I am looking for some insight on what different painters do to get a super shine out of their show car paint jobs. I have been laying on 4-5 coats of clear and then within its buffing window I have been color sanding using 600,1000, 1500 on a pad 2000 on a foam backed pad and 4000 thousand on a foam back pad. A painter in a rod shop told me one time that he found cutting the clear with 600 helped get rid of the famous urethane wave and give it a straight and slick as glass look. He wasn't wrong but it takes a lot and i mean alot of hand sanding in my case. the 600 will cut it WRIGHT NOW and then you block and block with 1000 to get rid of the scratches.Question Does it do you any good to cut your clear (add a little slow reducer to it)when you are going to color sand and buff. A painter once told me never to do it because all you do is cut back on the solids every time you throw reducer at it and the solids are what is allowing you to buff back the shine. Is this true or just one persons opinoin? One rod shop i visited years back said they always put 3 coats of clear, let it dry 1000 grit the whole thing flat and reclear with another 3-4 and color sand and buff that.They said it helps give that deep depth in the paint. Has anyone ever tried this or use this method? I went to painters seminar ounce and a Du-pont rep told me under his breath to add a little of my base color in with my clear to add depth to my paint jobs. I tried it and myself didn't notice much. when you guys plan to color sand and buff how many coats do you normally like to apply? I have started to wonder if the 4-5 coats that i have been appling isn't trapping to many solvents do to the increased mill thickness and causing me haze out and recently what I think was a solvent pop problem.Any opinoins? And lastley I want to ask does anbody know the trick to making your buffed paint job look liquid wet. I can color sand and buff with the best of them (not trying to boast I've just done it alot) my final product you can easily see your self in has great gloss Etc,etc, but from time to time at car shows and what not I will come across a car that if you didn't know better you would swear it was still liquid wet. I always wondered if it was a lighting trick or if their is roush or spritz you can rub one down with that gives it that look. I am always looking to improve myself or try a new method to see if i can get better results. Thanks for your input.

To me the urethane clears build more so one only needs 2-3 coats...more than that then the wave might start showing up..The old laquer clears did not have the build we now have so it took lots of coats and color sanding to get the "show car" finish..

I have been getting back to this for a while and doing some study on getting a showy finish..what I am going to do is use the SPI clears and the SEM concentrates..Mix the SEM concentrates with SPI intercoat and use those..Start with the base color of your choice and lay on 2-3 coats of base color..just enough to get a good even coverage..then 3-5 coats of candy concentrate to get the depth and then follow up with 2-3 coats of universal clear or MS clear..that should do it..The only sanding I do between coats is just a lite "check sand' to see that I pick up any trash or runs tha tmay have snuck in on me..Final cut and buff is done with 2000 then I use Presta buffing compounds..There are enough colors in the SEM book to get a good close match to a lot of colors out there though I do not think it would be good for collision work where we have to do blends it is very good for all overs..And this system is not all that expensive compared to some of the other stuff out there..

This is probably a bit different than you are used to but then everyone who paints has their own "secret recipe"" and I suppose that some of the other guys have their own take on what to do..

Sam

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I would rather make it work than make it popular..And if it does not work it will not be popular..

I haven't really done show jobs, and normally will only apply 3 coats of clear and buff that. I will reduce if it helps the clear lay nicer for me. I added a good reducer to the clear on the last car, and around 15% was what seemed to be working best for me.
I think most people for show jobs do it in two rounds. or what they call a flow coat, most likely covered in this forum before. Spray 2 to 3 coats of clear, knock down flat, reclear with 2 to 3 coats, often using a reduced or lower solids clear trying for thinner coats (or even go to a smaller tip size which would break the clear up finer, but have to move slower) to keep the peel down. I do similar to flow coats, Only because I screw up so much, lol. Clear seems to lay easier and nicer over sanded clear then when starting over base to me.
I would think that many coats of clear may have contributed to solvent pop when you recoated. Many of these clears are designed for collision shops, and are meant for 2 to 3 coats.
I don't know what your seeing, but maybe its shrinkage and could be causing a hazing out/ dulling or roughness appearing.