Tiger striped my first paint job

Painther

Painther

Promoted Users
As the title states.... I spent countless hours sanding, sealing, priming, sanding, and more sanding, just to have a damn bengal tiger for a paint job! Hahahaha. Didn't catch it until clear coated of course. Don't want to cry too much, but I do want to fix it!

Did a lot of stuff wrong due to space limitations. Tried painting the car in pieces and sure enough, the metallic doesn't match at all due to the way it was sprayed and every flat panel has stripes. During the day time it's definitely acceptable for a daily driver, but at night it looks absolutely HORRIBLE. Like Helen Keller painted it :p

I want to say that I didn't use any spi products because I had ordered paint supplies way before I found this awesome forum. I used Omni base ( I know now that it is shit) with clear activator added to each coat, and all other products (epoxy primer, fill primer, high solids clear) was from Urechem.

I'm guessing the only option to fix this would be sanding down the clear coat and respray my base with the car assembled? What grit would you guys knock the clear down with before spraying more base? Would p1000 yellow film from eagle abrasives be good or should I go down to 800?

When spraying new color over 2 week old clear, is there anything I should be aware of?

I'm going to walk the car this time and shoot for 75% overlap. And focus on keeping the gun at proper angle at all times. Hoping that will fix issues
1000004768.jpg
1000004774.jpg
1000004776.jpg


You can see in the pictures the striping on the targa, and bumpers look really different at a certain angle
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20260223_011423.jpg
    IMG_20260223_011423.jpg
    237.8 KB · Views: 152
  • IMG_20260223_011851748_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20260223_011851748_HDR.jpg
    94.1 KB · Views: 127
  • IMG_20260223_011835706_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20260223_011835706_HDR.jpg
    121.5 KB · Views: 135
  • IMG_20260223_011920338_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20260223_011920338_HDR.jpg
    83.6 KB · Views: 202
I took my signature car to a body and paint class that a local college offered. After I had shot 3 coats of base on the car, the instructor took some base coat and added extra reducer to it. He then held the spray gun about 16-18" from the car surface and sprayed what he called a dust coat (or something like that), which he said would give the metallic a nice even look.

Hopefully some of the pros on here will comment on this technique.
 
'68 Coronet R/T said:
I took my signature car to a body and paint class that a local college offered. After I had shot 3 coats of base on the car, the instructor took some base coat and added extra reducer to it. He then held the spray gun about 16-18" from the car surface and sprayed what he called a dust coat (or something like that), which he said would give the metallic a nice even look.

Hopefully some of the pros on here will comment on this technique.
Click to expand...
That's called a drop coat. Some do it. Many don't. I don't. I view it as a holdover from the acrylic enamel days when it was neccesary when doing SS metallic. What I consider the modern way is to use a blender agent and dilute the base and spray one or more coats.
Problems you can have as a newbie trying to do a drop coat are many. Too far away from the panel the metallic will sit up too much. Too close you can mottle it. If the reducer you are using is of marginal quality or a bit too fast it makes it harder as well.

Easiest technique is using a blending agent. Blenders just clear basecoat binder. SPI Intercoat is an example. Some blending agents come already reduced. SPI Inter you would reduce per the instructions. Then mix 50/50 with your RTS base. I've talked about it a lot on here. Very simple to use and have success with.
Do a search here using keyword "blender" if someone wants to learn more.

Or search the site using Google. More effective searches that way. site:spiuserforum.com your keywords
 
Lot of "tiger striping" issues with modern basecoats are actually lack of coverage issues. One to two more coats usually solves many times. Other reasons are using low quality reducer thatis too fast. Too fast reducer in general as well. You want to use the slowest possible reducer for the temps you are spraying in. Especially for an overall.
 
Chris_Hamilton said:
Lot of "tiger striping" issues with modern basecoats are actually lack of coverage issues. One to two more coats usually solves many times. Other reasons are using low quality reducer thatis too fast. Too fast reducer in general as well. You want to use the slowest possible reducer for the temps you are spraying in. Especially for an overall.
Click to expand...
Hey Chris! I think this is what I screwed up on the most. I ran out of slow reducer so I used medium thinking it would be ok. Temps were around 80, maybe a bit hotter and it was really cheap reducer, grow automotive or something like that. I'll definitely be using SPI products and slow everything on my next paint job
 
Chris_Hamilton said:
That's called a drop coat. Some do it. Many don't. I don't. I view it as a holdover from the acrylic enamel days when it was neccesary when doing SS metallic. What I consider the modern way is to use a blender agent and dilute the base and spray one or more coats.
Problems you can have as a newbie trying to do a drop coat are many. Too far away from the panel the metallic will sit up too much. Too close you can mottle it. If the reducer you are using is of marginal quality or a bit too fast it makes it harder as well.

