Im painting a hood and ive put a nice clear top on it but its still tacky and foggy... ive applied coat after coat (sanding between coats) and i still dont know how to get tha tmirror shine

 

Well, to start off...

You may have not 'needed' to use clear coat. Most of the Automotive spray can paints already have a clear coat in them. All you would have had to do was wet sand then buff/polish the paint. However, it might not have given you the deep wet look you might be looking for.

So in comes the clear coat. Did you make sure they are the same kind of paint? Enamels or laquers? They have to match, otherwise you will get hazing, peeling, and sometimes they won't even stick.

But if they match, what you will probably have to do is just wet sand the clear coat with 2000 grit sandpaper, and you have to make sure the clear coat is smooth... then just buff or polish away, and it should turn out wonderfully. If it doesn't, then you might want to try a different brand of clear coat.

 

yea, both are the same company (dupli-coat) and no the origional spray did not have clear, it was a universal black and dried very flat. I added clear not only for the "deep wet look" but also to protect it.

normally buff? or buff with a compound?

 

I have always buffed that kind of stuff with rubbing compound. It seems to turn out great.

 

ok, i did it, used as directed, turned out like ****....the owner was pissed...

i have to redo it tomorrow, strip down the hood again, sand, primer, paint, clear coat, buff and polish... i think im gonna buy a sprayer for my air compressor. im not sure.

 

That is weird. I don't see why it wouldn't work for you. Although, I am not too sure if I have ever used the kind of spray paint you did. But like I said, I have never really HAD to use clear coat. All the paint I have used before has had a gloss appearance to it, and that makes things simpler.

 

Not to sound like a dick, but use ****ty paint and you'll get ****ty results.

Heres the hood of my IROC that aI painted out back using a cheap HPLV gun from sears and a 30 gal air compressor. I prolly have about 13 hours worth of work into the hood itself. I'm still not done with it. I gotta wet sand it again to make me happy with it.






Primer was 25 for the quart, 25 bucks for a pint of black paint, 14 bucks for a quart of clear (ok so I did use the cheapest clear. I didn't have the rest of the $ to get the 50 dollar a quart stuff), 10 bucks for the hardner, 7 bucks for a gal of thinner and 20 or so for sand paper.. I already had all the buffing stuff as that is what I do for some exrta cash.

Kat

 

Since you all talking about paint..and cheep paint...how's kirker paint..anyone ever use it?

 

yea... so what your saying is buy a sprayer....

great...

see the whole thread is how to get rattle can spray to look good, if all your gonna say is buy a sprayer i knew that much!

damnit!

 

Yup check ebay out.. Last year Snagged a 25 dollar siphon gun off of there that worked freaking awesome. Layed the primer down nice and smooooooth (That's what I got it for.) Thent he HPLV gun was used for the color and clear.

Kat

 

well.. first off, i'm still trying to figure out why your expecting to get anything near even decent quality using spray paint.. i've painted tons of things using spray paint, and they never turn out like they would if i'd of used an airgun, never..

good luck tho...

you said.. the "owner was pissed"... so is it your car? or, someone else's?

 

I don't get why you people keep on saying 'rattle-can sucks' and what-not. Wether it is spray can or air gun, it is all the same principle... Compressed air combined with paint and various additives exiting a nozzle. Just because you might have had bad results on a rattle can doesn't mean it is horrible. If you can't use a rattle can right, I know you can't you a spray gun right. You use the same motions of the arm and hand to get even coats on both.

Now then, you are not, ever, going to get as good of quality paint in a rattle-can as you can get in quarts, pints, gallons, whatever. But also, the company does perfect mixing of everything for you, instead of a novice trying to wing it and mixing the wrong amounts of the additives.

Anywho, I would just try to get a different brand of rattle-can and try again. And get gloss... it will save you a lot of time and effort. That way you will buy maybe, what, 3 cans of spray paint? At like 3 bucks each. That is less than 10 bucks, where-as guns, a compressor(if you don't have one), paint, primer, and whatever else you might need for an air gun job would cost plenty of money.

Rattle-cans are good for what they are. A cheap way to get compressed air and paint onto a surface with a minimum of hassle.

 

i have tried for years and never found a way on the actual body to get it to look nice. using it on smaller parts like calipers, brackets, etc. is pretty simple with thin even coats.

i'd like to know as well since i have seen some really good painters do some nice things with spray paint. obviously it isn't comparable to the other options but there is some hope. it's all in the technique.

 

I am awesome with a can of spray paint, ic an feather, and match liek no other... i jsut dont knwo how some people here get that beautiful mirror shine...

 

You can get a great shine with just gloss paint. You just wet sand with 2000 grit sandpaper until all the orange-peel is gone, completely gone. Then take rubbing compound or even Megueirs Paint Cleaner and just rub it onto the surface, then wipe it off. The sanding it is the hardest part, because just when you think you got all the orange peel, when the water evaporates, you get a huge section of it left. You could even try to use 1000 grit, then 1500, then finish it off with 2000 to make it really smooth.

 

I do almost those exact steps when I build/paint model cars....haha

 

Spray cans can look good initially... The problem with spraying rattle cans is mostly coverage (paint quality aside, even Testors model paint looks good initially). The small hole in the spray can just can't cover a large enough area for the paint to "lay down" correctly and you end up with overspray all over the newly painted surface.

I just painted my pillars and hatch section last night using two cans at the same time to combat this problem... One can in the left hand and one in the right, inverted from each other. Talk about tough!!!

To bad for me, I had some very small edges of the primer lift on me and I'll have to sand and reshoot them again this weekend, but they looked perfect other than those small edges!!! I'll have pics once finished.

Just FYI, I do have an HVLP sprayer and a 30 gallon 6 HP compressor, I'm just doing a "winter-over" touch up to cover the peeling parts until next year. This year's full paint job fund got eaten up by a new roofing project on the house instead. Stupid hail...

As for the mirror shine... you need to put down several layers, probably 2-3 cans of clear for the hood at least. That way you have enough thickness to cut back down to smooth with the sanding/polishing products. I like to start with 800-1000 wet, then a 1500 or so, then a 2000 or rough grit rubbing compound, then a sealing/finishing glaze. Of course polishing like this should wait until at least a month or so after laying the paint to minimize lift and polisher chatter.