Painting my Car and I need some help!

[Gjohnson7]

Ok, so here's the deal. I've been working on the body work and paint on my Kouki for a while and I finally got around to shooting some color on Sunday but we ran into some issues. First of all, these are the steps I've been through:
1. Blocked car with 180
2. Fixed dents and dings
3. Sprayed thick coats of high build primer
4. Blocked car with 180 again
5. Sprayed more primer
6. Blocked car with 320
7. Blocked car with 400
8. cleaned the whole car with wax and grease remover
9. Tacked the whole car

Then on Sunday we started shooting color. We got around 3 good solid coats of color on the car but started noticing quite a bit of trash in the paint. I decided not to clear coat on Sunday because of the trash in the base coat and we've started to wet sand out the trash with 800 grit.
So here's my questions for you body and paint guys. The paint is a metallic blue, but since we are not actually getting into any of the color do I really need to re coat everything? Someone told me I should repray the entire car with a tack coat and then a cover coat, before I start shooting clear. Does that sound correct? Reason I ask, is because I only have about a quart of base left which mixes 1:1. Everything was painted but my front bumper and I really don't have the money to go back and buy more paint. Do you think the 1/2 gallon of sprayable paint will cover the front bumper and give me enough paint to lay 2 really light coats of base on the entire car so I can clear? Can I reduce it more than the 1:1 or will that make my paint look weird? What should I do?

[Nick_04K]

What do you mean by "trash" in your paint? Is it dust, dirt, fish eyes, solvent pop or what?

You better figure out what it is before you spray clear or else the same thing is going to be in that as well.

As for re-coating the entire car i dont think thats necessary if you didnt sand through anywhere and there is still decent depth to it.
That's my .02..im no super expert on paint though.

[Gjohnson7]

Sorry, by trash I mean dust and dirt. With the first coat on the car we had 1 maybe 2 issues with fish eyes, but they all went away with the preceeding coats. We trying to stay out of the base coat as much as possible and just very, very lightly wet sanding the dust and dirt out with a soft wet block and 800 grit paper. Ther car is at my buddies shop so I can't inspect it right now, but I will be over there shortly. He started the wet sanding for my last night because I was stuck at home with a sick kid, but from what I understand we're not having a major issue with scratch marks.

[Nick_04K]

Well if dust and dirt are the problem i highly suggest cleaning out your spraying area and getting the grime out of it.

Try not to move anything for 24 hrs before you spray though.

Lightly wet down the floor right before spraying and that will help too. Also do the regular google search for more good tips on keeping dirt/dust out of your paint.

If you dont sand through your base coat, and you are using a very fine paper to get out all the light scratch marks from your heavier paper...I believe you should be fine not top coating your existing base color again.

Good luck!

[Gjohnson7]

Yeah, I'm definitely going to have to figure something else out when it comes to cleaning the work area. I think the main problem was we didn't wet the floor because we didn't have a water hose an faucet in the shop. May just have to grab a 5 gallon bucket and use the utility sink to wet the floor.

My neighbor that helped me do the shooting said I really shouldn't have a problem shooting over these panels, since I've basicly scuffed them with 800 grit paper. So just to make sure he asked me to grab the gas tank door and bring it home so we can shoot it with some clear as a test peice. He worked in paint and fiberglass at American Airlines for years and said they shot peices that way all day everyday and never had a problem. After looking over the panels you can see some really light sanding marks, but when you wipe water over the panels or even wax and grease remover to simulate the clear coat every looks great!

[chiboy002]

if there's dust/bugs in your paint, wetsand it with a really high grit and it should come out. If its in the clear, wetsand and polish/wax. Re spray when you're done

[Nick_04K]

Sounds like you'll be alright then. But i would still considering going up to as much as 1200 grit. I know 800 feels super smooth, but paint is picky haha. Good Luck! Post pics when your done too

[upsdude]

would it be in your budget range to rent a booth?

[chiboy002]

Originally Posted by Nick_04K

Sounds like you'll be alright then. But i would still considering going up to as much as 1200 grit. I know 800 feels super smooth, but paint is picky haha. Good Luck! Post pics when your done too

i'd say no less than 1000, if you want to be lazy

[slams s14]

lucky bastard have a place to spray your car.. i live in apartments GL

[ross.cottrill]

whom ever told you to re spray it again,they are absolutely correct.without writing a short story here,in my experience,anytime you ever wetsand/drysand basecoat,always come back and redust it.if you do not,you will surely get imperfections in the way the basecoat looks.theres too many things to ask what your doing wrong...usually if your spaying correctly(mixing ratio of reducer to base),you should just be able to take a tack cloth and lightly wipe out the trash..

[nathanong87]

wet the ground that u are spraying on so that the dust and stuff will somewhat...stay on the ground.

[buentellomma]

wetting the floor doesnt really help, its best for future projects to use a blower and blow air in every jam, body line, wheel well, every place that could hold dust hit it with the air BEFORE you mask the car off for paint. this will reduce the chances of trash in your paint. make sure your area is very clean (floors!) honestly if this is a garage project its best to lay out 36" masking paper on your floor to help reduce dust from being lifted up while spraying. if possible have a exhaust fan for your setup to help remove paint particles in the air, this will also reduce your trash in the paint. while your prepping the surface for basecoat, use light air pressure and a tack cloth , this will lift any surface dust and the tack cloth will be more effective. do this a few times prior to spraying... next to the wet sanding subject, since you are spraying a metallic you need to hit it with atleast one good coat of base after you sand it because it has metallic flakes in it and when you sand it removes some of the flakes and it will show once clear goes on. honestly you shouldnt have to sand very hard, lightly with 1000grit and then task rag like crazy, if you wet sand the whole car while its at basecoat your going to have a mess, they make 1000grit D A dry sanding paper , that would be the best way to go. feel free to pm me on anything else you want to know

[Couped_up'd]

I pm'd you. Looking out for a local homie. =)

[Gjohnson7]

Replied to your PM!

Well, I last night I grabbed the clear and hit my test panel (gas tank door) and the panel came out gorgeous. You can't see any sanding marks/scratches from the 800 grit wet sanding and the clear coat laid down perfectly.

[BlazNby]

make sure u paint it all in the same direction or same panels in the same order. for example if u paint the diver side then rear then pass then hood keep going in this cycle. If you change up the direction of the way you apply the paint when using metallic paints some area may seem darker and the color might not match perfectly all around

[Gjohnson7]

Alright, dusted the car then laid down clear coat. I'm loving the color so far. Sorry about the blackberry pics.

[driftn_silvia]

that hood is gonna need a lot of wet-sanding/buffing. everything else seems to be decent.

[chiboy002]

yeah it looks like some parts are hazy/blurry reflections

i'd suggest doing the whole car so it looks even

[Z28ricer]

Originally Posted by chiboy002

yeah it looks like some parts are hazy/blurry reflections

i'd suggest doing the whole car so it looks even

He'll likely get rid of the majority of everything with a wetsand/buff

Hopefully its got plenty of clear on it, so long as it does, im sure it'll look fine in the end.

[Couped_up'd]

Came out great man. Now you have to wet sand and buff all that trash out bro. Not bad for the first time.

[Gjohnson7]

Yeah I'm planning on doing some wet sanding and buffing, but overall I'm happy with the way it's looking. Sorry, the pics came out pretty bad and the hood was the last thing I hit, so it was still very wet. I was able to lay down 3 pretty thick coats on the whole car and I actually put down about to 5 coats on the hood and roof.