clear coat will be the death of me

[slutvs]

hey guys, been in the process of paitning my tailgate and finally got good weather yesterday so did few coats of paint and let it dry over midnight, was reaaalllly happy with it. soooo today weather was nice again so got all the clear coat and stuff ready with the correct mix of thinners and all that. soon as i sprayed it it just came out like fairy floss? (was my first time clear coating with a spray gun). got the idea that it was probly too thick so kept putting more thinners in and was like water by the end still not getting any better. put the psi up more n more and still no result? any tips? cheers!

[ari666]

fast hardner will come out like cotton candy on a hot day. the fix is loads of thinner but then you will get runs. best get some regular hardner and regular thinner (not fast)

regardless, you shouldnt wait 24 hours to lay clear, it sould be done 20 mins-1hr after base coat of it may not bite properley.

[slutvs]

just went n checked n it is fast hardener, and was directly in the baking sun and i wasted about 3/4 of a new tin of thinners haha. will give ita crack on sunday when i get some new supplies. once again thanks dude!

[ari666]

once again thanks dude!

meh, it aint no thing. you got a tonne of sanding ahead of you by the sounds of it. keep us up to date with how you go. also: pics

[oska]

i've only ever seen acrylic clear do that

are you painting in acrylic or 2K

[slutvs]

meh, it aint no thing. you got a tonne of sanding ahead of you by the sounds of it. keep us up to date with how you go. also: pics

no sanding at all i always spray on a bit of old material for a good 15 seconds incase it spits and just to get the paint coming through. it was just instant stringy shit coming out so luckyily i just had a shed full of stringy clear in the air on everything except my tailgate :P

[slutvs]

i've only ever seen acrylic clear do that

are you painting in acrylic or 2K

im new to spray gun clear coating. so i went to supercheap and thats what they suggested for the paint i was using haha. and yeh it is acrylic man. whats the difference between 2k and acrylic?

[ari666]

about 200 bucks

[slutvs]

ohhhhhhhhh

[Calaber]

As well as being much cheaper, acrylic is more forgiving and easier to apply for beginners but it does have its own problems. I've never sprayed 2K, but have plenty of experience with good ol' acrylic.

For the ordinary car, where you are just touching up small areas or replacement panels, or where you are after a finish similar to that when the car was new, acrylic will do the job well. The right paint/thinner ratio, good spray gun, correct pressure and good spraying conditions, and properly prepared panels, and away you go. I know the experts will say that 2K is not that difficult to apply properly, but it requires you to wear a mask and is not as "forgiving" if you make a mistake. For example, acrylic can be wet rubbed to remove runs or blemishes, only a short while after being sprayed. I don't know about 2K but I don't think it's quite so simple.

Must admit though, I've never sprayed strings of clear.....

[ari666]

acrylic is more forgiving and easier to apply for beginners

rubbish.
.

[slutvs]

As well as being much cheaper, acrylic is more forgiving and easier to apply for beginners .....

i was thinking that the more you pay the easier it is like every other thing in this world. buttt if you think acrylic is easy im f.a.r.k.e.d hahah. maybe a better spray gun is in the mix i only have a sh!tty one i got for free with my compressor a while ago

[slutvs]

i must admit it performed really really good applying the paint though even for a suction feed gun

[Calaber]

rubbish.
.

OK, I did say that others might have a different opinion about the ease of applying 2k. You chose not to paint your Chev after doing all that work. Why? Was it too hard to get the finish you wanted with either paint? Why was my comment "rubbish?"

[bwenny 23]

lol wasnt that u ari666 the other day askin sum1 wat was the best way to apply bog lmfao, to caleber wat ratio of thinners to paint would you reccomend putting with the clear and would you mix any paint in with it ,im using an acrylic aswell?

[ari666]

You chose not to paint your Chev after doing all that work. Why? Was it too hard to get the finish you wanted with either paint? Why was my comment "rubbish?"

i was not confident enough to get the entire car painted in metallic properley. instead i used acrylic matte black because i was told by countless people that acrylic was easier to use than 2k. which was all a load of horse shit. 2k flows much better than acrylic and when it goes off its much more permanant, so you can paint over the top of it with no problems. just trying to apply more coats of black to the boot of the impala fries up everything. terrible paint. will never use acrylic ever again.

the idea was to seal it all up in black so i could get it reg'd and drive around, then go over it later when i was either more confident, or could afford to pay someone. but now that it has this crap paint on it i have to rub the whole lot off and start over. i cant just spray over the top of it.

not happy, jan.

[jr689]

OK, I did say that others might have a different opinion about the ease of applying 2k. You chose not to paint your Chev after doing all that work. Why? Was it too hard to get the finish you wanted with either paint? Why was my comment "rubbish?"

I've also heard and read that acrylic is much easier to spray and much more forgiving so I'd say your on the money...

[Calaber]

lol wasnt that u ari666 the other day askin sum1 wat was the best way to apply bog lmfao, to caleber wat ratio of thinners to paint would you reccomend putting with the clear and would you mix any paint in with it ,im using an acrylic aswell?

Bwenny

I'm only a mug "backyarder" who has played around with acrylic for years with my restorations, so I'm not the best guy to advise on thinner to paint ratios. I follow the manufacturer's instructions and the ratio will vary according to spraying conditions. I just make sure that the garage is closed and clean,. I can recall though, that I once painted a car with clear, which had a small percentage of the colour mixed, and it stuffed up the colour finish. I would only use clear and thinners mixed, no colour added. Get your base colour coats right and a good clear coat will give you the finish you are looking for.

[Jonno]

didnt read the everyones replys
but shouldnt leave it 24hrs to do clear. i do mine after about 10-15 min whilst their is still the tinyest bit of color in the gun.. lol
dad and his mates that paint leave it about 30 minutes and do it with a cleaner gun

none of that fast/hard drying crap tho

[delcowizzid]

moisture in the compressor makes candy floss clear need a good water trap

[bwenny 23]

cheers for the honest opinion!

[hi_ryder]

acrylic is more headache than its worth. you have to keep buffing it to get the gloss that 2k has. it shits its self in the sun. if you get a mark on you paint you cant just wipe it off with some thinners cause that will melt it. if you paint over it it can fry up or have other adverse reactions to what ever you put on top. not to mention if you want to machine dry sand it it will just gum the ###k outa your papers and make you pull your hair out. my vn lexen had a 1k respray before i bought it and lets just say im bald now.. the rule of thumb when it comes to automotive paint work is never put on something that can be moved by a solvent. even when i do a bare metal respray i wont use the 1k style of etch primer as a base, id rather use a 2k epoxy sealer first. the only thing that gets applied as a 1k is the base color. everything else has a hardener in it... no 1k primers no 1k clears no 1k anything EVER except your base color (for clear base jobs)