When a car is painted with base/clear coat and the car is painted with all panels on but the back of doors and nose parts are painted around the edges before installing do they need clear coat to protect them?

I'm sure some of the real paint experts will chime in with their professional perspective -but as an amateur I can tell you what I've done. With a true base coat/clear coat I always understood that the base does need clear to both protect it and make it look shiny. By itself, the base is flat. So, if you're using a 2 stage paint on the jambs you have to clear it.

An alternative is to use single stage paint in the jambs and 2 stage on the body - this is easier but you can probably tell the difference if you look closely.

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Scott
'69 400SB, Richmond 5-speed; '99 HD Road King Classic
www.geocities.com/sdenning1 (http://www.geocities.com/sdenning1)

They sure do. Thats why you edge your stuff in before installing. You give everything a good tooth so that the stuff that your going to spray on it will stick, if there is sand thru, give it an zinc etch, follow up with a urethane sealer, a splash of color and clear it off.

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67 Camaro SS Conv.
70 Challenger R/T Conv.

Right on ragtopman, I would like to add, base/clear the jams and then after you install the parts mast off the jams about an 1/8" from the edge. That way when you unmask it, it will have only a small edge right near the edge of the panel and can be rubbed out nice. Also, ALWAYS paint he jams AFTER you have primed for the last time! And the panels have been fit! And mask off the out side when you jam, even though you plan on sanding the outside and painting it the same color. The overspray that would be on the outside of the panel if you didn't mask can cause BIG headaches.

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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

I always use clear on the jams, but many of the newer cars don't clear all jams from the factory. Underhood, under trunk, and ajacent jams on many new cars use basically only a base coat. The colors on those jams are acually way off from the outside in many cases. A "underhood color" is used and when you look it up in my paint mixing computer at work it says "base coat only. Do not clear". Clearcoat is required for UV protection, but there is not alot of UV in a engine bay or trunk.
I personally still use clear, but in some areas it's not used from the factory. Just the manufacturers getting cheap if you ask me. Like I said this is on NEWER cars.
Austin

MARTINSR
Do I nead to be concerned putting tape on the new paint in the jams to achieve the 1/8 inch overlap and I will do this on the fenders to?

Wrench, what is "new" paint, the "tape time" on clear coats is anywhere from two hours to six hours. But it really doesn't count when you are doing a resto job in your garage, heck you probably won't need to tape on it for a day or two. Austin, the clear isn't only there for UV protection, you need it for solubility! If your base coat isn't "hardened" than you can was it off with a thinner soaked rag! Or gas will wash it off, you don't want that under your hood! We don't want to copy the factory cost cutting tecniques! 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

When its time to tape up your jambs, you have several options.

1-take some green fine line tape and about 3/16 to a 1/4 in. inside the jamb, tape the jamp with the fine line tape and then go back over it with either 2" tape or 6" paper.

2-If you dont want that tell tale tape line and only after cutting in the jambs(but with only 1 coat of clear)when it comes time to spray the car, just tape up the back sides of the doors and let the over spray blow right in on the door jamb. And then when its all nice and dry, go back in with some 600 grit or finer paper and wet sand the jamb litely for adhesion purposes, tape the jamb off again and surounding areas, smoke some color in the jamb and 2 coats of clear and no one will be the wiser cause there will be no tape line(I hate em).

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67 Camaro SS Conv.
70 Challenger R/T Conv.

I'm no pro but I have painted a few cars, boats, and trailers over the years. When I painted cars I did what I think they call "backtaping" in the jambs. I sprayed the jambs first and then ran tape inside. But, instead of applying the tape with the outside edge (closest to the outside of the car) pressed down I peeled it back and left it sticking up. This forms a little shield that the paint bounces against. Since there is not a hard edge to the tape and the paint is bouncing around against the tape it doesn't leave a hard line - this tends to make the exterior paint blend into the jamb better. It was more work to tape it up this way but it looked a lot better.

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Scott
'69 400SB, Richmond 5-speed; '99 HD Road King Classic
www.geocities.com/sdenning1 (http://www.geocities.com/sdenning1)

I HAVE BEEN DOING RESTOS FOR 12 YEARS AND I WILL TELL YOU THIS, FOR A THOPHY WINNING CAR I PUT "1" COAT OF CLEAR ON THE DOOR JAMS AND UNDER THE HOOD FOR 2 REASONS. #1 TO PROTECT THEM FROM DIRT AND DUST IMBETING IN THE BASE AND#2 IS TO BRING OUT A SHINE. THAT WAY THE OUTSIDE DOESN'T DIFFER FROM THE JAMS.
I HAVE BUILT MANY 1ST PLACE CARS AND TRUCKS AND THAT IS WHAT I HAVE DONE TO ALL OF THEM. IT IS A SURE FIRE WAY TO PLEASE THE JUDGES AND GET THE TROPHY.


TAKE IT FROM A1ST PLACE WINNING PRO,
ITS THE ONLY WAY!!!!!

I'm not saying no clear is the way to go. I'm saying on many new cars "no clear is, the way it is".
I mask in about 1/4" and either hand rub or "spot in" jamb as needed. The backmask method does work, but material build up can be excessive when applying sealer, base, and clear. That method works best (IMO) if you can pull the backmask tape while the paint is still wet, and doing that creates potential risks of damaging a nice paint job.
Austin

Back masking and that DART tape 3M makes both will still leave a tell tale line.

I forgot to mention, when masking up the outside so the jambs can be re-done, put the paper and masking tape about 3/8 in away from the jamb, and when the outside of the car is all papered up, take some 3/4 in tape and barely overlap the tape thats on the 1/4 and rocker so to let the rest of it basically hang over the edge into the jamb, so when you put that last coat of clear on, you can peel that tape off with out haveing to un-mask the entire outside and that edge of clear will melt in and when its all done, you wont see any line at all.



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67 Camaro SS Conv.
70 Challenger R/T Conv.