[anthonycn]

Hi I just started to paint cars for just over a year. I just need help on how spray to clear coat. I use ppg dbc base coat and ppg conccept clear low voc. I spray in my garage with the temp. around 70 degrees. I just have problems with orange peels. No matter how I spray wet or dry it the orange peel are still there. I know I cannot get rid of all the orange peel but just wanted to know how the body shops spray clear coat so flat with out sanding it. Any help would be appreciated very much. Thank You

 

[paintman1]

first thing is to make sure your gun is spraying right. You want a nice even pattern. Dont back the fluid out to far. My guns are set up so that the fluid is set in pretty far. To much fluid and it will have more orange peel. You want less fluid so the gun can atomize the paint to make to orange peel smaller. Hold your gun about six to eight inches from the panel and overlap about 50 to 75 percent. You also want to make sure that everything that you apply goes on as smooth as possible also. If your sealer and base go on dry and orange peelly, then your clear will also. Dont put you base on to wet , you want a 75 percent wet to dry look. use the proper reducers also. Too fast a reducer and it wont have time to lay down. Even though you want a somewhat wet look for your base and sealer, apply it in as thin of coats as you can. To heavy of coats and ith will just build up to thick. More thin coats are better then less thicker coats. Give everything the proper flash times also. Cutting flash times can make paint not adhere as well. It will also cause the clear to shrink and cause it to look like orange peel. A lot of how your clear looks depends on how you apply everything else. Hope I didn't confuse you. good luck.

 

[anthonycn]

Thanks paintman1. One thing that im not clear about is when you said to set the gun with not to much fluid, if I do that then i would be spraying dry? Thanks for your help. Any more tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

[TurboS10]

If it is 70 degrees and you use a slow reducer, you should not have a problem.

Chris

 

[paintman1]

if it is going on dry then slow down your gun speed until it goes on wet. If your used to spraying with a faster gun speed this might be hard to get used to. All I can say is that you will have to experiment with gun speed, fluid adjustments and maybe your spray pattern.

 

[Don Meyer]

paintman - I have aluminum doors,hood & deck lid that needs refinishing.
What primer would you recommend? On a steel car I use PPG DP epoxy & was planning on doing the same on the alum but,I am wondering if I should use a self etching primer on alum......Don

 

[paintman1]

I would use an etch primer on any bare aluminum. It will stick to the aluminum better than regular primer. If there is alot of bare spots or the whole panel is bare, then apply two coats of the etch primer and let it flash for a good 20 to 30 minutes before applying your primer.Or check the manufactures recommendations for proper flash times.

 

[collins motors co.]

I would be very carefull with to slow reducer with minimum air flow. I think like paintman the problem is gun control and settings what size is the gun 1.5 or larger. With high solid clear you need to atomize clear good the smaller the size the smaller the droplets are and the less orange peel you can also control the amount of material that comes through with the top valve on the gun it controls how far you can pull the needle back when pulling the trigger.A good air pressure gauge will help to getting the recomended amount of air that goes through the gun.

 

[TurboS10]

Another thing I dont think has been mentioned is air pressure. With too little air pressure the paint will not atomize. I get best results with 60 psi at the gun which is around 25 with the trigger depressed. It does waste a bit of paint due to overspray, but it atomizes better and lays down smoother.

Like I have said before, however, I am no pro and am self taught so I just use what works for me. It also depends on the gun.

Chris