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Well, things are not going so well.

Spent about two hours getting rid of orange peel. Made the next coat really nice and thin. Now I have orange peel AND runs, no matter how thin and smooth I laid it down. (It was near-water consistency)

Ideas?

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Well, things are not going so well.

Spent about two hours getting rid of orange peel. Made the next coat really nice and thin. Now I have orange peel AND runs, no matter how thin and smooth I laid it down. (It was near-water consistency)

Ideas?

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how many layers before you started sanding? for runs i would run it over it again or go slightly thicker.

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Well, things are not going so well.

Spent about two hours getting rid of orange peel. Made the next coat really nice and thin. Now I have orange peel AND runs, no matter how thin and smooth I laid it down. (It was near-water consistency)

Ideas?

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What color are you using?

If it's like water, I think that's too thin. Water is very thin, in my experience anything that thin would definately run. Try near a whole milk type consistency (not skim milk) or a bit thicker.

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Using yellow.

I think my problem is with the application.

Should you soak the roller enough that it gives smooth coverage with little pressure, or go ahead and push down to get the paint everywhere, then roll over it again with light pressure?

Thanks for your help... I know this can be done and I am not going to give up, but I'm in need of some help and advice.

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HEy guys, how does bondo hold onto to this paint? I was bondo'ing a small area on my door when i accidently dropped a small piece as i was waking away and didnt realize it till today and trying to take it off is not even possible its like ROCK HARD and wont scrap off, i read somewhere on the net that when repairing RUST, they suggested to wire the rust down to metal then prime, paint rustoleum over it and then put bondo on top o.O Sounds wierd but it seems to not wanna lET GO off of my car so since my car is pretty much a ABUSE car i had small nickle dings here and there which i have applied bondo to and smoothed it out, and it doesnt wanna come off either, will post pics later.

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I hope you're right I found a little ding on my drivers side door that I didnt see before I had paint. I'm going to bondo right over it. Will see how it works but I probably wont get to my 6th coat till tomorrow and the dent is fixed.

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Using yellow.

I think my problem is with the application.

Should you soak the roller enough that it gives smooth coverage with little pressure, or go ahead and push down to get the paint everywhere, then roll over it again with light pressure?

Thanks for your help... I know this can be done and I am not going to give up, but I'm in need of some help and advice.

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Well, revelation!

I learned some things today that I want to share in case it helps somebody else out.

* Check out other cars in the parking lot at work or at the store, using the same critical eye and angles you're checking your own work out with. Guess what? I did and something like HALF of the cars I checked had WORSE orange peel than what I considered 'horrible' on mine. Kind of puts things in perspective when several of the automakers crank out worse work than I'm doing in my garage with a foam roller and sandpaper.

* Thin the paint out. It seems like I am at 40% mineral spirits at this point, but I can tell that things are going the right way. I won't bother to measure and rather add until it's milk-like consistency from now on.

* Thin your coats out! I re-read the thread a couple of times and started pushing the paint out of the roller so that it wasn't really soaked when I put it on the car. Then I pushed down on it while rolling to squish the paint out. Got very thin, smooth coats, and even tried it on a vertical surface. Zero runs and very even!

The last coat hasn't dried yet and I can already tell it'll be tons better than any of my previous ones.

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Way to go moose, sounds like you're on your way! by the way, lets see some pics..

I just put my 6th coat on and it's starting to glisten nicely. It's hard to judge, but maybe another 4-5 coats should have it completely colored (except the driver's door where the ding was repaired).

I'm to the point where I can do the whole car in 1.5 hours now, but the time really flies with some good music or talk radio and watching the thing shine as the paint is going on. I've got some computer speakers around the window, and a subwoofer on the floor, hooked to an mp3 player. sounds quite nice in there

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so how does the paint look up close? any peeling? runs? how often have you been wetsanding/grit?

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so how does the paint look up close? any peeling? runs? how often have you been wetsanding/grit?

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Its hard to get a good pic with this lighting of a close up area, but here's a try. The entire surface is the same, very very slight orange peel. less than is seen on most american cars, but it has not been wetsanded yet either (after these 2 coats anyway).

I sanded after coats 2 and 4 with 600, I am going to move to 800 now, maybe 1000.

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have you tried a scratch test recently? I am curious how your paint is holding up after all the layers.

How did the paint handle when you sanded down to fix the dent? Did it chip off, smear off or something else?

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Yeah I try a scratch test after every coat and it doesn't scratch at all.

Its really pretty simple - as long as the stuff is on there thin and there's no runs, and it passes a scratch test, it's dry. If there are runs, those runs are what scratch off because they haven't dried completely since the paint is thick in that area (and never will dry right). Orange peel is thicker paint-thinner paint -thicker paint, so that definately needs to come off if it's bad.

The paint came off as expected when I sanded it, in powder form. I only scratched the area where the ding was with 80 grit to give it teeth, then did bondo, but the sanding affected the area around the ding, and that sanded off in powder, didn't clog up the paper or anything. It was very easy to fix the ding and to smooth out and 'feather' the area around the ding.

Thanks for the words Charger. I can't put it out in the sun for a day though unless I can figure out a way to move it up and down my driveway. I can let it bake in my garage for a few days at 95 degrees though

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Exit1965,
How long are you letting it dry between coats? Also how long before sanding?

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I have a few runs and a little orange peel, but what really bothers me is the splotchyness. How do I get that to go away?

I'm finished my third coat and i'm going to wetsand tomorrow.

Thanks,

Nick

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I have a few runs and a little orange peel, but what really bothers me is the splotchyness. How do I get that to go away?

I'm finished my third coat and i'm going to wetsand tomorrow.

Thanks,

Nick

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