ok so I am painting my dads car for him. Everything went well so far until I got to the clear coat. So far I have only done one coat of clear and I am to afraid to do the second one.

1st problem: In the first coat you can see stuff the got stuck on it (not much but a little and can tell if you look close, guess its random particles)

2nd problem: the clear coat makes the paint look uneven in certain areas, the paint underneath was fine and everything was even but when i put the clear on it looks faded in some areas.

3rd problem: you can see like a what they call the orange peel look in certain areas the car...

and last it doesnt feel smooth in some areas.

Until I applied the clear coat everything was fine I even went as far as making a paint booth in our 2 car garage. I worked really hard and now the clear in some areas is making the job look bad. but in other areas it looks like a new car.

HOw can i fix this before my 2nd and last coat of clear? Any advise would be greatly appreciated..

 

I would wet sand with like 1500 or 2000 grit. That would get rid of some of the orange peel and rough areas. As for the uneven looking areas I have no clue! I guess the worse that can happen is just sand it down some and shoot another coat of base color. Then try the clear again. Im not too smart of a car painter but I hope this helps some.

 

what color is the car and what kinda car and year? is this an older car resoration? with the first coat of clear i would sand it down with like 600 grit maybe 400 by hand and get rid of all the particals which will be most of the clear that you put on. also on the orange peel might need more base coat too depends on how bad it is. the uneven spots are from the car not being even before you put the color on. it came out more in the clear because that adds the depth to the color some colors you can see it but not all esp black it's hard to see imo. this you need to sand down more with a block to level it off or depending on how bad it is you might need to put a putty coat on it then primer and paint it again before you keep going with the clear.

the biggest part to a paint job is the prep work and it sucks because sometimes you don't see where you need more work until you put color on it. it's something that you learn with more experence how to spot it. you actual spraying of the car is the easy and fun part to me lol....

 

Your first and 3 problems come from painting in a DIY paint booth, not too much you can do to remove dust in the air your pumping in or is already present in the booth.

The orange peel can come form like 20 different things, air pressure, the speed you applied the paint, the temp in the garage, the Speed hardener you used in the clear ect ect..too many variables.
Just sand it down and try again.

The second thing this uneven look is not from the suface being un even. You would notice more than MM of depth before you put down the clear, but if it is that uneven you def need to go back and make sure the surface is at least feather edged in these thick spots.......

sorry rambling... i think what your seeing is uneven is how you applied the clear. I'm going guess it around curves or vents ???
I think around these spots you got too close or too far away from the surface or slowed down or sped up changing the amount of clear you put down.

This is what makes painting a car hard. It takes time and skill to know how far to keep the gun from the surface of the car, and the speed of your hand. it takes time to learn. And most people need a pro there to help them for at least the 1/2/3 paint job

post some pics up
let me know if you have any questions

Ps i have painted about 10 cars now and my first 2 sucked
Good Luck keep practicing

 

Thanks for all of the advise guys. Today I will be wet sanding the car with 1500 and then 2000. I will take some pics ASAP to show what everything looks like. The car is a 98 Toyota corolla. before the paint job it was 3 different colors because Macco did a horrible job all the clear had come off and some parts had no base coat and primer left.

I guess the TEMP played a part too because most of the time I cant get it above 59 degrees in the garage. And I do need more practice. This is my first paint job after all. I thought it was a hella good job ......until...... the clear.. but ill see what I can do now that I have some good advise. Check up on the post again guys i should have pics up soon!

-stwoki

 

i cant say for sure but 59 is really really cold to paint. Most places have ovens and heated booths 74 is the standard temp.

My last advise would be to leave the clear and keep painting on an old door or old hood that way you can see how the clear will do at that temp ect...
If you spend $50 in clear now its far better than Using another $200 only to have to sand it down and do it again
good luck have fun
Jake

 

Practice makes perfect

 

I am on my 3 full car and a few motorcycles it does get easier as u go. temp is huge it needs to be closer to 70. sorry not much around that....

 

Ok so i wet sanded the whole car with 1000 then 1500 and finally 2000 after that I washed the whole car and recleared it with 3 coats of clear. Now it is the next morning and the car is still really wet. Just waiting for it to dry up and then I will take the pics.

I am pretty sure I will be wetsanding the car with 2000 one final time and then polish and buff.. Any good polish I can get for his type of work from an auto parts store? now its just a matter of waiting and I have two heaters going in my garage.. (electric bill will be crazy for sure..)

I am confident that for my first paint job I did well... I guess we will find out soon (fingers crossed)

Again thank you to all of you for your help. U helped save the job from total disaster.

-stwoki

 

ya it shouldn't take more then 8 hours you applyed the clears too fast wihtout them drying the garage is too cold. i hope it comes out well with the cold. i would wait to do your last sand and buff and polish. you can wait til spring when it gets into the 60's outside. park the car in the sun for a day or 2 and then do the buff and polish.

once the car is dry to the touch you should be able to drive it but i would keep the water off it for as long as u can that is all that can damage the paint.