Orange Peel

[hiett_431]

Working on my first big job. Just finished the base coat, cleared it a couple times. Went to wet sand it and there is a ton of orange peel in the clear. I'm sanding my arms off /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crap.gif, breaking through the clear on the edges. I know that i'm breaking through because i'm using 800 grit,and only sprayed 2 coats of clear instead of 3 or 4. Can you use a pneumatic buffer or sander with high grit paper to remove the peel? Is there anyway to reduce the amount of orange peel that develops when clearing? Thanks

 

[LudicrousSpeed]

There is no way to make it better, you have to remove the same amount of material regardless of how you do it. (hand or pneumatic) Sounds like you need to give it another coat or two of clear to make sure you don't break through.

As far as preventing orange peel, I usually use three coats. The first is a medium coat. The second two are wet coats. I usually wait till my clear is handslick, meaning that I can lightly run my fingers along the tape or mask and they don't come back sticky. Some clears don't want you to do it this way. Make sure you follow the directions for the clear you have........

 

[rex]

The 2 biggest factors for peel is your gun isn't breaking up the clear well enough or your reducer is too fast causing it to lock up before flowing out.I usually run my reducer (for PPG) a little slower than the temp in low to medium humidity but if it's high I'm usually into the next slower reducer.You can mix reducers together but don't jump one temp like mixing fast and slow,they have to be in progression or you can goof up the chemistry,especially when you start getting into the slow and extra slow reducers.