Spraying clear coat on a base can be a scary job. Nevertheless, it remains the vital part of the job, as this is what you finally see on the car and the last material you use to cover it up. Clear coat needs to be sprayed in such a manner that at the end it appears to be thick and wet and doesn’t look like the skin of an orange. Nor should it look dry. Here, I’ll share some techniques and ideas for spraying clear coat in a manner that makes the job not so tedious and you’ll be happy with the final results.
Your spray gun
Of course, as you know it, spray gun is the most important tool for spraying clear coat. More than the brand of the spray gun you might decide to use, it’s the size of the tip that ensures a perfect job. So, be careful on that front. Another point to be kept in mind is that when you undertake spraying you would be required to quickly go around the vehicle under painting to check that the thickness of clear is maintained. Tips size for clear coat should ideally be 1.4 to 1.5mm when spraying unreduced clear coat. Usually, spray guns come with a tip of size of 1.2 or 1.3mm, so you need to check on that.
Where on the vehicle to start?
This often varies with the painter. But, in any case one likes to spray the surfaces on the top first to reduce the chances of leaning into wet clear, if the sides were done first. But here is another tip. When starting from the hood, do not begin by spraying clear coat in the middle of the section and then start coming down towards the fender nearest to you. Instead, you start spraying clear coat from the nearest edge of the hood and then move your pattern to its mid-part. This way you can quickly walk over to the other side of the car and keep spraying from the central part of the hood to the fender on the front. The same process is continued while working on the top of the vehicle and at times on the deck lid of bigger cars. Having finished that you go back to the front of the car from where you had started and rapidly undertake the bumper and the fenders and go ahead with spraying clear to doors, back quarters followed by the rear bumper. You need to move quickly, lest the clear coats sets. Here it if great help to use a gun tip of the prescribed size.
What if I get a run? —Now, that’s the trickiest part of the whole game! It’s more of an art than mere execution of a machine aided job. But accidents do happen and you may accidentally cause a run on one of the panels, say a door. In such a situation the most important thing that matters is not to get panicky. You should immediately isolate the affected panel and quickly apply another coat or two of clear and let it flow along the panel to hit the bottom the bottom of the door and then to the rocker panel. In the meanwhile run another coat of clear and let it flow down to the rocker panel and using your fingers wipe of the excess of clear at the base of the rocker.
The present arrangement of providing the most rugged finish to vehicles is confined to single step Automotive Clear Coat or single step polyurethane, or the two-part cross-linking Poly Urethane.
Though it lacks the physical strength of Polyurethane, the benefit of using Automotive Clear Coat is that it can be repaired easily and you can add additional coats. That’s why the automotive industry considers it to be the best paint for applying clear coat on an already painted surface.
One of the best spray cans is Krylon(r) Satin Clear Coat that really looks good on top of the Gun Blue before wax or oil and acts like solid wax on steroids, particularly for outdoor use.
Caution: The spray cans have nasty solvents and should therefore be used outdoors only and not to carry indoors before the solvent has evaporated completely. This specifically holds good for traditional lacquer that is soluble in lacquer thinner only.
You must not breath in lacquer thinner nor allow it to come in touch with skin. The pother solvents to be similarly avoided include Toluene, and such explosive solvents.
It’s good to use Krylon, as it doesn’t appear to be as hostile as the 3M brand. If the acrylic isn’t that good, prefer to have the safety of not as toxic a solvents-but others may differ from the point of view of safety.
In the next few months we shall have totally new products in clear coats with the most rugged structure developed by DuPont Corporation: Nylon. Nylon Clear Liquid with or without ceramic will come in unique metal containers. It will easily compete with the wicked solvents. Though it will be strong as per expectations, it will provide a strong nylon clear coat at very economical prices. Clear is important here as Clear Nylon is extraordinary. It is never clear but always opaque! Imagine the benefits of new technology!
