Paint Advice - clear after acrylic

[travb81]

I'm in the middle of painting my VN Calais in Imperial Blue, which is a metallic acrylic paint. Before i put the 6-8 coats of clear on, do i need to lightly sand back the paint? How important is this?

Thanks for any advice you can offer for the work from here on...

[SthEastCustoms]

you dont have to do anything if your clearing straight after...if your clearing a while after, id recommened a light scuf...MAKE SURE WHEN YOU CLEAR YOU HAVE THE RIGHT NOZLE ON UR GUN acrylic is thicker and will never fit through a standard 1.4 tip

[travb81]

Oh cool... yeah clearing straight after.
I did a light sand over some spots after the second coat, to fix up some imperfections. So now after 4-5 coats of paint im ready to clear tomorrow!
Using a 2mm nozzle, thats what the paint supplier sold me with the paint+clear, etc.

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Also, whatever finish the colour ends up you will see through the clear. If you get spray lines then they will stand out. Good even colour coats will give you an awesome finish. When I did my XW I rubbed the last coat back with 1200 wet n dry, then buffed it, then 12 coats of clear. I used an LTD colour, a light grey. Looked like a mirror when I finished.

[travb81]

Yeah thats what was making me thing i should give the paint a final sand... hrmmmm

[stockyvs]

A few years ago I sprayed my torana vedoro green metallic with a lot of help from a spraypainter/panelbeater friend (I knew nothing about spraying cars, just had enthusiasm) - his method was to sand back between each colour coat with progessively finer grades of wet and dry. Then spray the clear coat directly onto the last colour coat WITHOUT sanding that colour coat within 20mins so the colour coat was still tacky. He also mixed a bit of the left over colour coat into each pot of clear coat (<5% I guess). I can't remember why though sorry The idea behind not sanding that last colour coat was to leave the metal flakes standing up in all different directions so that the metalflake stands out at different viewing angles. The clear coat locks the flakes in position, and you have to spray the first clear coat on within 20 mins or so or else it wont stick. Then very fine wet and dry between each clear coat. Then T-CUT the final coat of clear and then WAX IT!!! Or else bird crap will damage the paint immediately LOL. If any of this is wrong someone please correct me its been 8 years. Maybe it would be worth trying out a couple of different methods on an old panel if you got one lying around.
And I will never ever spray another car myself as long as I live

Cheers, let us know how it goes

[greenfoam]

I think metallic looks better if you don't sand the last coat before clear but you have to be good to paint a whole car without imperfections on that coat. This is a the reason I like solid colours better

[samuels]

Yeah thats what was making me thing i should give the paint a final sand... hrmmmm

yes to get a nice shine to your paint,always 1200 it with a sanding block with warm soapy water,also to get an excellent finish before a first cut,1200 your clear 1-2 coats before you apply the final coat of clear,if your final coat of clear doesn't come up the way you want it,don't worry,just 1200 it and the cut will take care of it...of course the quality of the polish is also important,Farecla cutting/polishing is the best on the market at the moment

[samuels]

A few years ago I sprayed my torana vedoro green metallic with a lot of help from a spraypainter/panelbeater friend (I knew nothing about spraying cars, just had enthusiasm) - his method was to sand back between each colour coat with progessively finer grades of wet and dry. Then spray the clear coat directly onto the last colour coat WITHOUT sanding that colour coat within 20mins so the colour coat was still tacky. He also mixed a bit of the left over colour coat into each pot of clear coat (<5% I guess). I can't remember why though sorry The idea behind not sanding that last colour coat was to leave the metal flakes standing up in all different directions so that the metalflake stands out at different viewing angles. The clear coat locks the flakes in position, and you have to spray the first clear coat on within 20 mins or so or else it wont stick. Then very fine wet and dry between each clear coat. Then T-CUT the final coat of clear and then WAX IT!!! Or else bird crap will damage the paint immediately LOL. If any of this is wrong someone please correct me its been 8 years. Maybe it would be worth trying out a couple of different methods on an old panel if you got one lying around.
And I will never ever spray another car myself as long as I live

Cheers, let us know how it goes

nope he /you are right in the methodoligy.the quality of the cutting compound is also important for a mirror finish.
a lot of painters vary in their opinions on sparay painting a car for drying and hardness,when the car is finally finished ,the old school painters will say to leave your car exposed to 2-5 days of frost to really harden up the paint.(thats of course if you live in an area that gets frosts ......heat only speeds up dying times,for increased work loads for painters (I.E....the use of baking ovens)

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

The reason the clear coat is sprayed onto the top coat while tacky is so they blend making the metal flakes pull up slightly into the clear. Gives it a sparklier finish.

