Just a quick, I'm currently respraying my splitter in black and would like to know the correct way of applying the clear coat. Do I rub the colour down with a bit of wet and dry or spray straight on to it or do it while the color is still tacky. Also how many coats of clear and how long in-between. Will it need flatting off after then polishing.
Many thanks.

 

Are you spraying it via gun and compressor or rattle can?

you can put the lacquer on straight after the base coat, just allow a flash off time of at least 10 mins for the base coat before you apply the lacquer.

You will need about 2-3 coats of lacquer depending what paint manufacturer you're using and whether you add 10% thinners etc again allowing a flash off time of 5-10 mins between coats.

If you've got a good finish then there's no need to polish, you only really need to polish to remove any small imperfections in the lacquer.

what paint/lacquer manufacturer are you using?

 

hi there bud, when spraying laquer on, its usually for metallic paint.......

so i guess yours is?? anyway... you spray your colour on (basecoat) then you let it all dry properly........then when its dry use a tac rag if you have one to remove any dust and particles......(if you have one).........then apply your topcoat (laquer).
1st coat of laquer spray on as a sort of dust coat (about 7-8" away).....give that around 2 mins ( just to seal into paint work) then apply 2nd coat (around 4-6" away)....... give that 10 mins to dry off then apply 3rd coat.

the laquer is what makes it look shiny, a good few coats ( i dust coat and then 3-4 top coats) should look good.

i take it you're doing it by aerosol cans ???
hope this helps you .

 

I rub back the colour with 1200 grade wet/dry mainly because i leave it a couple of days to harden and it knocks out any orange peel and gives a key.After 3 coats of clear i give it a couple days again them 1200 it with a bit if washing up liquid added to the water.Then i use a compound with water to bring the shine back.

 

Yes ment to say its an aerosol job.
The last time I did it when I put the laquer on it went cloudy and didn't shine properly.
Thanks for the replies.

 

That could be temperature related or the coats were too thin.With celly paint its hard to finish with a perfect shine especially with aerosol,give it extra so you can rub back then you should get a mirror finish.

 

if the colour of your car is black ,do NOT flat the base colour before applying lacquer

also make sure that the first coat of lacquer is just dusted on so it barely covers !!!!

leave 10-15 mins to flash and go tacky then give it a nice wet coat ......

 

Why not flat black ive done it loads of times before putting on laquer??

 

you can flat black !!! , it just depends on the black itself but i always prefer not to

you may get away with it 9 times out of 10 ...... just didnt want him to end up in the minority !!

i was always taught to not flat black and have always done so apart from the odd occasion were gun finish wasnt good enough on base