solar gold blotchy

[hmadhopper]

ok im new to this forum and hopefully i can find some good help here im not a new painter. but most of my experience has been in factory refinish. i have done some small stuff were i played around with different things though.over the weekend i decided to 2 tone this truck i have and i had some solar gold someone gave me. i may know what happen but ill see if other people think the same. i first layed down a white base to get it all uniform.but i was running low on white base and i know the hood didnt lay out real flat as i was stretching the material trying to get it covered.now this is the first time i have tryed to spray anything of any size with hok.it is a mazda ext cab pickup. the roof seems to be fine and every were else i think i see one small blocked spot on the bed. but the hood seems blotchy and striped. its not horible but u can see it.i have painted alot of metallics normally ppg and sikkens.and i spray it with a lph 400.never really had a problem.so im going to repaint the hood and im wondering what to do different. im asuming from the get go the white needed to be nice and flat? but any other tips?

 

[TAZ]

Hi,
Welcome to the CPF....
Maybe I read your post wrong, but I was unsure what you were trying to achieve.
From what I read, you are 2-toning a truck. You seem to be using a white and Solar Gold (you sprayed the white first). Was the white on top or the Solar Gold.
Were you just leaving the colors like this and clearcoating, or were you applying candy over the basecoats?
Or, were you spraying a white base, the applying a gold over that?

 

[hmadhopper]

thanks for replying. i actually left the bottom of the truck the same color.and i sprayed the white down first then applyed the gold over it then i cleared the whole truck.

 

[TAZ]

If you sprayed a medium gray down first, you will find that the solar gold will not only be easier to spray without any blotches or 'mottle', but it will use less material.
Using white as a base under any metallic is hard to spray over.

 

[hmadhopper]

ok now that it is already painted. im going to sand it and respray. i dont want to spray a grey in fear of changing the shade since the rest of the truck s over white.so at this point should i wet sand it and then rebase with white and then gold or do u think i can just base it with gold again? and with this hok paint how wet should it be layed down? i wonder if i was spraying it on to light to get the moddle ?

 

[hmadhopper]

oh also i forgot i did spray on some gold flake mixed with blender.i went out and looked at it today and wonder if the flake is what caused the mottle look?

 

[Maylar]

If you're seeing streaks in your color coat, it's usually just application problems. Like not overlapping passes consistently. Mottling of metalics is usually from not keeping the metalics mixed in the gun. You have to shake the gun regularly to keep the particles suspended. Also, painting horizontal surfaces like hood and roof are harder to do because it's unnatural to keep the gun at that angle.

As far as the white undercoat, that'd change the shade of the paint a bit but wouldn't necessarilly give you streaks. Unless you painted the gold really thin.

 

[hmadhopper]

yeah i only have 2 coats of color on it.i thought it may be a little thin.also as far as the flake going on after the gold.with it being in a blender should a stay back and kinda mist it on or actually make passes and over lap like base?

 

[TAZ]

You will definitely need more coats than 2, especially over a white base. I would guess about 4-5 even at that, you 'may' still see some streaks at certain angles.
You could get away with about 3 coats over a medium gray.

You can make your passes with the gold flake like you do with a base color. I normally mix it with a base coar (I assume that's what you were using when you said 'blender')
Normally with flakes, I turn the pressure down even lower than when I spray basecoats.

 

[hmadhopper]

ok cool.most of the truck is mostly fine except the hood and top of fenders. so im going to respray that next week at the latest. ill update and say how it went. i appreciate all the info!

 

[TAZ]

Sounds good.
By the way, what size flake are you spraying? I assume it's just a smaller flake?

 

[hmadhopper]

yeah its just hoks gold miniflake

 

[TAZ]

That's cool. I'm sure it looks good over the gold base.
Let us know how it goes.

ics: when your done :bigokay:

 

[hmadhopper]

well i almost got it done. i went with a little darker color.but i had a problem in some spots with it wanting to lift.i fixed them before i cleared.but i missed one i didnt see.so now on the panel im fixing the lifted spot.do i need sand the whole panel. or can i just scuff it to clear over the rest of the panel? remember i flaked it real good so the clear didnt lay super slick even though i did get it covered good.but over all i am happy with the color now.