Spot repair and paint blend on a new job

[hemi-hampton]

Myself, I usually like to do the whole car in one grit, then move on to doing the whole car in a finer grit. Then buff all at once. I've done it both ways & prefer not jumping around back & forth, better to concentrate on one thing at a time but just my opinion. as for burn threw put a small 1/4 wide piece of fine line tape over it while rubbing, this will prevent it from getting bigger. LEON.

[AKcharger]

... When I get to the buffing stage will it bring out the burn through worse and do I touch up after the end of buffing and polishing?

Not really sure, havent had that happen to me

[AmadeusCharger500]

Myself, I usually like to do the whole car in one grit, then move on to doing the whole car in a finer grit. Then buff all at once.

Thanks for the input HH that's why asked to see what people prefer and why. I think I will hit both these fended with 2000 grit before moving on and then who knows maybe just 1500 the remainder. It is a matter of focus and patience for me. Sometimes I rush and that always gets me into trouble.

[AKcharger]

Well, wasn't in my plan but I'll be following your lead on painting, so you might get a question or two as you are now and expert lol!

should be in primer by next weekend and paint mid-Nov

[AmadeusCharger500]

Ha very funny! So what's the story behind this new paint project? I see you started a new topic on primer, I might stay out of that as I'm not an expert. I just know what I did and it worked. I did not paint over my primer with a sealer, also I did wet sand it 400 and 600 with a guide coat then base and clear over that. Took heck of long time but super happy with results.

[AmadeusCharger500]

Things were going great until this. So I finished wet sanding more than half the car. In my desperate need to see some results I decided to finish the driver side fender, buff and polish. It looked Amazing.
and then this....I walked into the garage the next morning to admire my work and while running my hand along the top of the fender I find a distinct impression of a circle under the clear coat. Suspiciously in the shape of the water spray bottle I used with all of the wet sanding procedures, from primer to clear. How did I not see this in the primer wet sanding with guide coat? I guess that was just carelessness.
So Im asking this question. Is this the same fix as my original posting about the quarter panel?

[AmadeusCharger500]

Update. I found the culprit in my very own photo/video footage. So good news its not in the primer. Bad news I just 600 gritted the top of the fender in my impatience to fix this.

[Canadian1968]

Ok no biggie.  It's just in the clear coat then?

You said you just sanded with 600.  How much material do you think you have on there ? You COULD try and cut and polish it back up. But only you know how much clear you have on there .

If you don't like that idea . You have sanded already just re clear the fender if you didn't burn threw any where

[AmadeusCharger500]

Thanks. It's 3 coats clear. Maybe I'll just re clear to be safe.

[Canadian1968]

Thanks. It's 3 coats clear. Maybe I'll just re clear to be safe.

Not a bad idea..... but you don't need to put 3 coats on again.

I would put 1 coat staying about 4 inches from the boarder of the panle then a 2ND nice even coat over entire panle....and walk away

[AmadeusCharger500]

That's interesting technique, mind explaining the why behind it? I've learned so much on this sight and also from walking through my own paint job. I didnt realize the hard and fast learning about fixing mistakes and yet here I am fixing another mistake.

[Canadian1968]

The reason is that the clear coat can change the colour every so slightly . Alot of clears have a very slight amber tint to them . This is usually due to the UV resistant chemicals added to the clear . Some are worse than others .

The second is the actual amount of clear you have sitting on top of the base.  If you took two panels painted one with 2 coats of clear and the other with 4 there is a very good chance they will look different when placed next to each other on the car. Even more so with metallics like a silver or gold colour.

In your case number 2 is what I would be worried about . The other option is to completely re base the entire panle and clear like before .  But this to has potential problems. Again because it's a metallic colur , if you don't spray the base exact same way( air pressure , gun distance , speed ), it can look different . 

Now people do paint panels off all the time , but they have all their panels in the booth at the same time and it's much easier to duplicate your process when you are doing them all at the same time , one next to each other. The other part is just plain experience , it took me years to become confident in my technique to repoduce the exact same result in different situations .


Alittle more in depth then I was expecting . But when it comes to painting the more you know the better off when things go wrong !

[AmadeusCharger500]

Thank you for taking the time to share that rationale. It's so informative. This place is like a masterclass for me to learn, and the offering  up of knowledge is very much appreciated.

[AKcharger]

Sorry to hear that..huh how weird huh??? Well sounds like your on your way!
As for me I was having g a shop do the work to save me some time, it did t work out  .  Well you just did a paint job so im sure you learned a lot! And now I know not to put a spray bottle on my fender during paint/clear!!

[AmadeusCharger500]

I'm Glad I could help with that one issue it's interesting you say I learned stuff, and yes I have learned a lot. I'll just have to figure out how to put into words.

[AKcharger]

Youll be happy to know at least 3 times I was tempted to place a drink can on my fender but didn't 

[AmadeusCharger500]

Thanks for that, laughed out loud.

[Canadian1968]

Question. When that picure was taken with the water bottle . Was that during the wet sanding before buffing ?

[AmadeusCharger500]

Yes i was wet sanding the clear coat. If I had known that (looked at My own photos) upon finding the cup circle. I would not have started the process of re-clearing the top of the fender.

[AKcharger]

Hey Amadeeus how long did you wait to wet sand buff?
Tommow is the big day!

[AmadeusCharger500]

I waited a week. I know 24 hours is recommended but I didn't trust myself not to rip up the fragile clear coat. Good luck tomorrow. It's gonna be an exhausting day, I'd suggest preparing food and snacks for those moments waiting for the flash times. Also I had to keep a tally of start times for each coat. I wrote it in a notepad, otherwise I would forget.

[Canadian1968]

so that picture was taken after the clear coat had cured for a week and u started wet sanding?

I'm surprised that it left a mark after sitting that long
.

Interesting!

[AmadeusCharger500]

Im done color sanding the whole car. I just finished buff and polish on drivers side. Im super excited about the results.
However, the paint seems to pick up dust no matter how many times I wipe it , seems like my polishing cloth is just moving dust around. Not sure if there another stage I need to complete.
Do I wax it?
and if so Can I just use auto store brand wax for this?
Is waxing it even something I should be doing?

[AmadeusCharger500]

This is my favorite photo so far

[AKcharger]

Well Done! I've seen people take a photo of a $100 bill in the reflection for the "money shot" lol

A good quality wax will help avoid water spots and such, don't think it's gonna make it any better than that!


so did do 1000/1500/2000 and stop there or go higher?