[travb81]

Awesome advice guys.
I saw my paint supplier today, and he confirmed what has been said here.
Final coat of paint should be a light one, and clear should be applied without touching up the paint - this is so the metallic particles are not disturbed and set in place by the clear.

I put 4 coats of clear over the paint, let it dry and moved it out into the sun - not too happy with the finish, looks patchy. Hard to tell if its the clear which is patchy, or the paint underneath. Its when you look at the roof side on, or the bonnet - its like a texture thing... hard to describe, but i think its the clear. Hopefully another 6 coats of clear, sanding + cutting will make it look sweet...

[[JUDGE]]

hey i jst started spraying my boot finally, and yer got half way then the compresser started being gay, but anyway what sort of clear do peopel recomend for when im done, and how much does it cost round abouts?

[travb81]

Ive used a acrylic clear lacquer, cost $50 for i think 4L.

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

If you're using acrylic paint then you have to use acrylic clear. Acvrylic is temperamental with what it can take.

[[JUDGE]]

i dno what sorta of paint im using, its 1L tin from Autobahn its the origanl factory colour green

[badger__rox]

you do realise that paint will not be the exact same colour straight off the mechine n will be a tadd off colour.. even on brand new ve's we get in at work the painters still spend aprox 30 mins or more matching the colour..
and also when painting a full car if you paint one side n the the next side the next day you can get uneven colours just buy having the paint sitting in the tin..

[[JUDGE]]

i kno it wont be a fill perfext proffessional job, but its alot better then leaving ur car primerd for the rest of ya life lol

[hakhawk]

i dno what sorta of paint im using, its 1L tin from Autobahn its the origanl factory colour green

its most likely acrylic, we use "duco" or "dulon" brand acrylic paints to mix at my work(autobarn traralgon)

[DannyboyDS]

Paint sitting in the tin shouldnt change its color if you re-stir it properly.

I used to be a painter and I now make paint for a living (Industrial coatings)

Simply put two batches of one color should be the same color within such a slight tolerance level that the human eye cant tell.

We use a computer to color check our batches it can tell if we put an extra 250ml of a tinter color into a 1,200 L batch.

Then again, different brands and types of paint do very different things,the people taking 30 minutes at the car place is probably about right, I Dunno, Ive never painted a car, only dodgy touch ups in my garage

[travb81]

Yeah i wouldnt think it'd change much, but my paint supplier told me to paint the whole car at the same time - i suggested to him that i only wanted to do half, to see what it was like, and then do the other half another week, and he said its not good to do, something to do with matchups and blending...
Maybe its the dynamics of the atmosphere temp, humidity, etc which cause this? I agree, paint in a tin shouldnt change colour overnight!!

[14secvp]

dont sand before the clear if using metttellics as it knocks the top off the mettellic particles spray the last coat with slightly more thinners to get the wet mettellic look let tack off then clear away dont put the clear on in too thicker coats as it can flake off cos of thinners being trapped under all the clear and cant get out.give it a few days block-sand with 2000 grit wet and dry with some warm soapy water but the key is to let the paper soak for at least five to ten minutes first so it softens or the hard edges scratch the paint while your trying to polish.sand until when you wipe back the surface you have no shiney patches or spots then use a good cut and polish and a clean rag rub rub rub I allways use a rotating motion .do little by little soon you will be doing your hair in the paint dont rush take your time and it will come out awesome be carefull sanding and polishing near the edges and on ridges it easy to scuff right through the clear and paint to the primer .

[travb81]

Thanks for the tips spanners.
I've got "tram tracks" on my boot, roof and bonnet. Worst on the boot. My paint supplier said the last coat of metallic should be a uni-direction, criss crossing spray, very light coat - and this prevents tram tracking. So i've done a 400 sand on these 3 areas, now need to do a light coat, then clear it.

[14secvp]

if youve got a decent gun 1.4mm nozzle will spray anything except spray putty mine sortof sprays putty but its damn slow