Stripes and clear coat on a new car

[lbdz28]

I have a new Camaro that I plan to paint stripes on and then clear coat the whole car. Wondering about any tips you might have. I am thinking I will sand the whole car with 1500 or 1000 to get as much orange peel out as I can. I have also seen some adhesion promoter made by Bulldog. Any experience with this? Plan on using House of Kolor paint and clear.

[Paint God]

What kind of paint job is on it now?

I would not use Bulldog for a complete. It is basically a laquer 1k product.

You want to sand it with either 800 or thousand, then clear it. It really depends on how much paint and what type of paint is on it now.

[STAGE2PAT]

I would be careful if the car has factory paint . Factory paint is marginal at best . Coverage is poor and uneven . Metallics are a mess very blochy . I work at a GM dealership Bodyshop and see it all the time.
When compared to a QUALITY respray . The overall finished product is much nicer.To clear a whole car you must detrim the whole vehicle . At that point I would Base coat it too .

[Paint God]

You know, after reading what stage2pat said, he has a good point. Once you sand it down (with 800) for clear) and tape it all up, it would be a good idea just to go ahead and slam a couple coats of base coat on it. Why not?

[72camarors]

I would not use 800 myself on a factory job if I was not planning to base it again! Some people will say that 1000 is not enough for the clear to stick to but we have been doing it for years and have never had any problems. It will take out the orange peel and give you plenty for the clear to stick too. It is not very likely that you will burn through any of the clear to the base coat if you sand the car evenly with 1000. Just be very careful around the edges and all the body roll's of the car. It is very easy to burn through an edge or sharper roll of the car! As long as there are no burn through's I would see no reason to base the car again. That's just my opinion for what's it's worth...

[Paint God]

I agree. If it is a factory paint job and you just want to clear it I would use 1000 grit. I just figure that if you are going to go through all the work of removing moldings, bumpers, door handles, etc, why not sand it out in 800 and re-base it? This will take care of any chips or imperfections and since you get to sand it in 800 the paint job will be a little more solid. But then again, that is always my problem. "since I am here why not just take it a step further?" I never know when to quit. Like I say, "I have never painted a car that was ready".


I would not use 800 myself on a factory job if I was not planning to base it again! Some people will say that 1000 is not enough for the clear to stick to but we have been doing it for years and have never had any problems. It will take out the orange peel and give you plenty for the clear to stick too. It is not very likely that you will burn through any of the clear to the base coat if you sand the car evenly with 1000. Just be very careful around the edges and all the body roll's of the car. It is very easy to burn through an edge or sharper roll of the car! As long as there are no burn through's I would see no reason to base the car again. That's just my opinion for what's it's worth...

[72camarors]

I know exactly what you are talking about! Especially the part of not knowing when to quit. I probably have over 1000 hours of sanding in my car and i still can find imperfections. People that don't paint and do body work have no idea what a nice paint job consist of! We have so many people thinking you can get an all over show job for $5K or $6K.

[Paint God]

I know. I had a customer one time choke when I gave him a 100 hour estimate to color sand and polish his car to "show quality". That is color sanding in 800,1000,1500, 3000 trizat, then polish in wool, white foam, black foam, then blue foam. And of course a black car. He said that his friend who is a "body/paint guy" told him that I was a rip off because it should take one guy no longer than 2-3 days to color sand and polish. So I told him to let "his" friend do it. He did it alright. Then they brought it back to me and both of them got to help us do it all over again. Once they saw how I do it, they had a whole new appreciation for it. That car has won several shows since then.

[Happyfunballs]

Some people will say that 1000 is not enough for the clear to stick to....

I'm this guy. It makes me nervous to clear anything that hasn't been sanded down to 600. Having worked at an assembly plant in the paint shop, mil thickness varied, but typically it was 2 to 2.5 mil of clear on a vehicle. I understand that plants and paint vendors are different(read: "individual results may vary") but this should be more than enough for a careful 600 sanding to remove dirt and orange peel. Be prepared as well, again, depending on the plant and paint vendor, the thermoset paint used can be harder that what you're used to and sanding my take longer.

[Paint God]

The only problem with 600 is that you will more than likely see sand scratces through the clear (depending on color).

[Happyfunballs]

Really? Never had that problem. HOK tech calls for a 600 sanding before application of a second clear. I suppose it could depend on the manufacturer.

[HotRod47]

I have cleared over 600 many times without failure, or seeing scratches etc...

[Paint God]

Like I said, it all depends on the color. I have only tried it a few times, and I have had mixed results. On lighter colors it is not a problem. I worked in a shop once that prepped a black car in 600, i spotted in a few ares (with blends) and clear coated the whole car. In the sun (with a good eye) I could see what looked like milky or gray scratches in a few areas. If you sand in too course of sand paper sand scum, smudges, and dust can cling on to the scratches a little bit, but then again it might only happen one out of twenty. I just like to run the statistics. If I paint 20 cars a particular way and one fails, I still consider it a "risk". If you have any experience painting cars in a production environment then you have had your share of "re-do's", and those SUCK! Being a good solid painter requires two things.


Being able to avoid problems.
Knowing how to fix problems on the fly.


And the unfortunate thing is the only way you can learn how to master those two things is to screw up some paint jobs and learn from the experiences.

[72camarors]

Seems really risky to clear over 600. I definitely agree it would depend on the color! No longer than it takes to block one more time I'm not sure it is worth the risk. Amen on the re-do's SUCK!

[nekkidhillbilly]

i hope its not rally stripes

im sick of rally strips even s10s have them now

[lbdz28]

Thanks for the suggestions. I am going down the path of sanding the car with 1000. I have most of the sanding done now will lay out the stripes and paint on Monday. I did a test on the spoiler and looks OK so as long as the paint will stay on it should be good.
Will not be rally stripes going for one down the center and one running the length of the body on each side.