet? You spray clear like you want it to look so you are going to spray it wet. Too wet would mean runs all over and judging from your pic that is not the case. The striping is subtle is it not? That's the type that often gets overlooked until it is cleared. Seen it many many times and done it a few times myself. Lacquer it would be possible, modern acrylic or polyester basecoat I just don't see it. Years and years of doing this day in, day out, and having to push the re-coat limits, I've never seen it happen. Sub par lighting, that particular color, it would be easy to overlook or not see.
You are probably right. What's ironic is ...the last. And only other time this happened was with this exact color. A few years ago.
 
I had the same thing happen to me on my last car,
I just let the clear set up a little and sprayed more base right over it until it looked good
and then started clearing again. Turned out great.
Have done this many times and it's always worked out for me.

I always get better results spraying my first coat of clear a light coat.
 
i just sprayed some lesonal yesterday on a part that had some decals on it. metallic medium grey. when i cleared it i got some tiny little runs off the bottom edge of the decal. well those runs moved the base and you could see the drip. it was dark where it moved the metallics. with that said, a run is far different that just spraying clear wet. i had no issues anywhere except for where the run is. but this show that the clear can move the base. i would probably avoid the intercoat if i was you since that is a solvent rich product and could be prone to moving the metallics. i would spray your first coat of clear light. turn the psi up on the gun so the coat goes on thin. let that sit 30 min then continue on with your clear the way you normally spray.
 
Guys just wanted to update. We resprayed the panel the other day. We moved it to my little makeshift booth with better lighting and went 3 coats base and 3 coats euro. Went like on the first coat. Just watching the clear fill in. We were able to pull it off with no stripe or mottling. We felt good that we were confronted with a problem and we conquered the problem. Lesson learned? 1 take time. 2. Plenty of lighting 3. Light wet coat first coat. 4. All the colors out there, pick another color next time lol
 
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