What the heck! Crow's Footing?

[kxmotox247]

What the heck! Crow\'s Footing?

Man...I'm having some hard luck with my bike project. I can't figure out where I went wrong last night and I think I'm going to have to start over from the sealer up.
I sprayed my bike parts in a blue base. Then I did a set of silver flames. And last night, we candied over everything. Everything was going fine until after the first coat of clear. I started noticing a little bit of wrinkling/checking/crows footing appearing on the surface of the paint. We stopped shooting paint as soon as we noticed the first spot. About 30 minutes later, the entire surface of my rear fender looked like it had a fingerprint texture across the whole thing. A couple of spots looked like the marks/texture might have been in the blue candy but we can't tell. The candy looked like it slight discolorations around some of the marks.
What happened? I have a couple of guesses. Not enough drying time between coats? We waited till it was sticky...not stringy. Too long between coats? Maybe? The shop was about 68-70 degrees and we were using Hok Ru-310 fast thinner. We did have some RU-311 out, could we have accidently used that by mistake in the final coat of clear and that caused it? Also, we mixed in some silver mini-flake in the first 2 coats of candy. We also put just a sprinkling of rainbow flake in the first coat of clear. Is it possible that the flake is causing some of these problems? We've never had any problems using mini flake in the first 2 coats of candy before.
Help!!!! This is driving me crazy.
What's the best way to strip it back off? Sandpaper? Chemical Strip? Razor blade?
Here's a link to some pictures (they don't show the defects)
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-6/240204/Mvc-001f.jpg
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-6/240204/Mvc-002f.jpg

 

[onelowhoe]

Re: What the heck! Crow\'s Footing?

I have had this issue before, and it was due to contiminated flakes. Something in the flakes was causing a lifting, seperating effect. Happened on two projects. We eliminated the flakes and cleared a different panel on the same car and it didn,t do it. That may be you issue. Or, could be just a reaction between the candy and the clear. Something just not timed right (too soon, too late). I always like to put my first coat of clear on light to seal things up then I put on wet heavy coats.

 

[kxmotox247]

Re: What the heck! Crow\'s Footing?

I'm not sure what brand of flakes you were using. These were Hok f33 rainbo flakes.
I called HoK's tech line and the rep I spoke with said that my symptoms had all the signs of waiting too long between coats. She seemed awfully sure of that and suggested mixing the RU-310 and RU-311 Reducers. She didn't think it had anything to do with too much clear...or too much paint.
So...that's what I've learned too far. They say the 3rd times a charm so wish me luck.
If anyone else has any opinions on this, please share!!!!

 

[Jim]

Re: What the heck! Crow\'s Footing?

HOK say in their tech sheets to monitor religiously. I believe they say to apply clear just after it no longer strings,Not when it strings.It will be wet,then stringy,as soon as it quits stringing,it will be tacky,shoot another coat.The heavier the coats,the longer it takes of course.

 

[kxmotox247]

Re: What the heck! Crow\'s Footing?

I guess we're just going to have to speed things up. I thought we were doing a pretty good job of monitoring it before. I wonder if there is a point where it's still sticky but not sticky enough?
I guess we'll just have to try again.
Thanks for the advice guys!

 

[TAZ]

Re: What the heck! Crow\'s Footing?

Sounds like you waited too long before you cleared. HOK Kandy will wrinkle if you let it sit too long before clearing.

 

[kxmotox247]

Re: What the heck! Crow\'s Footing?

I'll tell you why we are scared to clear too soon. We shot some pearl paint last winter and had some problems with the clear adhereing to the pearl. We were pulling the tape on the flames and we noticed that some of the clear was pulling right off the top of the pearl in a thin sheet. The best that we could figure out was that the solvents in the pearl were still escaping and forced the clear away. You could put a piece of tape on the clear and when you pulled it off, the clear would come off with it.
The solution...we didn't clear till the next day and we had no problems.
Anyway, We're just going to have to be faster in topcoating. I know when I was finger testing the kandy, it was still sticky but evidently it was too dry.

 

[rex]

Re: What the heck! Crow\'s Footing?

Talking about the clear delamming from the pearl,there's a point in the drying process that this happens to with clear.You need to learn this area with your products and either untape before or after this time,usually it's in the unsafe recoat window.