major orange peel i clear coat.

[formerly vr6 karl]

so i have a paint project i took on (valence/sideskits) and layed my base coat and was pretty satisfied with the outcome of it. had overspray and used a claybar to kinda clean it up and was okay with the results so i decided to spray the clearcoat. it came out really bad. orange peel galore. im kinda thinking either i didnt have my gun adjusted properly and/or i didnt mix the clear properly.

how do i go about fixing it?
1. do i wet sand and how far up the grit scale do i go? or use a cutting compoud?
2. i tried the wetsand after the basecoat and wasnt too thrilled with the results. i wet sanded to 2000 grit and used a DA polisher with the light abrasive to clean it up but it still looked hazy so i said eff it and just sprayed another coat.

basically im asking what are the proper steps after laying the paint to achieve a decent looking paint job. im not going for a show winning coat, just something that looks good.

btw im using sherwin williams ultra 7000 product

thanks in advance

[JCCLARK]

Never sand the basecoat, read the tech sheet, that's a big no-no.
Orange peel has to be sanded, compound won't remove it.
2000 grit wet paper will, then you compound it.

[Mishimoto]

Post a picture of it. If it's really bad you might have to step down to 1500 then 2000 then 3000 then buff, hard to say without seeing it.

[D3hd3nd]

I wet sand pieces of dirt out of my base coat all the time, just have to be sure that after you put your final base coat on (last coat before clearing) that you don't wet sand after that as it can show through. Before spraying the parts make sure to sand the primer flat and make sure your parts are laying as flat as possible. Keep in mind quality paint has alot to do with the finished product

As for wet sanding the orange peel (you can use a sanding block for this if you want but it's not necessary, make sure it's extremely clean if you do) it depends how much clear you put on and how smooth you want the turn out. Regardless i generally start with 1500 and go to 2500 after that, then compound then polish, repeat until at desired level. Good luck

EDIT: forgot to mention if you are going to wet sand any pieces of dirt out of the base coat (or at all for that matter) be sure to rewipe down the part and re tack it off as well

[Shamrock]

from what he described he didn't do another coat of base... which is going to make the color not match the piece if your doing a part for a car or something... Im not sure if I understand how you have overspray on the piece your painting?

every painter has orange peel as you get better painting you just reduce the orange peel... quality gun accurate and constant pressure and speed across the piece all have play in the coating results...

[formerly vr6 karl]

No, I sprayed a couple coats of base and that game out fine.
The clear is where I had problems. I'm thinking my gun wasn't set right
Either way, I'm gonna have to sand the clear. Id post a pic but my photobucket isn't cooperative right now.

I've wet sanded with 1000g on up and it still looks like crap. I'm gonna start at 600 and work up.

[Afazz]

Did you wetsand and buff the last coat of base, or the first coat of clear? If you wetsanded the base with 2000, then used compound, then sprayed clearcoat, I would expect serious clearcoat adhesion issues. How did you clean off the compound residue? Even if you wetsanded the first coat of clear with 2000 and cleaned it properly, I think that's too fine for the next coat to adhere properly. The datasheet probably says 600-800 grit.

If I misunderstood and you don't have adhesion issues, can you just re-clear the panel? I would get some more clear, practice on some scrap panels to get your gun settings right, scuff the parts with 600 wet, and re-clear the whole thing. After the clear, you can wetsand with 1500-3000 and buff it back to a shine with compounds and pads designed for buffing new clearcoat. There is some good info in this thread:
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...anding-buffing

[formerly vr6 karl]

afazz----thanks for the link, that helped immensly *sp


thanks eveyone else, i ended up wetsanding from 600 up.......and it looks alot better. i was painting like i paint at work, (railroad tank cars) we paint with sherwin williams macroproxy. anyway, i think my prep work wasnt up to par and may have had the adhesion problems everyone was suggesting.

but after looking at that link posted, i think im just gonna start over. prolly just gonna cheap out and do a single stage paint. like i said before, not too concerned about a show finish especially since theres a 1day paint job on the car

Here's what I was dealing with. I thought I took better pix but I guess not




What does adhesion problem look like?

[BoostedDubVR6T420]

Your pressure looks like its way to low. Thats gonna have to be resprayed. Good luck rubbing, you'll probably burn through and it will still look like an orange.

[spitfire481]

what gun, tip size, inlet air pressure, compressor volume/cfm? and which model clear are you shooting

[vdubmike2]

crank the pressure up and reduce that ****

edit: read that you spray rail road cars at work, im sure that gun probably has a 2.0 tip or bigger, dont use that anymore if thas what you did.

[formerly vr6 karl]

No, I didn't use the guns at work. They are 3600 psi pumps.

I don't remember what pressure I sprayed at but I stripped the paint to bare plastic and bought a single stage paint. I'll be sure to check my psi next time although, I believe I followed the manufacture spec.

[llewllur]

If you've got a lot of orange peel and it's in a super tight pattern chances are you're going to have to respray Try reducing a 25% more than you were before and bumping up your pressure? Also, try not to fan your gun across any surface you're painting, it'll most likely end up dry and spotty if you do. Smooth steady motion, 50% overlap, 14-18" away from the surface, and trigger control is key. A gun that is HVLP if yours isn't already would probably help out as well.