I need help from someone with spray painting experience please

[godzilla]

I bought some touch up paint in a spray can (Pearl White) yesterday from Autobarn. The job at task was to paint a couple of vents i bought from there too, to fill a gaping hole i currently have in my front bar.

Now, after painting the little vents, i thought it would be a smashing idea to flick some of the touch up paint in the area around the hole, to help the new bright-n-shiny vents blend in. At the same time, there was some very dodgy touch ups done from previous owner so i thought i would try and fix them too.

I had some 800grit wet and dry sand paper so i washed the area then proceeded to knock the top off the current paint in and around the area. I taped up the head lights and fog lights and a few other areas and also part of the front bar. i started painting and realized it was not an exact match. The tricky thing is, this particular paint is in two parts - base then top coat (pearl). I wanted to blend it in but thought it would be ok.

Below are the results. What i need to know now is how do i finish the job? Should i rub that area back again with an even finer grit wet & dry or do i just use a cut polish? I have also noticed where i painted is not perfectly smooth so should i sand or buff that back?

Anywho, any help more than appreciated.

 

[junior]

Trevor, check the yellow pages, there should be people in your area that will mix paint according to your colour code and put it in a spary can, costs around $30. get a can of that and just rub back where you have painted already and then apply the new stuff, should do the job, has done for me in the past.

Gary

 

[godzilla]

Gary, the stuff i got WAS Mitsi W75 (Pearl White). The problem was, not being a spray painter, i was unaware of how much of the under coat to put on and how much of the pearl top coat to apply. I put two bottom and around three top.

Do you know what grit paper will be safe to use over the top?

 

[snickells]

If you have enough paint, do a top coat on the entire front bar. At least it will all blend?

 

[pauly]

I dont know why u don't tape the whole front bar and do the whole bar?.... wouldn't that be the easiest option?

 

[godzilla]

May have to now . I didn't think at the time it was going to be so bad.

 

[jet150]

You cant blend metalic paint whether it be 2pak or acrylic. Do it the proper way take the bar off the car, prep the whole thing and then paint it. Do you own a compressor and spray gun?

 

[Guest]

Metallic paint can be blended, crash repair places do it all the time. To do a reasonable job they HAVE to blend it somewhere, very rarely will you get a paint match so perfectly that you can stop at the edge of a panel. Usually they do a diagonal blend across the adjacent panel of the base coat, then clear coat the repainted panel and the fully clear coat the blended panel. One of the most common places for blends are up the pillars, so if you car has been in for a rear ender or corner ding, look at your rear most pillars in bright sunlight and should should see a crap arse blend.

So, what you should have done is first roughen up the surface way beyond your repair area using a Scotch pad, or even a green scrubby if that's all you have access to. I'm assuming you already know the correct grit sandpapers to use, that you should be cleaning the surface with prepsol and you generally know how to repair the surface and lay down the primer..

Spray your primer only over the repair area.

Spray a light dusting of a base coat over entire repair area and continuing out about third way over the existing paint that you roughened up with the Scotch pad. You should keep your paint spray perpendicular to the surface until you are past the repair area, then you turn your hand and fan off to the sides.

Then spray another layer of base coat, slightly extending past the repair area but not so far out as the first one.

If you can still see primer, then do another coat and this one only just covering repair area.

Because you are clear coating next, you are not aiming to lay down your base coat shiny. It should have a matt finish to it - after you clear it, it will become smooth & shiny.

You want to keep your base coat blend in close to the repair area, because when you paint your clear you want that further out so that the two blends are not on top of each other. It's important to have all you base coat (even the blend area) covered nicely by a couple of coats of clear.

If you are not clearing the whole panel then you can do a blend like above with the clear coat, remembering to spray a little bit further out for each clear coat than you did for the base coats.

After that's all done, you can either leave it as-is. Or immediately hit the blend area with a can of edge blender/fade out/melt away etc spray. You can get this from a paint shop. It's a really strong reducer and will help to melt your new paint into the old paint. If you do decide to use this, then test it out OFF the car first. Because if you move too slow it will cause the paint that you've just put down to run. If you find you have a more orange peel finish than you would have liked, you can give your entire painted area a quick hit of the spray and it should flatten out a bit better.

