Clear Coat Advice

[healz85]

Hey everyone,

Sorry if this isn't the right forum to post this on, but I'm just after a little help with smoothing out clear coat (first time building a guitar, and very much a painting newbie).

I've sprayed a Stratocaster body with metallic paint, and coated it with multiple layers of acrylic clear coat. I couldn't sand the paint smooth because it'd ruin the metallic 'shine'. Here's what it currently looks like;

As you might be able to see from this closer up (hard with glare ect), it's kind of a little rough. I wouldn't say it's 'orange peel' like a lot of descriptions I can find online, it just isn't smooth.

Just wondering what my next step should be? A friend suggests using a cutting compound and buffing it may smooth it out then following with a finishing polish, but I thought I'd get some further opinions before possibly ruining the job.

Thanks in advance for any advice you may be able to offer!

[demonx]

This is all normal. Althought it looks like you've got a lot of dust and **** in the paint which means you're not painting in a very well planned environment.

First off, watch this for a few tips on setting up a dust friendly area (yes that me): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWQmZwQL2ik

Ok, the clear.

I can see orange peel. It's hard to see peel from the pics, but the way comfort curve is reflecting the lite tells me theres plenty of peel in it. Once you start sanding you'll see how much peel is really there. It's much easier to see once you start sanding.

What I'd do is wet sand this back and see how flat you can get it. Hopefully theres enough clear there to get it smooth, if not you might have to sand it as much as possible without hitting color and then spray more clear.

Repeat this process until you can sand it smoother than glass.

[healz85]

Thanks for the help! (and from a fellow Aussie!)

Yeah, we painted/cleared it outside and have to admit dust and dirt would have been an issue. Didn't even think to create a makeshift booth like in your video. I'm not overly worried about it being slightly 'imperfect' just as long as I can get it feeling a fair bit smoother I'll be happy. It's all a learning experience so far.

What grit sandpaper should I be using for the clear? Would 1500 be enough?

[demonx]

I'm used to sanding 2k, not acrylic, but if you have 1500 that should be fine.

I usually start wet sanding around 2000 and go to 3000 unless I'm really cutting back a shitload of peel, in which case I'll start around 1000 wet. I only ever wet sand clear, I never dry sand it.

I guess it depends how good you were at 1) setting up the gun and 2) using the gun to make sure it's smooth.

At a second look at your pic theres plenty of small peel, so it'll definitely take some sanding. You can see it at the far right of the second pic where the light is cutting into the photo and reflecting off the peel. Dont feel bad, you'll ALWAYS get peel. But as you get better and better at spraying and setting up equipment and then using better equipment and products the peel will get smaller and smaller till you can't see it. It'll still be there, but you wont see it.

So... fellow Aussie! sweet and welcome to the forum. Hope you hang around a lot more and add photos, learn **** and so forth. Check out my facebook page too, plenty of pics there - links in my sig.

[healz85]

haha thanks for the reassurance, I was a bit worried I'd kinda botched it up to the point where I won't be able to smooth it at all and having to sand back to paint and starting again. 1500's all I've got on me currently, I might pop round to bunnings warehouse and see what they've got though. This'll fill my afternoon nicely!

Thanks for the welcome! I'll post some pics once I've sanded the clear a bit.

Fingers are crossed I don't have to recoat. That leads to another question (sorry!), I don't have heat lamps where we've painted/cleared (we did it when it was warmer), I read that if it's cold (like today in Melbourne it's 15 degrees) the clear coat becomes cloudy. Should I wait til it's warmer to recoat the clear again?

[demonx]

Dont bother going to Bunnings - they wont have anything. You need to go to a autopaint place for fine grades.

About temperature. It depends on the paint.

I have expensive paint here that I can bake and I spray it under heat lamps.

I have cheaper paints here that when I try to bake them they blister.

Read through the product info sheet/tech sheet for the actual products you've bought. Dont use it as a bible, more like a rough guide as they are written assuming you're spraying in a controlled environment, aka a temerature controlled and dust free paint booth. So you have to alter your approach to allow for the paint environment youre spraying in.

With all that said though, warm day is the safest bet. If Melbourne is anything like here at the moment I wouldnt be spraying without some sort of mild heat.

[healz85]

Thanks mate, I'll keep that all in mind. Fingers are crossed it doesn't need a re-clear.

[healz85]

So, after literal hours (I'd say over 5 to 6 so far) of wet sanding yesterday and today I'm pretty much finished with the front;

Got majority of the orange peel lumps off and it's coming up nice and smooth.

Because it's now all cloudy and has the light sanding marks (you can see them in both pics I think), once I'm finished would I have to use a cutting compound or could I go straight to polish? I haven't gone back to paint at all (as far as I can tell I haven't seen any green on the sandpaper!), but I'm worried that if I use a cutting compund I'll accidentally go back to paint and really don't wanna do more clear if I can help it!

[demonx]

I dont use cutting compound these days - BUT - I sand to 3000 so thats the difference.

You can always polish it and if yuou're not happy try something afterwards, but you cant do it the other way around.

[healz85]

So it came out really nice I thought! This was after the first round of using a scratch and swirl remover/polish:

Small imperfections but nothing of major concern and I was pretty happy with it, so we put it together and set it all up and this is the finished product:

Thanks very much for the help and advice Demonx, I honestly don't know what it would have turned out like if I hadn't found this forum!

[demonx]

Glad I could help someone and I'm glad you're happy with it.

Hope you hang around the forum a bit longer, there's a lot of good people and lots if great info here

[Prostheta]

Good to see a positive result! Was this a rattlecan finish? If so I would be cautious about having hardware on there so soon....single component cans need to be so loaded with solvents you'll have a soft finish for longer than you expect, causing mounted hardware to mark up the finish.

Love that green.

[mungokitty]

That looks great. Nice job. Good to see the process of the orange peel coming off and that end result looks awesome. Nice job for a first go!

[bob123]

Hey man, good work on your first go. Practice makes perfect, so next time you know to keep it clean