Orange peel in flake

[brownowl]

G'day fella's, the system I'm using is acrylic lacquer on a bike tank etc.
I'm using the laws like you 2K guys do with black basecoat, clear to protect it and then a blue mini flake panel over that which came out orange peel, I've re tuned the gun since because I sprayed another few coats of black to match the height of both colours for a pinstripe and it's beautiful.
I know not to sand the flake but how do I deal with the 'peel'?
If I lay on the clearcoats and sand back won't the peel still show through the clear from underneath?
The flakes are paint with pearl. .004"
Can someone set me back on track here please.

 

[TAZ]

Since you have alot of orange peel, the only way I can see you getting it flat is going ahead and resanding this. You can do this with 800DA or 1000 wetsand if you would like. Get the surface flat as possible. Then you need to reclear. The flatter you spray the second batch of clear, the easier it will be to wetsand and buff.
:luck:

 

[brownowl]

Thanks Taz, do you mean wetsand, then re flake, then clear coats?
The blue flakes will turn silver if I wetsand.
I tried blowing this dark blue flake over silver flake on the test panel before I started and it wouldn't look at it, it coloured straight up over black though, that's what I'm worried about if I wetsand and in getting it back smooth it will turn silver which the dark blue flake doesn't like.
I suppose I should just go back to the test panel and do as you say first, but you didn't say to re flake after sanding, which I don't understand.
Brownie

 

[TAZ]

You probably did'nt get enough clear over the flake then. Metalflake jobs take alot of clear.
You have two ways you can do this. You can lightly scuff the set and reclear it (no flake), then you can wetsand and buff it (alot of wetsanding though). Or, you can sand it flat, and then add a couple coats of candy blue over the flakes. This will turn all the silver flakes blue. This will also darken the other flakes though. Possibly use a mix of candy oriental blue and cobalt blue. Once you add the candy, all flakes will be blue. Then you can reclear (again, no flake).
Do a test panel before you do it on your real paint job just to make sure you like the results.

 

[brownowl]

"You probably did'nt get enough clear over the flake then. Metalflake jobs take alot of clear."

Mate, the peel isn't as bad as I made it sound, it's probably on par with the paintwork of a new car, which is bad enough!
It's at this point I thought I was going wrong, so after 3 double header coats of flake, and not enough flash off, I stopped painting and started typing, meaning I haven't put any clear at all over this yet.
Today I lightly sanded flake on the test panel with 1000 wet and got silver coming through so I presume I should prepsol and give it a few coats of clear.

At this point I need to bombard you with more questions:

I want to tape off for a gold pinstripe on tank, guard and oil tank.
Should I clear the areas where the stripe will be and get it (the stripe)down first?
If so, does the stripe normally straddle both colours or the lowest colour so as to blend the levels better?
Mask off the blue panels and make it flat, which will present a step next to the black?
Don't mask anything and blow a few coats of clear over the whole lot, maybe more where the flake is for sanding, do the stripe then the final clear coats over the lot?
Thanks for previous replies Taz, I'm learning fast!
Brownie.