clear coat

[sharky559]

OK dsmers I finally dropped a midnight blue coat on my 2g and after that I dropped 2 coats of clear looks good. But the thing is I was going for three coat until I got a couple of runs when I dropped the 2nd coat. Need help on how to fix the runs.

 

[eeeewidner]

Wet sanding then blend the new clear in. I did the same on my engine bay and I used 800 grit to even it and then 2000 to smooth it out and re-shot it and it turned out great.

 

[Carlz0r]

Why 3 coats, just out of curiousity? Realistically, if you put your second coat on heavy enough to run, you probably don't need any more clear. Give it a day to cure a bit, then use a very small block (1"x1") with some 600 grit wet-sand paper to knock the runs down a bunch, bring it almost level to the rest of the clear with 800 wet, then sand smooth (keeping the area small) with 1000grit wet. Go over all your 1000grit scratches with 1500 grit, then 2000 grit, all wet-sanding. Then you can just polish the 2000grit scratches out.

If you badly want to put a 3rd coat of clear on, do the same as above but stop once you've reached 800grit, and then 800grit sand where you plan on re-clearing.

The only reason I could see for a 3rd coat is if you plan on wet-sanding and polishing the entire car.

 

[sharky559]

I was thinking of sanding with a 1500 and then a 2000 since I'm going to cut and buff. Does anyone know how many coats of clear have to go on.

 

[Carlz0r]

I was thinking of sanding with a 1500 and then a 2000 since I'm going to cut and buff. Does anyone know how many coats of clear have to go on.

Depends on the clear (low, medium, or high solids) and how thick your coats were. If you're planning on wet-sanding the whole car, a 3rd or even 4th coat wouldn't be a bad idea.

For what it's worth, when I painted my FC RX7, I did 3 coats of clear, wet-sanded the whole car perfectly smooth with 600 grit, then 800 grit, re-shot it with another 3 coats of clear, then wet-sanded with 1000, 1500, then 2000. Ended up looking like glass.

 

[islideawd]

how bad are the runs? if they are small i agree with the guys above. if they are on the large side you can use spot putty/ glaze ( 3M Marson 12011 Platinum Glaze Finishing Putty 24 oz. Bottle its the same 3m product we use at our shop) spread this over the run after the paint has a good cure and then using a sanding block (do not use you hand it wont work very well) 240 dry, 320 dry , 600 dry, 800 wet (putty should be almost gone), 1500 wet, 2500 wet, 3000 wet, polish. using the fine putty will give you a barrier so you only take down the high spot of the run and not dig into the thin layer of clear surrounding the run. it work very well for large runs. or you could just 800 dry the orange peel out of the car and reclear. it will give it more "depth" in that way and you wont have a bunch of flat spots where there was runs and now no orange peel. sorry for the rant

 

[Carlz0r]

how bad are the runs? if they are small i agree with the guys above. if they are on the large side you can use spot putty/ glaze ( 3M Marson 12011 Platinum Glaze Finishing Putty 24 oz. Bottle its the same 3m product we use at our shop) spread this over the run after the paint has a good cure and then using a sanding block (do not use you hand it wont work very well) 240 dry, 320 dry , 600 dry, 800 wet (putty should be almost gone), 1500 wet, 2500 wet, 3000 wet, polish. using the fine putty will give you a barrier so you only take down the high spot of the run and not dig into the thin layer of clear surrounding the run. it work very well for large runs. or you could just 800 dry the orange peel out of the car and reclear. it will give it more "depth" in that way and you wont have a bunch of flat spots where there was runs and now no orange peel. sorry for the rant

Damn. That's actually a really good idea for protecting the clear around the run. These are the tricks we didn't learn in school.

Thanks man!

 

[sharky559]

What I was thinking of doing is sand the whole car with 1500 wet and then 2000 wet and hopefully in the process the runs would go away. After that buff out the fine scratches. But also don't wana be left with a paper thin clear. I'm thinking of sanding the whole car and add two more coats.

 

[islideawd]

no problem man, glad i can help.

sharky you can just stop by putting on one coat of slow clear on, there is no need for two coats as long as you have good coverage.

 

[sharky559]

Thanx everybody for the help