hey planing to clear coat my cf hood, should i wet sand it down? what do you guys recomend?

 

wet sand to rough up the surface, paint will not adhere to a flat polished surface. this is how paint chips or flakes off, the surface is not properly preped. id say 600 grit will do the trick. if the hood is not straight up resin, and has a clearcoat already on it, i highly suggest you take the extra step of removing every bit of the old stuff. the reducer in the new paint may react with the old clearcoat dissolving it ruining the paint job. to make it easier, use a checmical means of stippping the old clear coat. paint stripper can be purchased from the waipahu napa as well as other painting accessories and equipment. sanding will take forever and may cause you to over sand the lower areas.

clean with a surface cleaner, waxes and oils must be removed from the surface. this is important as the paint will not adhere to an area with oil and just cause it to seperate... this is when you get fish eyes, or areas where the paint just refuses to lay down evenly.

use a tack rag or cloth (Sp??) to pickup debris right before you spray. if you are spraying outside, dont even bother, debris will just land on it anyway.

first coat should be a tacky coat, dont try to get a perfect shine on the first coat. you need to make thinner coats, making thick coats will cause runs. when spraying cover 50% of each pass you do.

orange peel, when you have orange peel, the painted surface has a texture similar to an orange peel. this is caused by painting style and incorrect pressure or paint gun setup. usually when theres not enough pressure to fully atomize the liquid paint, orange peel will orccur as splotches of paint will be spraying out rather than a fine mist.

orange peel can be repaired. if you sprayed many coats, the surface should be thick enough to sand down and buff it. you can start with 1500 and work your way up to 2000. if you wanna take a risk and cut the clear faster, start with a lower grit and work your way to 2000. when you reach 2000, you can go ahead and buff the surface with some rubbing compound by 3m.... actually theres a process, visit 3m's website for instructions....

hope this helps and good luck!

 

thanks!