We have painted several cars in the past years with enamel(centari). We are about one week from painting our Camaro and are thinking about base coat-clear coat. We have some questions. #1: After base coat, can we wet sand out any orange peel that we have? #2: How long would we have to wait to wet sand out the orange peel? #3: How much time do we have before we need to paint on clear coat after base coat has been painted? #4: To paint the hood and trunk stripes (1970) should we wait until the clear coat is dry to mask off for the stripes. I am hoping that we don't have to scuff the clear coat to paint the stripes. We could use some help on when to paint the stripes on. Once again, this will be our first attempt for painting base coat-clear coat. Thank you for any help.


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stano

I'm a definite rookie at painting. I asked the paint store guys the same question you had on stripes. They said that you can't shoot the basecoat over the clearcoat unless it has cured for over a month. My Dupont instructions say paint the primary basecoat color, wait 30 min, paint the stripe color, wait 30 min, then clearcoat. I think you need to get the clearcoat down before the basecoat has dried too long. I doubt you can sand the basecoat. It is sure is a pain in the a** doing it this way though. The type of paint you plan on using may be diffrent from what I described.

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68/Z28,35O LT1
RICHMOND 5 SP,

Base coat lays down pretty nice (most brands), but you can wetsand it. You can usually sand base around 30 mins after applied. After wetsanding I like to put on a couple more coats of base though, and you will definitley need to if its a metallic color. As far as stripes go like BTC said do it before you clear. The dry time will change depending on temp & reducers used (but 30 min is a good average). Most base coats can sit for up to, but not longer than 24 hrs before clear coating (if longer you will need to lightly scuff and reapply more base). Generally you will clear coat about 30 min after the base coat is sprayed.
Austin

Austin, there are some brands that you can not sand the base, S-W and Dupont for instance. S-W has a window of 7 days! before clear has to be applyed.

My point being READ THE TECH SHEETS STANO. http://www.camaros.net/forum/smile.gif

The safest way if you are unsure, is to paint and clear and then come back and do the stripes. Yes there will be an edge but there was when GM did it!

The second safest way and the best (I think) is to spray the hood and dec lid the stripe color, let it dry the recommended time on the TECH SHEET and then tape it off and shoot the color. Then un tape the stipe and clear.
Remember this is done after the whole car is ready and masked for paint. And you want to paint the entire panel with stripe color so you don't have any rough overspray to deal with. http://www.camaros.net/forum/smile.gif

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Fan of anything that is interesting and moves human beings.
1965 Buick Gran Sport Convertible
1965 Buick Skylark H/T
1948 Chevy PU with 401 Buick

MARTINSR, you cant sand DuPont base?! Seven Days....wow.. I could never let base sit that long, I've only let it sit overnight a couple of times when I was doing 8+ color paint jobs.
Thanks for the info.
I agree you should always read the p-sheets on the products you are using reguardless of what the guy at the counter says, or even us for that matter. As MARTINSR pointed out not all brands follow the same rules.
Austin (PPG user http://www.camaros.net/forum/smile.gif )