Hey guys.. I got the hood off a junk car. It originally was black and the clear coat was peeling through and had a pretty decent lip. I wet-sanded it down with 600 grit and finally sprayed it this weekend. This is my first time. I think it came out pretty good, however I'm not a pro so your opinions and any help you can give me would be great. In the pics attached, you'll see some of the problems I've had. Some spots look streaky/wet in the sun. There's a spot where I think my technique with the spray gun wasn't very good due to the ripple look I got. When I sanded I could see lines where the clear coat was. It still sticks out through the paint, along with holes you can see on the front of the hood. Those lines and those holes were there before I painted. What do you guys think? What do I need to work on? And how would I get rid of those problems?

 

The first picture is the holes. The last picture is the technical error of the ripples. And in the 3rd set of pictures all the way to the right is the lines/grooves that was there before I painted left from the clear coat.

 

It's not that good...BUT, that's ok. If you saw my old thread about an engine bay like 2 months ago you'll c my hood looks the same. Kinda like texture and less like glass. Some spots always come out good like glass and your like "how the f%$@ did I do that?" lol

Now I have been painting about 3months and have almost work out the beginner basics.

Bump that air pressure...what is it now?
Distance...you want to lay down slow and wet (obviously with no runs)
Make sure your gun is clean clean clean always!! Still gets me sometimes
Did you use primer..remember, how ever primer looks is EXACALLY how your paint will look

But that's specific problem tells me you need to lay it down slow steady and wet. Go 2 months back in the threads, "engine bay advice" my hood kinda looked the same. Good for me at the time but not good.

 

What temp reducer/activator did you use? Is this base/clear or Single stage? What gun did you use? What paint did you use? I'm guessing (by the first picture) that it is a base-clear job. If so, you made many mistakes in your base coat and you need to work on gun technique. Remember that the gun must be the same distance from the surface and ALWAYS AT A 90 DEGREE ANGLE! If you reach "over" to get hard to reach spots in the middle and tilt your wrist, the paint will look blotchy and un-even. Also- make sure to move quickly but spray fairly wet on clear and spray the base on evenly but fairly dry. What kind of overlap were you using?

P.s- the problems in the clear can be solved by a good cut and buff. I recommend you attempt this before you do a real paint job, play around and see exactly HOW MUCH sanding and buffing is required to burn through to your base or primer.

 

I didn't use primer I didn't think i needed to I never got down to bare metal. Air pressure was about 90psi at the tank and 20 at the gun. I used a 1.4mm tip vapor gun. Yes it was a base coat / clear coat. What other tips on gun control can u give me ? I know it wasent really good and im a LONG way away from actually painting a car for real. But I dont think it came out horrible for very first time ever. So what was i doing wrong was the distance to far or to close ? to slow or to fast ?

 

Do the "hang loose" signal with your pinky and thumb out about 7-8inches so that way you can always tell the tight distance. I hold about 5 inches but move quick. Also yea raise that pressure 29 psi at the gun is about 15 at the tip. Also another good tip is to throw a shot of reducer in your clear. Helps it lay down cleaner, I love doin that cause it really helps


Raise pressure
90 degrees
Lay it wet...you can also do a mist over the surface that looks rough then you come back and lay a wet coat and the texture helps prevent runs and comes out clean (a guide coat)
And practice

You'll get it

 

Agree'd. Adding reducer will help the clear to level out. Use the highest temp reducer/activator you can find (I use 90+ now).

 

So bascially my whole problem is gun technique ? I noticed I kept the gun full trigger most of the time I was told you should release the trigger close to the end but wasent sucessful when i tryed to do it. Also is the reason why it's not very smooth also related to my technique . When I re-sand it should I use a sealer or a primer or something to get rid of thoes inperfections in the hood.

 

Which imperfections are you talking about? If they are truly, truly minor a glazing putty followed by sealer or highbuild would level them out.

I suggest attempting a cut and buff before you sand down rather than wasting this good opportunity.

