Clear Coat Help Please

[mentor]

Hi all.

I'm having a bit of a problem.

I was helping my friend spray a small section of his car today. The paint turned out great and blended perfectly to the old colour, but the clearcoat came out really bad. It came out looking like a golf ball. I was very particular in using wax and grease remover in the prep.

The same thing happened to a motorbike part I was spraying at the same time.

I am not using professional products, and don't mind if i shoot down orange peel as it is rather easy to fix, but I didn't expect it to turn out quite like this.

I have sanded the motorbike piece (blue) down to 1500grit, resprayed clear, then sanded down to 1500 again and it still is showing some dimples. I was thinking of doing the same to the car but but don't want to have to respray 3 or 4 times in order for it to be smooth.

Does anyone have any suggestions??

I'm using a preval setup and air dry.
50mL HiChem Super Clearcoat
25mL HiChem Medium Hardner
8mL HiChem Thinner

I'm wondering if I sand the car down as flat as I can and use the clear coat in a can, if that'll turn out okay. Would the can version adhere to the 2pack clear coat?

I appreciate all comments and criticism. I can't afford a full spray setup, and have found preval to work in the past, but am unsure why it is doing now what it is doing.

Thanks
Andrew

 

[ScottieB]

It looks like a huge contamination problem. Please describe your air supply system and the area where you are spraying. That will help in finding the source of the problem.

 

[Bcb871810]

I would have guessed water in the air until I saw the second picture. There's got to be wax or something on that.

I use 3M wax remover.

I also use an air filter from the compressor to the hose and then an desiccant in-line dryer and two disposable filters beneath the gun. Seemed to work out all the air contamination kinks for me .

 

[mentor]

clear coat

The air system is a Preval setup.

That consists of a glass jar (for mixing of paint or clear coat, etc, which was new) and a bottle of compressed air which screws onto the top of it

I've used it many times before. It throws down metallic paints just great, and clear coat usually ends up with some orange peel. I have tried to shoot pearl before, but test results were good and bad, so I never shot a vehicle with it.The jar and spraying unit were new so there shouldn't have been any contamination with it.

I made sure i was very perdantic in cleaning the section. the area was cleaned many times between sanding and clear coat. in total, it probably would have been cleaned 8 times. I used wax and grease remover. I used store bought bag of rags. I would use the rag with wax and greese remover on the loacation, and he would use a clean rag to clean up what i put on. We would then throw away those rags, and do the process again.

The area painted was the back panel behind and to the right of the rear window. Between the rear wheel and the boot. The factory clear had acutally peeled off, and I believe he was recomended to put wax on the area to protect it. Would this have seeped right into the paint and not been removed by wax and greese remover?

I am using Septopne Wax and Grease Remover.

He tried to spray the area previously (withing the last few weeks) and the clear coat he shot down from a can (which I guess was acrylic) literally didn't adhere at all, and peeled right off in one big piece. He didn't use any cleaners before spraying that, would that have come off due to wax too?

thanks for your help. it is very much appreciated.
all I have to figure out is how to fix it.

 

[Bcb871810]

Well the clear coat could be lifting the paint. I know that putting enamel on top of lacquer is okay, but sometimes putting lacquer on top of enamel will sometimes lift paint. Other than that, I'm at a loss.

 

[mentor]

Thanks for your help lad.

I'm personally suspecting wax considering I know he's applied it to that area in the last month or two. I might be wrong, but I guess its the best thing for me to go on at the moment. What would you recomend as the best wax remover?

I'll sand it down so some clear coat remains, use wax remover, and respray the clearcoat.

I wouldnt'be too worried if it was one of my projects, but on a friends car the responsibility is there for me to get it right.

Just out of curiosity, if we use his acrylic to fill in the craters in the 2 pack, would that work? what would the finish look like?

I am unsure of the definition of enamel and laquer. I believe they may be called something different over here.

I asume laquer is clear coat, and enamel is acrylic paints?

The paint seems to be perfectly flat still, its just the clearcoat where the problem seems to be located.

I do appreceiate your help

 

[Bcb871810]

Well sanding should take care of it. After you sand you can try wiping it really good with 3M Wax, Adhesvie, and Silicone remover. And then try again.

Go to this website: http://www.sherwin-automotive.com/reference/troubleshooting_guide/

Try to match your paint defect to the ones on the site and read their solution and see if it helps any.

Also check out this web site. http://www.duplicolor.com/solutions/faq.html

It tells you the difference between a lacquer and enamel. Someone can correct me if I am wrong but I believe that acrylic is a type of lacquer or enamel. Just like you can have urethane enamel or urethane lacquer. Ame applies to acrylic and other things.

You can also try searching this forum and google for other threads regarding the same problem.

Let me know how it goes.