so you're saying cut the highest points of the clear, and then building up more thickness to fill in the valleys? I don't think two coats of clear is enough to do anything but stand back and don't touch it.

I still think it would be easier and quicker to sand it smooth, apply the base again, and then adjust the gun settings to re clear the hood

 

Shooting base over fresh clear is asking for trouble, he'd need to strip it to do it correctly, not to mention cost prohibitive. Wet sand everything with 600, until most of the peel is gone. I'm assuming (and hoping) there's enough clear on it to wet sand it effectively, it appears that the coats may be thicker than normal. Mick's description illustrates how to wet sand well.

 

correct me if I'm wrong. If he is sanding and he gets through to the base, he's going to have to reshoot the base anyway, right?

 

Yep.....so lets hope that doesn't happen. If it does, then procedure says he should strip the panel and start over, however that isn't good for matching paint. Should be burn through, he might be able to "spot" the area with base, but if it's a metallic, and considering he's not versed in doing such things, it might be difficult.

 

While I'm not a painter and don't have any knowledge of doing it, the only recomendation I have is already past due. You should've removed the antenna, lights, door handles and any moldings, etc prior to painting. The finished product would be considerably better doing that.

 

You are right- 350 is too aggressive for a newbie-600 would be better. With wet sanding, all you are doing with the first grit is taking the 'hills' if you will, down to the level of the 'valleys', so it is uniformly smooth. The following grits are just to progressively removed the previous grits' scratch marks. It does look like you had the gun too far away from the surface too, so that the clear landed 'dry'. It needs to go on 'wet', so that it flows out- not so that you get runs everywhere, although even if you do get a run or two, they just sand out. And the hood, not to mention the driver's door, looks like it needed more body bodywork before paint.
If you sand through the clear to the base, you don't need to respray the base, although if you cut through THAT to the primer you have a world of problems! I would go over it again with a scotchbrite and put a couple of more heavier coats of clear over it and spend a couple of weeks wetsanding!
But kudos for doing the job yourself!!

 

Cutting and buffing is the most satisfying part of the repaint.

I'd agree not to go below 600 on the wetsand or damp sand with some finer grit and a palm DA. At this point you can't hurt the hood and depending how thick the clear is, you might save it. Be sure to be careful around the crease in the middle or you'll cut right through it. The paint will be thinnest there.

If you wind up coloring and clearing again, no big deal.

I've had good luck with the 3M Perfect it compounds although they are pricey. For a driver that you'll put wax on you might can skip their step #3, machine polish, step and save a few $. There's an instructional vid on their website, or used to be?

When you do get around to buffing you'll be glad you haven't yet re-installed all those lamps, mirrors, emblems, etc. cause that compound will get everywhere. When it does clean it up as soon as possible.

The more you do this the better you'll get.

 

Hey - you f***ed up another thirdgen!
Just kidding

 

any updates?

 

I've been driving it as is, and will continue to till the end of the summer. I spent all of spring working towards this job not being able to drive it, and I ran out of time to make it perfect.
I had a few body people look at it. And they recomended about the same thing. use some VERY fine paper and re-clear. I plan on doing that next spring, when once again, I have money and time. College is creeping up again so doing anything now would be ill advised. I do plan on fixing this though, and when I do I'll probably have to re-read what everyones said and ask a few more questions..