If you want to remove that touch up paint you have already put on and try again, lacquer thinners should get it off pretty easily.

 

[Guest]

This video should help you to visualise it a bit better.

You may notice that when doing the blend they do it in the opposite way that I mentioned above - ie: they start the first coat small, then work each subsequent coat further outwards. For someone unskilled, doing it their way is makes it more difficult to achieve a good result and avoid the dreaded masked edge like you had.

 

[mookers]

At least it will all blend?

Did anyone else think of the "will it blend?" guy? Putting an entire bumper in his blender? lol

 

[Nitephyre]

Haha, he'd do it as well... damn I love those vids

 

[AncientOfMu]

For what its worth my advice would be to remove the front bar completely and spray it, although you may still get the problem of the front bar not matching the rest of the car.

I would NEVER attempt to spray anything other than a flat colour myself there is just too much that can go wrong.

Give it to a paintshop and if they get it wrong they have to fix it.

 

[fieldy107]

Trev just fuck it up really really bad so your missus will buy you a dolphin bar for christmas

 

[godzilla]

I wish! I need it looking respectable for Wesley's Wedding.

I am going to call in somewhere on the way home and get some very, very fine wet and dry and some Prepsol, as suggested. I am going to try and sand back the line and flick some more color further along the bar to try and blend it in a bit more.

Then i am going to put my new vent in lol

 

[Guest]

You will need to clear over your colour base coat because you are using metallic. Otherwise the metallic will deteriorate in the weather and when polishing, because the little metallic particles stick up out of the paint. Putting clear over the base protects them from damage.

 

[snickells]

For what its worth my advice would be to remove the front bar completely and spray it, although you may still get the problem of the front bar not matching the rest of the car.

I would NEVER attempt to spray anything other than a flat colour myself there is just too much that can go wrong.

Give it to a paintshop and if they get it wrong they have to fix it.

I agree with point one in removing the whole bar, but totally disagree with point two. Bloody oath you should have a go! What's the point of having a brain and hands if you're not going to use them? Painting is all about preparation and speed. Too little prep and too much speed will fuck your paint job. Lots of prep and baby steps laying down your paint will result in an awesome looking paint job, who ever is doing it.

I rattle can sprayed half of my prelude after the paint job a panel shop did started to peal and fall off. It took ages, but it was well worth it.

 

[unclepaulie]

ot: steve, mustang?? details?


trev,

-what colour undercoat you use?
-did you back tape at all to get a softer line? (back taping = folding tap back on itself, rather then a definate tape line)
-rub back the clear with some fine wetndry and spray again, then polish up both to see the difference

 

[snitz]

Theres a fair chance that the colour of the bumper will turn out different to the guards and bumper.Plastic bumpers are electro-statically charged different to metal panels..therefore especially with metallics,the metal flakes sit different when metallic paint is layed down.Resulting in a different colour on your bumper..Food for thought!..

 

[godzilla]

@ Steve. Wow! That is a fantastic job.

You are right too. I had very little prep and sprayed it too quick as I started to freak out after the first coat. I am definitely going to paint the whole front bar, I just don't have any time yet. I was just trying to make my new vent look good and clean up the front bar in time for Wes' wedding.

I am going to heed the advice and try and blend in a bit more and prepair the bat a little better.

@ Paul. W75 (pearl white) is made up of a top and base coat. When they mixed it, it was two seperate colors - a flat white base then a pearly clear.

Can anyone confirm that I should wait until the base is completely dry before putting the clear on?

 

[snickells]

ot: steve, mustang?? details?

It's Clare's baby, not mine. It's a great car to drive, 302 V8 with a C4 auto trans which kicks something wickid when you plant your foot. It's got a holly carby, Falcon disks all round and a heap of other shit. It was her daily before we starting having kids but now it's just a sorta weekend car.

Trev, thanks man and yes, you should leave the paint to dry before you lay down your clear coat. You can even give it a quick sand before hand to really make sure it's nice and smooth.