Spray-painting advice

Howard

Howard

Howard

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I'm currently painting up the colour-coded plastic cover on a replacement wing mirror for my girlfriend's car after some scrotum went on a smashing spree along the road where it was parked on Saturday night.

The colour is metallic blue. I am reading conflicting advice as to whether or not I need to wet sand the top colour coat before applying the clear coat. Halfords have their own "guide" here, which states that in the case of metallic paint, rub it down with wet and dry then clean and dry it before applying the clear coat.

However, after some Googling, much of the internet seems to disagree. So I thought I'd ask here.

I appreciate I'm not going to get a 100% factory finish with Halfords spray cans, and the car does have a few scratches and is missing all but one hub-cap anyway, but I want to do as good a job as I can with what I have to hand. If a job's worth doing, etc, right?

Any advice?


Thanks :)
 
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I'm no expert but if it was me then I would do as Halfords suggest and key the paint with a very fine wet&dry before applying the clear coat..
 
You can wet sand basecoat between successive coats if you need to (e.g. to correct runs), but don't sand it before the clear coat. If you do wet sand it make absolutely sure it's completely dry (of water) before applying further coats.
 
Can usually get a good/flat enough cover with halfords cans not to need to wet sand before the clear tbh

Just put as many thin coats of clear as you can bear on and then leave to harden as long as you can wait
 
Having just done my bootlid spoiler I'd say wet sand between coats, but then I polished (not wet sand) between the final colour and the first clear.

This was to rid myself of the orange peel effect.
 
Thanks guys, I'll give it a wet-sand before one more coat and then clear coat I think.

Paradigm is your paint metallic? There seems to be differing advice / technique between metallic and flat colours. How did yours turn out in the end? :)
 
You will ruin the metal flake effect if you sand a metallic base coat. Should do a drop coat actually with metallics, that is a very light dusting from far away, to get the full metal flake effect.

I suppose the rattle cans don't atomize anything like as well as a proper gun though so maybe things work differently.
Base coat should be very very thin though, almost impossible to get a texture in a coat so thin, orange peel is in the clear coat really.
 
Don't sand the final colour, as long as you've got a perfectly smooth primer base for the paint do super light coats of the final colour, it'll build up nicely and look good if you can avoid runs with overspray. I always lacquer not long after my final paint layer and this is where you're most likely to get the orange peel effect so again super light coats.
 
on a side note, I've got to respray my old Corrado and its not worth paying a pro to do it due to the value of the car. Also got some scratches, chips and rust spots on the A4.

Any good sites out there about spraying / looking after paintwork etc?

I remember my dad painting a car with a brush when I was a kid and sanding it down but that's 25+ years ago now :p
 
I would never sand the basecoat, particularly if it is metallic. Lay the lacquer on at the correct thickness and it will pretty much self level when it dries, then wetsand & buff if there is too much orange peel.
 
Well I have applied a few coats of clear coat without sanding the base coat and so far it's looking good! Just one more coat I think and then a light wet-sand and polish and it should look good.. Hopefully.
 
I have nothing much to add except that if you are rattle canning anything, one of these Spray Can Pistol Grip thingers has always made it much more easy for me to spray comfortably and more evenly:

spraygrip.jpg
 
Well I'll be DIY refurbing the alloys on the MX5 so everyone will be able to have an even bigger laugh :p
 
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