Well I painted my first vehicle today and up to the clearcoat, the job looked pretty spectacular for a first time.

I applied my first coat... all is fine. Then disaster, I apply the second coat, as a rule the wetter the better to prevent orange peal, the trick is to know when to stop just before the run. Unfortunately for me... being a beginer, I got greedy and wanted to make it real wet without realizing the how much clear coat I was adding. I have a few MAJOR runs.

Oh well... Live and Learn right? Everything else that doesn't have runs looks good, I had to stop before a third coat (because of the runs) A nearly flawless job has been ruined by these runs.

I was wondering what the best thing to do would be? I can't spray again for various reasons. Can I wet sand with 1000, 1200 grit then buff? Is this the best way?

Please help.

Madmike33

 

Try shaving the run then using a block to sand them out. Its worth a try, worse that can happen is you will need to repaint which you probably were figuring you would have to anyways. With only 2 coats of clear though if they are pretty large runs, you may sand through the clear into the base in the attempt. Then you will need to sand the whole panel with around 800 wet and the area with the run you could go a little coarser, like 600. Sand out your runs and wear you cut through and hit base apply more base and blend the color. Then clear the whole panel, going a little easy on the first coat of clear. The clear can slide easy if put on two heavy over just an 800 scratch and no base underneath.
But first as far as trying to get out your runs. Take a new razor blade and round the corners of the blade over (to keep them from digging in)by scraping against a piece of sandpaper. Hold the razor blade at almost 90 degrees to the surface. Scrape in one direction only, not back and forth, where the run is. The clear should not be real soft when you do this, or you may pull a chunk of clear from the run. Once you got the run scraped fairly even with the surrounding clear, block sand with 1000, if thats not cutting it try 600 wet. Or if a smaller run, you could wrap a piece of the paper around a paint stick. If you sand too much on the surrounding area around the run in the attempt to sand out the run, you may buff or sand through, which would mean a repaint. When the run is sanded out with the 600 or 1000 grit go over it with finer paper and get down to 1500 or finer then buff. Good luck. Don't worry about runs. If a painter ever tells you he's never got a run, I'd hate to see his paint jobs. You may want to set the truck out in the sun for awhile or let the clear cure a day or so. The clear may be cured up well, but runs will stay softer longer cause of the extra thickness there.

 

Well everything you've said makes sense. I took a razor today and cut down the thickness a little (you're right the thicker runs were still soft) once I did that I left it alone and I let it all sit and cure another day. I'll hit it tomorrow with all the good ideas.

Thanx for the help, I'll post back and let you know how it goes.

Madmike33

 

Keneth gave out all the great advice already, but I will just add something for future note to clearcoaters. When you see a run starting, go just above where the run starts and spot in a little more clear. This is because at the point of where run starts it is "pulling" down on the coating and taking away mil thickness. The extra shot of clear will help thicken that spot back up, making sand thrus /scraping too much off, a little less likely. jmo

 

Yes, some will put a little more clear where there is runs, but be carefull to not do it too soon, or the run may become worst. You want it so that the clear is not overly wet, has begun to set up a little, but still kinda melt in with the rest of the clear, not leaving a bunch of dry rough overspray on the edges. Everyone has tricks of dealing with runs in the middle of painting, but sometimes its best to just walk away and leave them alone. Some tricks are taking a piece of masking tape and using the sticky side to gently take off some of the run while its still wet. Some people pull off a run with a pinstrippers type brush thats been dipped in a little reducer. And a run near the bottom of a panel, dump more clear on it to try to get it to run off the edge and wipe the icycles from the bottom. All these can create more of a mess if you don't pull it off. At any rate, think I would of still put 3 coats of clear on if I had the material needed, even with runs. That way there would be more room for wetsanding and buffing, and would save what panels I could, and repaint any that couldn't be saved.

 

Well what I've started doing is I took a body file that was cracked, cut a nice 1 inch square section of it and sharpened the blades best I could. I've been using this to scrape/cut down the runs to a maximum, thus reducing the amount of sanding necessary on the surrounding areas to flush the runs with the rest of the clear. So, it seems to work good (up til now). I'll let you guys know how it develops.

Thanx again,

Madmike33

 

They actually sell something similar on a called a nib file, which is basically a small file on a wood block. Think the main purpose is for dirt nibs, but believe also could be used for runs. I learned the razor blade trick when I started and it always worked good, and dirt nibs usually sand out well enough without looking over the whole thing and trying to use nib file on them. Once you wetsand and dry its pretty easy to see where nibs are left that still need a little sanding to remove. Good luck, hope you can save it without going through. Even if you can save a panel or two, thats less repainting to do.

 

Thanx I'll post back with the results.

Madmike33

 

nice....always those who go the xtra step and figure stuff out..i'll use that myself on kids bronco...I have been putting off the clear runs for a good 3 months now.

I think the biggest contributer to clear runs is lack of adequate light..hard to see that stuff.

 

Yeah, it works pertty well. Anything to save that clear/time. In my case I had plenty of light. I was using a high temp clear and unfortunatley It was 10 PM when I sprayed and the temp was around 15 deg.celcius. The High Temp. clear is meant to be sprayed around 25-30 Deg.celcius. It came out too thick and wouldn't spread quick enough for me to read the quantity I was spraying. Just to give you and idea... the runs usually show within a few minutes well most the runs showed after 40-45 minutes. Right about when I was going to spray the 3rd coat.

Painting is an art... the more you do the better you get.

Madmike33