[Hot Bag]

My car is being painted right now and the body shop I'm using is having a lot of issues getting the Z/28 stripes to come out right. Here's a brief rundown of what's going.

The car is red, stripes are white. After the red was sprayed it was cleared and the white stripes were put down and then the parts were cleared again. At this point some imperfectections were found in the paint. Mostly areas where the tape didn't stick down enough and line wasn't straight. The body guy sanded down to the red and sprayed the stripes again, but again there were problems.

My question is this. Since there are layers of color and clear, does the body guy have to sand all the way down each time we come across one of these problems? I'm just trying to educate myself so, I'll be able to tell if he's trying to take shortcuts.

thx,

 

[68RSZEE]

No, he shouldn't have to sand all the way down IMHO.

 

[MARTINSR]

My concern would be just how much is being built up here. If these guys are have painted the stripes, then sanded and had to reshoot some red, and more clear before reshooting the white stripe, there is an issue.

If this was done once, well you can "live" with that. If the process had to be done twice, there is some serious film build going on. If it has to be done three times, you are getting into a very serious problem.

I don't have any idea of how bad it is. I don't have any idea of their particular difficulties. All I know is laying these stripes is really not that hard and there should be no excuse for redues of this nature.

 

[Hot Bag]

MartinSR, some of the parts have been painted many times, but from what I'm being told (who knows if that's true) the parts are being stripped down before being redone. That's fine by me as long as the paint comes out right, so far it hasn't.

A couple times I've gone over to the shop to inspect the work and found that the red had bleed into the white. This meant that no clear had been put down between the two colors and that the painter didn't wait long enough for the the paint to cure.

At this point I'm becoming increasingly dissatisfed with the work. That's why I'm trying to understand what's the "right" way to do it. If this keeps up, I may just have them take the stripes off and put on vynal stripes later on.

If you'd like to see some pics visit the site in my signature.

 

[MARTINSR]

What it sounds like to me is that they are having difficulties keeping the tape edge down and the red is "Leaking" onto the white. If this is the case the white was shot first and then the red, a common practice when striping. Not the most common, but some guys would do this. Weather or not the clear was shot over the red and then the white stripe painted is anyones guess. I will bet you a dollar that the "bleeding" you see is on corners or in low spots like at the edge of a body line. This would be a common place where the tape not being applied properly will pull up off the surface.

Some guys are just hell bent on painting stripes with no tape line. I for the life of me can't understand that. Unless it is a customized show car, so the heck what if there is a tape line, there was one from the factory for goodness sakes!

Anyway, I have a feeling they are spraying the white, taping it off, then spraying the red, then untaping the white and clearing. All in the name of no tape line. If this is the case, they need to be slapped up side the head and slow down a little back to the basics. Paint the red nice, clear it, then mask and paint the white in a single stage. That is how I would it it. At the very least shoot the white with a bc/cc but I personally like the single stage idea.

If they did this it is a piece of cake.
Are they taping these stripes off or are they using a stencil kit?

 

[MARTINSR]

I'll bet you another dollar that the paint isn't being "striped" when reshot. But that would be pretty hard to prove.

 

[Hot Bag]

Ok, you owe me a dollar. ..just kidding

The red was sprayed first and then a stencil kit was used to tape off the stripe area, and actually the bleeding I saw was on a flat part of the trunk lid.

Originally that area had some problems with the top layer of clear that caused it to come out dull. Basically it look like it was really thin. When I pointed it out, the body shop stripped that panel and reshot it. That's when the red bleed into the white. According to them, the sequence of events was paint the panel red, mask off the striped areas and paint again with white.

When I asked how the bleeding could happen if they cleared between the two colors, they told me that they didn't wait long enough between colors but that doesn't seem possible to me. How could you tape off the striped areas if the paint was still wet?

Anyway, I'm going to keep making them redo it until it looks right.

Thanks all for the feedback.