Universal clear sanding and buffing

R

RayH

Promoted Users
I have finally started panel painting my car. First of the universal clear is awesome, I was able to spray it fairly wet with no runs and hardly any peel. I sprayed 3 coats and my question is will that be enough clear to wet sand and buff for a rookie or should I wet sand and spray 3 more coats to ensure I don’t sand/ buff through the clear on the first 3 coats?
 
First of all, I highly recommend reading "The Perfect Paint Job" on the SPI website.

Then, to answer your question, 3 wet coats will tolerate knocking the orange peel off, and you will probably get by with the full sanding/buffing process, but it's a gamble. 3 more coats is the way to go.
 
Hard to say if three coats is good not knowing how heavy you sprayed them. They could be heavy flowing coats or thin dry-sprayed coats. Medium or heavy coats, 3 is fine. Have done it myself. If it’s dry for every coat then no.
 
Thanks for the reply. I have read the tech manual. That’s were the confusion comes from. When reading the tech section section for the UC it says 3 coats and the perfect paint job says 3 coats then wet sand with 800 and apply 3 more coats of clear.
 
Lizer, they were not dry coats, great gloss and fairly clear, pretty much double coated each coat .
 
That’s why I’m saying 3 coats should be fine, but it also assumes you sprayed 3 medium or heavy coats. You can’t spray 3 light coats and then think you’ll be able to cut and buff it safely. You want two coats remaining and cut and buff will remove about one coat. If it’s been sprayed thin and dry you might remove the equivalent of two coats.
 
Thanks, since the parts are fairly small ( front and rear valance) I will see how it goes. Next question how will I know I hit the base coat? Will it be dull?
 
RayH said:
Thanks, since the parts are fairly small ( front and rear valance) I will see how it goes. Next question how will I know I hit the base coat? Will it be dull?
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You will definitely know. The color of the base coat will be a lot darker there instead of the cloudy appearance the sanded clear will have.
 
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