Easiest technique is using a blending agent. Blenders just clear basecoat binder. SPI Intercoat is an example. Some blending agents come already reduced. SPI Inter you would reduce per the instructions. Then mix 50/50 with your RTS base. I've talked about it a lot on here. Very simple to use and have success with.
Do a search here using keyword "blender" if someone wants to learn more.

Or search the site using Google. More effective searches that way. site:spiuserforum.com your keywords
Click to expand...
I tried 3 coverage coats and 3 drop coats, still got the mottling and striping, so I'll give this intercoat a shot next time! thank you Chris, I appreciate you
 
Tungsten said:
Drive it ,live and learn.Since its all flat or close re paint is easy.
Drive it and enjoy it.
Click to expand...

This car has been a 5 year project so far, you're not wrong. I need to drive it and enjoy it for sure. It's just hard for me to ignore it at night though. It looks a lot worse in person than the pictures give off

So say I had no option and had to fix it. Like for an important customer (my wife) What is the approach you guys would take?

Can I sand the clear coat flat with 800-1000 grit and just spray a couple light coats of base until coverage is good? Or do I need to spray my ground coat again before the green goes on? I used a "mid grey" ground coat because that's what the original paint code called for. It's Aztec Green by the way

I'm not looking for perfection! I promise, lmao. That would be impossible with my experience level and environment and crappy spray gun. But I would like for all the panels to match color when under the street lights and whatnot
 
Last edited:
Personal opinion here so take it for what it is....... Some will disagree some wont, doesnt matter much..

If and when you decide to respray it step up to a better brand of base and reducer. Automotive Art Motobase lays out really nice and spi slow reducer will be your friend. I have also heard that the Automotive Art reducer is quite nice also, although I have never tried it.

Omni, Shopline, Nason is all junk IMO and will be more trouble then they are worth.
 
OJ86 said:
Personal opinion here so take it for what it is....... Some will disagree some wont, doesnt matter much..

If and when you decide to respray it step up to a better brand of base and reducer. Automotive Art Motobase lays out really nice and spi slow reducer will be your friend. I have also heard that the Automotive Art reducer is quite nice also, although I have never tried it.

Omni, Shopline, Nason is all junk IMO and will be more trouble then they are worth.
Click to expand...
I just purchased some Motobase from Chad and he sent SPI reducer instead of Automotive Arts :)
 
OJ86 said:
Personal opinion here so take it for what it is....... Some will disagree some wont, doesnt matter much..

If and when you decide to respray it step up to a better brand of base and reducer. Automotive Art Motobase lays out really nice and spi slow reducer will be your friend. I have also heard that the Automotive Art reducer is quite nice also, although I have never tried it.

Omni, Shopline, Nason is all junk IMO and will be more trouble then they are worth.
Click to expand...
That's a really good point! I actually spoke to Chad Sperry over the phone not long ago, didn't have the money for the motobase at the time but I should have just waited! It took a lot of paint to get the shopline to cover completely. Live and learn I guess.

So ya... Probably a really stupid idea to sand it down just to use shopline again. If I decide to respray it later I will go with the motobase and spi reducer for sure
 
Depending on what you may have in your paint locker at the time, intercoat clear has properties meant for suspending metallics uniformly, for doing various graphics. You can mix about 10% or so in and it helps prevent the mottling in those troublesome metallics. But I'd follow Chris' directions first, try this if you're in a pinch and don't have blending agent.
 
The biggest difference I have seen as to whether a job will stripe or not is simply the quality of the base, and following that, reducer selection. If you get those two things right, it's rare to have a problem where you have to mess with intercoat or drop coats.

EDIT: I feel like I need to update this post because I didn't understand the inadequacies of the equipment being used. It's critical to get the CFM and the spray pattern right, or no base will save you, no matter how fancy.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top