Two part question about clear coat.

M

murphy7723

Question 1
I painted a car white for a friend of mine. did all the body work and was ready to spray the base (Nason full base IF) and clear (Impact brand). Built my spray booth out of conduit and plastic sheeting. everything went great until I laid the clear. I tacked the car really good and started spraying the clear. when I sprayed the hood I immediately saw trash all over it. Turns out my exhaust fan cause the plastic sheet to pull loose from the floor and it was flopping around. most of the car looks good but the hood is pretty bad. Can I just scuff the hood and spray a coat of base over it and then respray the clear?

Question 2
sense painting the car my friend wants to spray the whole car with a coat of clear with a little silver pearl mixed in. Can we scuff the clear and spray a coat with the silver pearl and be ok.
 
why not just sand and buff the hood? you should really put the pearl down in a clear base or your urethane clear then put more clear without pearl over that.
 
I already cut it with 1500 but with the car being white every thing that's not white is showing up. It's not horrible but it's there. I told my friend if we shot a coat of clear with the pearl in it we would have to go over it with another coat of clear without pearl. He didn't seem to mind to much.
I know it sounds dumb to go over a fresh paint job with more clear just because you decide you want a little pearl it.
 
two coats 68 coronet. i seen the trash on the first coat but thought I would be able to remove it when I cut and buffed it. I didn't realize at the time that there would be an issue with little bits of lint. looking at the hood you can see little bits of lint. some are red some are black and some are blue.
I'll try and post a pic tomorrow.
 
yeah white is always tough. its such a clean color that everything shows up. just be sure to put a few coats of clear over it. if you dont and you have to sand and buff your going to be screwed since you will be sanding the pearl off.
 
Jim C am I right in thinking I can hit the hood with say 400 grit and shoot a coat of base on it to hide the different colors of lent and then spray clear? And if my friend still wants the pearl what would you recommend as far as prepping the rest of the car? Can I just scuff it and spray over it?
 
murphy, 400 is a little coarse for what you are planning. 600-800 wet on the hood would be much safer, then probably 2 coats of base to hide the trash. BTW do those lint colors match up to what you were wearing that day? If you have a paint suit use it, if not you can get disposable tyvek coveralls for around 10-12 bucks. Cheap insurance to keep what's on your clothes off the paint.
As for the rest of the car you could just scuff it, but you will have much better results if you sand it and flatten the clear. If you just scuff it all the texture, trash etc will show through in the subsequent coats of clear. Again 600-800 wet, flatten it.
 
Thanks for the response Chris. I did have a disposable paint suit on. I have already cut the whole car with 1500 and it looks really flat.
I'll follow your advice and use 800 and shoot two coats of base.
 
Chris_Hamilton I sanded the whole car a few days ago. I used 1500 grit wet because the orange peel was barely noticeable. Is it ok to respray clear a few days after sanding flat or should i scuff it right before spraying.
 
Chris_Hamilton I sanded the whole car a few days ago. I used 1500 grit wet because the orange peel was barely noticeable. Is it ok to respray clear a few days after sanding flat or should i scuff it right before spraying.

If you sanded the 1500 correctly you could scuff it with a gray scotchbrite and some Presta Scuff-Stuff. I think you should go back over the car with 600-800 wet to make sure you got it flat. 1500 tends to follow the texture of the clear.
If you are going to cut and buff after you finish clearing you need to make sure you shoot three coats, not two. You need to have a minimum amount of millage for the clear to last. 2 coats then cut and buff leaves the clear too thin and it won't last.
 
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Funny you said that Chris. I just finished going over the car with 800.
 
crashtech it may have been on the floor from earlier when i was in the booth without the pain suit on. But the morning I sprayed I had the suit on and wiped the car down with a tack cloth. The only thing I can figure is when I turned the exhaust fan on it must have stirred it up. I watered the floor down when I sprayed my base and it turned out great but didn't wet the floor when I sprayed the clear. I figure not wetting the floor was where I screwed up.
 
I may hose the floor down when I am prepping for paint but I do not wet the floor while painting. I am too old and stiff to be able to get down and paint the bottoms or rockers and quarters with a wet floor. I have also flipped my air hose and splattered water on a fresh paint job before.....Not good.

John
 
crashtech it may have been on the floor from earlier when i was in the booth without the pain suit on. But the morning I sprayed I had the suit on and wiped the car down with a tack cloth. The only thing I can figure is when I turned the exhaust fan on it must have stirred it up. I watered the floor down when I sprayed my base and it turned out great but didn't wet the floor when I sprayed the clear. I figure not wetting the floor was where I screwed up.
Maybe so. One thing I have seen is that even though I also wear a suit pretty religiously, when you move around, puffs of air can come out at the top of the zipper. So textile fibers can shoot out and land in the paint that way also. I tend to blow myself off before getting into the suit as well as after I'm in it just prior to spraying, also taking care that the zipper is all the way up to the point of being slightly uncomfortable. There are lots of ways for contamination to occur, and it takes a while sometimes to get into the right habits that minimize it.

P.S. The reason I'm still going on about textile fibers is that you mention red, black and blue lint in post #5. That sure indicates that it's coming off of clothing.
 
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I may hose the floor down when I am prepping for paint but I do not wet the floor while painting. I am too old and stiff to be able to get down and paint the bottoms or rockers and quarters with a wet floor. I have also flipped my air hose and splattered water on a fresh paint job before.....Not good.

John

One other thing I do is always paint in the same shirt. It is made out of some sort of polyester I imagine, but it almost crinkley and is kind of slick. I always felt like it would not have any lint to speak of. I would never wear a flannel shirt or paint without a hat. I have to admit, I have never had a paint suit but I am sure that would be the smart way to go.

I also always wipe down the last six feet of my air hose. Never open the doors if there is any wind and blow all the walls, ceiling, and light fixtures off well before time to shoot. I have many times opened the door to the house and pulled warm heated air from the house through the shop and out the exhaust fan.

Remember, I paint in a garage, not a booth, so my goal is to limit the trash that can come off me or be stirred up by wind. All in all, i usually do pretty well as far as trash goes.

John
 
Holy cow crashtech! I never thought of that! I remember squatting a couple time to pick up some hose when moving around the car and feeling a bunch of air coming up around my neck. I'm going to have to remember that.
 
Good pointers john long! I have a couple shirts that don't shed lint. I'm painting in a 30x40 shop with a homemade paint both made from conduit and plastic sheeting.
 
Home made can work really well if you can seal it properly or even better, make it a positive pressure booth. It takes a little engineering but if I was designing a booth for myself I would do my best to design one.

Blowing the trash out instead of sucking it in has to be priceless.

John
 
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