How Not To Paint Your Mustang

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i thought that looked like my baby's color! :) you have to get it in direct sunlight to get the sharpness of the blue. my SR. pics should be done soon, and i'll post some of em'

few quick questions:

im asuming that my car has cear on it, how much, idk

we just spent some time detailing it w/ wizards and after a cood cut n' shine, we found some problem spots.....

one was a weak spot in the paint that really didn't burn, but rather it looks like someone hit it w/ a hammer. i plan on sanding it and filling it in w/some unthinned paint.

from my understanding, ill have to hit it with some clear after its all prettied up again right?


another is there's some (i dont know if its orange peel) but it looks like someone hit it with a mini shotgun, theres dots all over. almost like some rough overspray. i didn't dare push it any further than what i did in fear of burning through.

im assuming that this is in the clear and that i'll be able to get away with using some 1500 grt. wet sand and then buff it back out again to take this out??

thanks guys
 
Yeah, the mini shotgun thing is orange peel. Yes you could sand it out with the 1500. I actually used 1200 on a few problem areas. 2000 seemed to be the best as far as low level of sanding scratches to polish out.

I need to get my pics up for y'all to look at. I got some 3m spot compound/polish that's between the 3000 compound and the polish from the paint store and it did the trick. What the 3000 stuff left, and the polish couldn't get out, the spot compound worked fabulously on.

I actually hit the really bad orange peel areas i was complaining about (that's all those spots turned out to be) with the 1200 grit sandpaper, then with the 2000 grit, and then with the 3000 compound on a wool pad, then with the spot stuff on the aggressive foam pad, then with the spot stuff again with the polish pad and then finally with the the less aggressive pad and the actual polish/swirl mark remover.

There is still orange peel left, but it looks a heck of a lot better than before all those steps. I could have sanded further till the peel was gone, but cutting through the clear into the base is seriously not worth the risk, and I only did the bad spots, not the whole car.

I spent a whole day preparing the fiberglass hood for mounting on the hinges and unfortunately managed to scratch the hood in a small spot. LAME!! luckily I still have paint left for touch up. Seems to me that the urethane paint is not as durable as the old lacquer finishes.
I mean my old paint was tough, freaking tough, but this new stuff and the stuff on other newer cars seems to have no where near the durability. Why go through all the headache for base clear if it's really not as strong a finish?? Did I just miss a step??
 
sometimes, that "dryness" is actually in either the primer, or the base. if so, youre stuck with it (does the color coat look rough, or just the clear?) i like to scuff my base with 800 or 1000 grit before the last coat, just to level it out. that way, you arent using your first coat of clear leveling out rough base, and i feel it gives your clear more depth.some guys will add a splash of clear hardener to their last coat of base, or use a slower base reducer to give the same result, more or less, but i dont think you can do much, short of sanding, you can do to correct dryness in the base. this is also the reason you use as slow a base reducer as you are comfortable with, to let the base flow a bit, and level itself.IF the dryness is in the clear itself, you can sand it a little more, you need to look at the coats really close, if you can see the peaks and valleys in the base, best to leave well enough alone...