15 replies to this topic

[mike.]

Just wondering if anyone could give me a couple of tips on spraying. Nothing major i'm just spraying my mirrors and wheel centres on my car using rattle cans.

The mirrors are the first job and are ABS plastic. I've rubbed them down with 600 grade paper and primed them with plastic filler primer, i've given them a good 3-4 thin coats with 10-15mins between each coat and they're now drying off overnight so I can spray them tomorrow.

Because I was spraying outside a couple tiny bits of dust/grit have got stuck in the primer. So I need to give them a quick rub down tomorrow before I spray them - What grade paper should I use for this? Then i'll give them a quick wipe with panel wipe and get them sprayed.

They're being sprayed gloss black, then lacquered to hopefully give them a really nice shine. I've never used lacquer properly before, only on my bike once where finish wasn't important. So i'm planning on spraying the black on in the same way as the primer - Thin coats built up with 10-15mins drying time between coats until i'm happy with the coverage/finish. I've searched on the forum and can't work out whether I should spray the lacquer on shortly after the paint - i.e. 15mins to allow the paint to flash off and become touch dry or if I should leave them overnight again and lacquer them the next day? Different people say different things - So whats best?

One last thing is, if I end up getting any dust/grit in the black or lacquer - Whats the process for removing it? Should I allow to dry fully and then rub down and respray again?

Edited by mike., 10 August 2010 - 10:00 PM.

[mk3cortina]

are you just using rattle can paint? if so then you dont need to put the clear laquer over the black as its a gloss finish anyway and has the shine built into the paint. for flatting the primer use a 500 grit, or an 800 pad. if you get bits of debris in the paint wait until its fully dry (give it a couple of days) then flat it out with 2000 wet and dry paper (used wet) then polish them back up to shine.

[mike.]

But won't it increase the shine adding lacquer over the top?

Because I sprayed some engine parts gloss black a while ago but the finish wasn't as glossy as I wanted it to be really

[mike.]

Ok well so far i've rubbed the primer down with 1200 to get it really nicely smooth, panel wiped the mirrors and so far have put 3 coats of gloss black, leaving 10-15 minutes between coats.

When coming back to them to add another coat after 10 minutes, the shine has already faded slightly and its not as glossy as the rest of my car - which is lacquered. So i'm still planning on lacquering them.

Looking at the finish so far, its good but could be better before I lacquer them. So should I just wait for an hour or so and lacquer them or should I leave them overnight, wet sand them with 1200, then lacquer them?

I'm planning on polishing the lacquer afterwards with rubbing compound to get a perfect shine anyway.

Also How many coats should of lacquer should I apply?

[mike.]

The mirrors had they're 4th and final coat of paint about an hour ago. They look quite good but not really perfect as I want them.

They have a slight bit of orange peel and some parts have a better shine than others.

Heres how they look:



On this photo you can see along the front edge how they still look slightly dull and uneven:



What should I do now to improved this? I could either leave the paint to dry abit longer then start spraying with lacquer to get the shine I want, but then i'll risk the orange peel effect coming into the lacquer aswell. Or I could leave them for another few hours to dry better, then wet sand them with 1200 to remove the shine, orange peel and get the paint perfectly flat. I don't mind doing that as I know flatting leads to a better finish, but will the lacquer be ok going straight onto the 1200 flatted paint - Will that give me the shine I want?

Thanks

[l_jonez]

personally i'd give them a good few days for the paint to dry, then use some 1500 or even 2000 to remove the orange peal then use some G3 to get the shine back and then polish them

[mike.]

So you wouldn't bother with lacquer?

Isn't G3 pretty much a rubbing compound?

[danie garry]

Isn't G3 pretty much a rubbing compound?

exactly what it is, a fine compound

[mk3cortina]

the dull areas are down to the spraying technique, you have not put the paint down onto the mirror correctly there, possible from too far away or just too quick a coat and not enough paint being put down. however you shouldnt need to apply more paint since you have put 4 coats on. just leave a while and then flat them off as previously mentioned to get rid of the orange peel, then polish away! but for what you have there i wouldnt bother buying a bottle of G3 compound as your not doing much polishing and it would cost too much just to polish a pair of mirrors, plus really for the G3 you put it on with an electric buffer. so just get a little bottle of cheap polish and do it by hand.

[mike.]

Well i've heard halfords rubbing compound is quite good. Its described as a medium compound and its about £4 for 400ml so good enough value, then i've got various auto glym polishes.

My spraying technique isn't the best really. I tend to spray in line sort of from top to bottom quickly, then let my finger off and go down again and so on. I feel if I just keep my finger on the can i'm wasting alot of paint and putting far too much on and going get runs. I might buy a platikote rattle can trigger for my wheels.

I'll have to see about the lacquer because I was hoping to lacquer them to give them a hard glossy coating to protect the paint, since mirrors often get brushed passed in car parks etc

Also when I come to do my wheels, i'll probably get a similar result to these mirrors, but the wheel I definitely want to lacquer those to protect them from brake dust and tar and hopefully give the paint abit of chip protecting from wheel wrenchs etc.

So the mirrors i'll try flatting/polishing with some rubbing compound to shine them up and make do without lacquer, but if I do end up getting a similar result on my wheels (which I want to be as good as possible) what would be the process for removing the orange peel and applying lacquer? Would I wet sand with 1500-2000 then lacquer to get the shine or what? Because from my experience in flatting, the paint looses alot of 'colour' and is obviously very dull, so can't imagine lacquer just sprayed ontop would look right?

[danie garry]

to be honest the laquer out of a can isnt really up to much, i painted the number plate light thingy on my car, primed, flatted, 4 coats of black, just decided to polish this and it came out great but then flatted it and laquered it for the protection, left it for bout a week and when it came to polishing the laquer wasnt even close to dry. it was dry to the touch but u could put u'r finger print into it, the same happened with a wheel i painted.
done the other wheels out of a spray gun and compressor and it turned out so much better

[mike.]

Hmm bit of a dilemma then, because if I just paint the wheel black and don't lacquer them, the paint will just get chip off soo easily and the hot brake dust will bake into it aswell.

[danie garry]

i didnt mean to put u off there, i could have got a couple of dud cans or they wernt stored properly. saying that the laquer cocked up on the wheel and light housing, i also did patch work on the body of the mini and it came out perfect.
i'd still laquer if i were u, for the extra protection

[mike.]

Well i'll give lacquering them a go, its what I wanted to do originally and i've already got the lacquer now.

So whats the process, because i've never lacquered anything before.

Is this right:

Flat/wet sand the gloss off the paint with 1200 (or should I use 1500)
Then wash them and let them dry
Then spray the lacquer as I did with the paint.
Then once the lacquers dry and hard I can polish the lacquer up with rubbing compound

Does that sound ok?

[mike.]

Right its started throwing it down now, so can't do much else out side on my car. I'm going to have a go of these mirrors in the garage - So what do people reckon off my technique above - Is it right?

Because the tin of lacquer has pretty poor instructions and just says the exact same as what the paint can says.