Did you notice us telling you to reduce? It isn't all necessarily gun technique but gun technique improvement will help. Don't "release trigger" towards the end. You need to go off to the side with the trigger full on or else the edges will be too thin. But you can release trigger between every pass, it depends on your gun speed. Alot of guys flick the gun off to the side, which generally speaking is fine. You don't need to though.

Oh, and do you know how to do test patterns with your gun? That can impact ALOT of things.

Also: what did you clean your surface with? It NEEDS to be W&G remover, NOT mineral spirits, paint thinner, ect.

 

Yup your getting good info here...may I suggest something smaller to practice on? Paint,clear,sandpapper ect. will kinda add up fast

As said, test your fan and adjust how much paint will flow before on some good masking paper. Very important. Pros do it. You wanna strive to be like a pro right?

If your not sure about where to let the trigger go off the edge, maybe start with the edges first.

Go to you tube and type "sata jet painter" guy makes it look so easy and you can see his technique.

If you don't take in all this advice in your gonna keep messing up and getting frustrated, and ultimately give up in painting. Try again and post resaults

 

the hole's are stone chip's and the line's cound be sanding scratch's what grit did you do your final sanding with ? you need more prep work. you have to ether fill the holes t or sand them out before you paint aalso primer is always a good idea (give's you more to sand to get a flat surface ) i would say 85-90% of a good paint job is in the prep work

 

Thank you to all who has replyed I thank you all for your help. joeshmo- As for the imperfections I was referring to the whole in the first picture and the lines you can see through the paint in the 3rd set of pics all the way to the right. I'm unfamiliar with the process of cut and buff. I did notice you telling me to reduce and I do not know how to do the test patterns. If you can elaborate that would be great. I did use wax and grease remover. The steps I took were as follows: wash, wax and grease remover, wet sand 600 grit, wash, wax and grease remover, mix the paint, wipe down the hood with a tack rag, sprayed the base then cleared.

Builda'Teg_92- I did get some masking paper. I'm going to try next time. I need to look into adjusting the fan.

Thanks again to everyone who replied. I appreciate all the help.
Brian

 

It is hard to get a perspective on the size of that first "crater" but I'm guessing it is probably a paint chip. Primer and extra prep will help you with this. If the surface isn't PERFECT, you really need to primer and use some heavier grit paper than 600. 600 is fine for a scuff and shoot but really it doesn't work well to get out anything other than extremely minor imperfections. Paint is really all in the prep work and primer is a HUGE necessity to a PERFECT paintjob.
This has a quick, non-in depth howto on setting up spray guns. Pay attention to where they help you set the fan:
http://www.how-to-build-hotrods.com/set-up-hvlp.html

If you need help cutting and buffing, let me know. It is a VERY valuable skill for a novice painter.

Also, how were you overlapping? When doing metallics or pearls, the proper overlap is VERY IMPORTANT! If you overlap poorly, you'll get streaking, stripes or worse.

Oh and you're doing perfectly with the wash, wg, sand, wg, tack and shoot. That is exactly how it should be done. Some people say that when you use wax and grease remover to use two rags or a spraybottle and a rag and only move in one direction across the panel. I got a spraybottle for mine and it works great!

 

Ya I should have gotten a heaver grit than 600 and I prob should have primerd. I will look at that link you sent I thank you for all your help. And I could use some info on cut and buff. Im not sure how or what that is exactly.

 

Any info on cut and buff would be great so i can start working on the hood again.

Thanks Brian

 

Depends on the degree of peel.
Generally, with light to moderate peel/nibs, one would sand with 2000 grit sandpaper wet with a softblock until the surface looks flat and dull. Then use a rotary buffer (such as the harbor freight model) and a coarse to medium pad with meguiars M105 (or ultimate compound.). Follow up with a soft pad with m205 (swirl-x). If your peel is particularly bad, step up to 1500 or 1000 grit and finish with 2000 grit, being sure to get all the lower grit scratches out.

When I wetsand, I like to wetsand at a 45 degree angle, alternating with each grit. That way I can tell when the previous scratches have been totally eliminated.