Applying Clear Coat

whiplash473

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I always have crappy results with clear in a rattle can. I don't know if its too humid where I live or what but always get cloudiness etc. Now the paint turns out great usually, but then the clear gets messy.

I have thought about buying a small compressor and cheap paint gun to play around with but I need a bigger garage before I get into that.

Spray can clear is designed for ease, not quality. They can't have the same characteristics as solvent clear due to the hardeners mixed in, the price tag, and a few things I don't know enough about to explain correctly. The biggest thing is the price tag. Cheap is cheap. I don't know what a rattle can is off hand but I'd say like half a pint or shy of that. Calling it half a pint for argument's sake - a can of clear is like 5 bucks whereas a half pint of good clear is like 20.
 
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1998cobrasvt

1998cobrasvt

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You can't just spray clear on. Not only will there be lines everywhere from where the old clearcoat ends, but with bare basecoat by the time you're done prepping it (the right way) you'll have gone through in plenty of areas and need to cover/blend color back in.

Thanks, [MENTION=17027]whiplash473[/MENTION]. I kind of figured it would look stupid. I was mostly trying to find a rushed solution before first snow to prevent rust but the 97 is now inside so it should be fine. Now i will take the opportunity to do it right and learn the correct processes.
 

whiplash473

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Thanks, whiplash473. I kind of figured it would look stupid. I was mostly trying to find a rushed solution before first snow to prevent rust but the 97 is now inside so it should be fine. Now i will take the opportunity to do it right and learn the correct processes.

For knowledge's sake - If you weren't driving it you'd be fine. We're all enthusiasts here so the majority of us get it but there's still many people that don't understand that snow is water and doesn't have a different effect than rain. It's what they put on the roads for ice and the residue flying up from the road that kills panels.

Can't ever beat having it inside though. I have a thread in the "exterior section" that skims through some highlights of painting.

EDIT: Prep is everything. You can be great at prepping and be a slightly shitty painter and the work will look better than the opposite.
 
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1998cobrasvt

1998cobrasvt

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For knowledge's sake - If you weren't driving it you'd be fine. We're all enthusiasts here so the majority of us get it but there's still many people that don't understand that snow is water and doesn't have a different effect than rain. It's what they put on the roads for ice and the residue flying up from the road that kills panels.

Can't ever beat having it inside though. I have a thread in the "exterior section" that skims through some highlights of painting.

EDIT: Prep is everything. You can be great at prepping and be a slightly shitty painter and the work will look better than the opposite.



Thanks, I was not 100% sure if it would be affected by snow sitting on top of it without any clear. Oddly enough the clear coat is missing in the exact areas the snow rests. When their is snow resting on the car you would not know it was missing its clear coat at all. Thank you for clearing that up.



Pic.





IMG_20150913_205429_zpswmwqup3f.jpg



I def will be looking into your thread. Will be doing as much research as i can before i began. Wont forget about what you said about prep. Thank you again for your help
 

whiplash473

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All the fade is where everyone's faded car is - where the sun hits. That's the biggest purpose of clear coat is UV protection. SN95s just seem to be more susceptible than like 80% of everything else, haha.

Sent from my bored/stroked Samsung S6
 
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1998cobrasvt

1998cobrasvt

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All the fade is where everyone's faded car is - where the sun hits. That's the biggest purpose of clear coat is UV protection. SN95s just seem to be more susceptible than like 80% of everything else, haha.

Sent from my bored/stroked Samsung S6

haha, makes sense, gotcha.
 

ranger56528

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I like to ruff up the surface with a scotch brite pad then clean and tack the surface then spray the color,now when I use a gun I go by the 50% overlap but with a spray cans like Dupli color I overlap about 75% and with the clear I like to put it on wet,remember these company's are out
to make money so the less product in the can the better it is for them.
I need to wet sand and buff this still,painted it in my basement with Dupli color. Now just need to learn how to take good picks.
6ab7a387ae7e6e0169d54adf5aa25918.jpg
 

OLD H2S

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The best of the CHEAP pro clear is from Summit Racing. Their brand is fresh from high turn over, It is pro quality and delivered to your door no questions asked which is good for rookies or counties that hassle you, like where I live. Good advice here to follow start out light and work to heavier coats and do not worry about runs and sags they buff out easy and you know you have enough thickness to bring it up to a high polish. It is so much easier than rattle cans, you will be amazed how easy it is with the right pro type product because it dries fast and comes up hard which makes getting rid of "orange peel " and mistakes easy. The hardener comes in different "temperature" ranges and you buy the one that matches the temp your are spraying in to get the clear to "flow out" smooth without drying too fast. It is really easy to do. Did I say that enough? A cheap gun from Harbour Freight works fine. I have honestly put it on with a brush before because the boss wanted the thickest coat possible to buff out and on a black work truck with no prep to the base coat covering scratches and gouges, looked bad at 6 inches but great from 3 feet. It's really easy to do ..
 

ranger56528

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Thanks for the tip,I'll need to check this ^^^^^^^^^^^stuff out,used DuPont all my life with the gun and have had the old Centari put in rattle cans back in the early 90s.
 

ttocs

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I have always had good luck with my rattle can clear jobs but I have been doing them for a while now. I have only shot paint/clear from my gun one time when I did the engine bay and with the exception of 2 runs in the clear it came out really nice. I just finished cleaning up my primer gun after shooting the last part of the car that needed it. Now I need to do some wet sanding and then just wait for another day or two over 70 to shoot the rest of the paint.
 

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