Gonna put the last coat of clear on my tins tomorrow. The House of Kolor kandy blue metallic flake has big flakes. The paint feels rough. So do I just keep coating it with clear til it smooths? Wet sand with 1200 or 1500 between coats? What is best? I have 2 coats of primer, 2 coats of sealer, 2 coats of black, 2 coats of Kandy Blue metallic, and 2 coats of clear now. had to touch up some of it, got trash in the fresh paint. So I have enough clear to put 25 coats on it, lmao.

Can there be too many coats of clear? What are the perils of too much?


Thank you very much. Randy D.

 

bump.

 

Use a soft block and sand it down with 1500. You can go more aggressive if you like though as long as you dont sand down into the flake. Put 2 or 3 more coats on and see how it does. Repeat if necessary. Just make sure you don't sand down to the flake and you should be fine. You should just have to do it one more time as long as you get it sanded down flat.

 

No matter what we do, we still are getting runs in the paint. So we wet sand, get it right, paint, damn runs, wet sand again, etc. If we don't get it right tomorrow, I am going to do it myself. The guy doing the painting went to school for it, and has done good work before. But this heavy metallic is killing us. Looks like I am going to have to order more House of Kolor blue flake, and buy more clear. This is killing me, and all total there are about 16 coats of paint on it total. How much is too much as far as coats of paint? Won't it crack? 2 coats sealer, 2 coats primer, 2 coats black, 2 coats blue flake mixed with dbc500, 2 coats clear, sand again, 2 coats blue flake/dbc 500, 2 coats clear, sand again, 1 coat blue flake/dbc 500, 1 coat clear. Gonna try it one more time before we give up. If the paint does work this time, once it hardens, it should be bulletproof!

It is so damn pretty it is hard to believe. But the runs are kicking our ****. That heavy flake is terrible. I wish I had a rotisserie to keep it rotating, lmao.


Thank you xtreme kustomz , this is driving me nutz. RD.

 

I don't know what else to do. We have mixed the flake in the DBC500, as instructed, then cleared it with 2 coats of clear. Runs like crazy. Then mixed the flake in the clear, then cleared over it all. It runs no matter what. Now we are going to try and cut off the big runs with a sharp razor blade, wet sand it again with 600 or 800. Then shoot it one more time with the DBC500 and the flake. That will be all the flake I have left, and if this doesn't work, I will have to order more flake and clearcoat. I don't know if we are spraying too thick, with too much pressure, or thinning the paint too much with reducer. The man spraying it says he has never seen paint run like this, and we have changed pressures, coats and thickness of the paint. It is so pretty it is hard to explain. But the runs are about to run me out of town.

I am at wits end. Damn bike should have been back together by now.

 

what type of gun are you using and what are your mixing ratios? also is it the clear running or the base running? are you using an air dryer on your paint line ?

 

NSCoyote we are using an air/water separator, and the ratios vary from 1-4 to 1-1, depending on what we are painting. Clear, flake-blending agent, base, etc. I have never seen anything turn out as rough as asphalt, but still pretty. I might be stuck with the rough texture, but it is still pretty, dammit. Weird stuff, lol.


He was painting the flake/blending agent as if it were urethane. All it needed was a VERY THIN coat of flake, over the base black, but instead he has put 3 or 4 HEAVY coats on it. The texture is now worse than 320 grit sandpaper. It feels that rough. I am going to wet sand the runs one last time, I think I have enough flake for one more light round over the fokups. Then clear it and hope for the best. Going to check today and see if we can clearcoat it with the DBC500 blending agent by PPG. I know it was made for the flake, but it is a bit thick, and may settle the mountains down. I am going to learn to paint on my own, and will redo this later. Gonna put the bike back together after this last attempt. Sand it with some 1200 or 1000 grit to smooth what I can, shoot it with the last of the flake to cover the runs I have cut off and sanded away (runs in base, runs in clear, runs in flake!) . Clear it the best we can, and just put it back together. I really thought this kid knew what he was doing. I have been out of work for 4 months now, and funds are depleted. This should have been the best paint job I have ever seen. Instead it is a nightmare. Been down for over a month and is not going to look as I hoped. A lot of money and time wasted, and riding time. I am so disgusted it can't be expressed.

One of the best painters I know of looked at it last night. Told me it had to be stripped down, and if I stripped it , bought all supplies he would paint it like it should be next week for $150. Price is right but funds are depleted.

To recap, I am going to sand the runs down, paint it one more time with what little flake I have left, wet sand it again to knock the humps down a LITTLE, clear the hell out of it, and put it back together. This has been a damn nightmare. Time for me to learn to do my own painting. Shoulda expected this from someone else. But damn this kid went to school, talked the talk, and I have known him for 20 years. He is more upset about it than I am , and that is hard to believe. Won't even take any pay. He is crushed and embarrassed. No win situation here, this is like crying into a damn diary, lol.

 

A paint distributor for Car Quest just called me and said I still have a chance to salvage this. He is worried that the time window has passed, and it may not bond as good as it should, but that is out of control. He says to clear it 3 times, then sand it and see if the roughness doesn't settle down. Then clear it 2 or 3 more times. I don't know anything about painting, but am learning, lol.

 

If the flake looks like you want why are you putting more flake every time you clear? All you should be doing is re-clearing without the flake and building up the clear to cover the flake. Also if you are getting runs your clear mixture must not be right or either you are applying the coats too soon together (or too heavy). Also when you use the razor to get the runs out are you cutting them out or scarping them? After the paint is hard you should be able to hold the blade straight up and drag it over the run until it gets pretty flat then block sand over it until its completely smooth.

 

Don't know how I gave that impression. We have tried to put the flake in the clear instead of the DBC500 to prevent runs. But we were putting down too much flake, the painter didn't know WTF he was doing. A little late for me to find out now though. That is a new idea about scraping the runs out. Thanx.

Tonight I said the hell with it. Started again with paint remover, at least on fenders and oil tank. Gas tank has been blocked and wet sanded, it is ready for re-painting.

Thinking hard about going with another painter. Letting this kid get it back in sealer or primer, then handing it off to a professional. Right now the kid painter is feeling worse than I am, and that is hard to believe. This sucks real bad. Gonna order new flake Monday and get it painted next week hopefully. The pro painter said if I stripped it and bought all materials, he would do it for $150. Since it is a tri-step, that isn't a bad price to me, and this man paints for a living. The kid meant well, but it was over his head. I should have caught onto that earlier, but better late than never.

Thanx, RD.