so i screwed up my clear coat repair, thoughts?

timaishu

timaishu

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This isnt detailing related. But I figured maybe someone here could help.

So a quick background. The clear coat on my fender has been peeling for quite awhile. I saw this thread. http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...21-11-clear-coat-failure-repair-all-pics.html And figured I would give it a shot myself.

I bought Axis Pre-Clean, tack cloth, various grit 3m wet/dry sandpaper and UPOL Clear #1.

I first decided to try on my mudlap that was peeling a bit. It came out alright for the little prep I did. I wet sanded it with 1k, washed it, dried it and shot it with two coats. It came out with oranage peel, but it was nice and glossy.

So I decided to try now on my fender. I spend more time on this one. Spend about 4 hours across two days wet sanding and then today spraying the clear. The whole thing looks terrible! It has a really rough texture and has zero gloss. I dont know what the heck happened.

My process. Wet sanded slowly across those two days with 1k. Washed it several times with soap and water to clear it of sanded clear. Today, masked off my car and the spot to be painted. Wiped down the surface with Axis Pre-Clean. I let it flash over. Wiped it with a tack cloth. Shook the clear for two minutes and went at it.

I did 5 coats of clear waiting 5 or so minutes in between each. The first one didnt come out good, I didnt spray too much. Infact I sprayed too little. I didnt hit everything and I went a little fast. It looked like this. I probably should have stopped. But I figured maybe it would level out. Notice how dull and white it looks.

P1050561.jpg


Anyways, here are in process pictures. Before:
P1050533.jpg

P1050531.jpg


Wet sanded:
P1050546.jpg

P1050544.jpg

P1050538.jpg


After 5 coats, waiting 5 minutes between each.
P1050565.jpg

P1050564.jpg

P1050563.jpg


It has a really rough texture and zero gloss. I thought maybe I screwed up the base coat? Nope, looks fine under the sunlight.
P1050566.jpg


Does anyone have any idea what I could have done wrong? Yes I know I didnt do this properly. Should have resprayed the whole panel yada yada yada. I was looking to just do DIY repair with okay results that will stop the clear from peeling. Im just mystified as my mudflap came out fine and I spend maybe 20 minutes total with it. I spend a ton of time trying to be as careful as possible.
 
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what was the humidity like?if its over60% clearcoat/normal paint can turn cloudy. i'm guessing it has a sand paper texture to it, i've had it happen with rattle cans and usually its caused from being too far away from the surface you are painting and the paint partially dries then you lay on another coat and its essentially trapped. so what you would need to do is wet sand and buff it out. just level it off and then polish it and should be much better.
 
In my experience with rattle can clear coat, I have had similar results from not spraying close enough. If the can is too far away I have seen those results. On several occasions I can remember having the can so close to the object being painted that I almost felt I HAD to be doing something wrong but I did achieve good results.
 
Yes, it does feel like sand paper.

Well thats a bummer, your explanations do make sense. Sucks because the can said 10 inches. I did feel like I should have been closer but I figured I should follow the directions. It was hitting the paint more like a mist than a spray.

So you do think it can be saved by wet sanding and compounding it?

Or should I sand it all off and start over?
 
wetsand it with a sanding block (do you have higher grits than 1K? maybe 2K then 3K?)

then try a few passes with 105. Should feel much smoother. If not then you had to sand it again anyways so no biggie...
 
timaishu said:
was hitting the paint more like a mist than a spray.
Click to expand...

That's the problem. You will need to sand it down and try again.

Maybe you should back tape that area to reduce the tape line.
 
embolism said:
wetsand it with a sanding block (do you have higher grits than 1K? maybe 2K then 3K?)

then try a few passes with 105. Should feel much smoother. If not then you had to sand it again anyways so no biggie...
Click to expand...
:iagree:
 
that'll work

you just want to minimize the uneven pressure that you get when you fold sandpaper over onto itself.

Not sure how big a problem that premature drying caused though so if it's not clear after you sand and buff it then you'll have to sand it all off and try again.
 
Timaishu sorry your having issues. But as others have said I think it's fixable, just more work than anticipated. If you can get 105 then get it and 205 to finish it. But if not I have removed sanding marks with ultimate compound (12 maybe 1500 grit). Keep me posted.
 
Thank you for all you help so far. I was able to aquire some m105/m205 from a local autogeek member(derek short) about 20 minutes ago. So I have all the products I need. I just need to figure out how I am going to do this the DIY way.

Twister said:
That's the problem. You will need to sand it down and try again.

Maybe you should back tape that area to reduce the tape line.
Click to expand...

I tried back taping but couldnt quite figure it out. The tape is so sticky it was hard to roll it back without it getting bunched up and uneven.

embolism said:
that'll work

you just want to minimize the uneven pressure that you get when you fold sandpaper over onto itself.

Not sure how big a problem that premature drying caused though so if it's not clear after you sand and buff it then you'll have to sand it all off and try again.
Click to expand...

Thats my worry as well. If the paint dried prematurely, I would imagine the bond between it and my paint isnt very good.

Im thinking I may just sand it all off. Its going to bug me if I dont because I will always wonder how long it will hold.
 
I've never painted, but one thing I noticed, wouldn't you want to finish with a less coarse paper like 2500 after the 1000? Seems like that wouldn't do you any favors on the finish either.
 
I choose 1000 because the can of clear called for it. I assume the clear would fill in the sanding scratches making them invisible and giving it something to hold on to.
 
So Ive decided I want to start over.

How will I know when I have removed the new clear? Is there anyway to tell?
 
some polish on a white terry towel will come up with your base colour paint once there is no more clear but that's only to detect burnthrough.

I'd imagine that you only want to remove all the cloudy clear, not all the clear that is still good on the overlapped area...
 
ultimate compound can work for removing sanding marks but has to be 2500grit or 3000 grit, still see sanding marks at 1500 grit with UC....but yeah get closer to the surface next time, get a can of the cheapest spray paint possible and practice on scrap stuff to get the hang of a rattle can, and those plastic attatchments that put a handle on a spray can work pretty good.if you want to respray just level it out and do another coat or two and should be good, just level out the roughness with some 1000 or 1500 grit and clean it real good and spray.
 
Do you think the fact that it dried funny the first time would effect the gloss if I didnt completely sand off the botched coat?
 
I don't have any experience with this but will be trying it out sometime soon.

OP, Hope you'll be able to achieve your desired results after the second time around.

Just wondering though, wouldn't I need a good condition(no sanding marks) basecoat before I spray clear on it? Or are you just wetsanding the existing clear, then spraying new clear on top? Because I might have to go all the way through the basecoat and then spraying new clear. If I make sanding marks on the basecoat, then I shouldn't be spraying clear over it without respraying first with basecoat?
 
It sounds like the spray was too far away allowing the paint to dry upon contact and not flowing out. I realize that you're just practicing but this is more a disappointment rather than a problem. Wetsanding a finish prior to compounding and polishing is an old, tried and trued process...

Once certain that the clear is dry wetsand the area with 1000, then 2000 grit paper. This will smooth out the new clear and allow you to begin compounding then polishing in order to make the surface smooth and glossy.

Meguiar's Ultimate Compound since you have it is a decent product to begin with. This will remove up to 1500 sanding grit so it is a place to start. You'll also need a polish to finish it up....

Take your time and I think you'll be impressed. :props:
 
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