It will be available in liquid form only with properties of self leveling and surface covering of up to 10 square feet of liquid per ounce on smooth surface and a special solvent if required for cleaning HVLP stainless steel nozzles. It cannot be stored in direct contact with plastic because it will completely dissolve it.
I drive an older model convertible and I love this beautiful car but it has a major hitch that its clear coat peels off. Though it still shines at some points with really deep and rich luster, it has quite a few points with dull looks due peeling. That has enabled me to learn thru trial and error what works and what does not, while trying to fix your coating.
Before sharing my experiences with you, let me tell you just what clear coat is: Clear coat is a hidden protecting layer of material to cover the paint on any car. Actually, you may fail to notice the clear coat until it begins to peel. But if the process of peeling starts once, it is almost unstoppable, and awfully unsightly too. Well, the best approach will be to just take your car to a workshop specializing in this kind of repair work. Now, that’s the most expensive proposition because as the workshop will normally not just take care of small patches of missing clear coat.
Instead, they will sand down the complete panel needing repairs and then reapply paint and clear gloss. Perhaps you could save some small amount of money if you could sand the car of your own before taking to the workshop. To execute such an operation you need to ensure that you know how exactly to handle it and you should also have the correct materials. If you keep both the factors in mind it could be a good option for you.
The other way of fixing your clear coating is to take a razor blade and scrape up the edges from where the coating is peeling. But you need to be very careful so as not to cause any damage by scratching up the paint underneath. It’s going to be a slow and lengthy process but having scraped up the complete clear coating you can go ahead with the application of a new coat. For applying the fresh layer of clear coat you have to get a quality panel of clear coat from one of the local dealers of automotive parts. First you apply a thin and an even clear coating to the car, allow this layer to get dried and then go ahead with applying two more layers keeping the last one thicker than the first.
Because of reduced Ionosphere caused by natural pollution ultra violet rays from the sun are causing increased problems. When you are out in the sun and the skin on your nose begins to peel or your eyes get white blinded by the sun, you’ll surely use some sunglasses, a hat and such means to block the sun. The UV rays, likewise affect your car too and it can be protected from the harmful effects of UV rays by using clear coats, ceramic coatings or appropriate application of wax on the car. Present generation of automobile is able to avert it thru its clear coating, but it needs to be cared for being effective.
Swirl marks are developed as a result of car washes or handling by untrained auto detailers, which are too hostile for the paint. These swirl marks cause etchings of clear coat. They indicate damaged paint. While waxing a car there are ways to know if the paint is getting damaged. Appropriate waxing of car helps saving the paint and delivers a mirror like shine to the car. If you take your watch and incline it sideways and then upside down, it should appear like a movie clip or a mirror, when you roll your watch, without any distortion.
You should be able to read the time in the reflection of your paint. The other way is to make use of a fluorescent light and see if it is crusty or if you get any eerie wave patterns getting reflected from the paint with the appearance of distorted or refracted light in a direction other than straight into your line of vision. Before undertaking of the clear coat with Clay Magic or any such material, check the thickness of the clear coat.
The thickness of a clear coat of paint is measured in terms of mils. Hand-held instruments are available for measuring thickness of paint applied on any surface. Should you be interested to buy one, look for one on eBay at an affordable price. Only good dealers or professional painters of cars have it. Automobile manufacturers first apply a coat before applying the final coat of paint. Recommended thickness of clear coat is five mils, but most of the manufacturers use only 2-4 mils due better quality of materials used. Thickness of color coats provided by most manufacturers is three to five mils.
For aircrafts more of one step paints are used to have low weight. Manufacturers often use low volumes of paint to cut cost and save steps by using multi-step paints of varying quality. Minor oxidation decomposes paint by about 1-1.8 mils.
Surface scratches and shopping carts can penetrate thru clear coat, and to a good extent thru color coats, making it necessary to use filler wax after treatment is over and do not have a buffer with a short wool pad. I hope this article proves to be of some help to you.
