These ripples are killing me!!!

Roll and tip method may be going out the door. I simply cannot get rid of the ripples until I've sanded to my original paint. I guess I've just got to muster up enough patience to let the thousands of bubbles pop on their own. How do I overcome the fear that they won't pop? Thin, thin, thin, right?

I'm having trouble capturing the ripples with my camera, but here's an example of where I'm at after a round of 2000 and turtle polish (by hand for now):



I'm going to knock the ripples down some with 600, then try 2 more super-thin coats this morning. We'll see what happens.

Anybody try this with SS (OMNI) auto paint? It is enamel, dries quick and its already mighty thin.

I have it already in orig color but dread spraying whole car. I could do PJOAB but dont want a color change...

Who mixes custom color Pro Rustoleum?

Okay, regarding ripples... Since it worked for Charger, I've been wetsanding by hand without a rubber/foam block for the most part. I wasn't comfortable with the "suction" effect from my rubber block, but I've found that it's the only way to effectively knock down the ripples without sanding through all 6-8 layers I've now rolled. By using my hands, I was merely widening the valleys, in the process making them deeper. The firm rubber block on the other hand, applies most of it's force to the peaks, eventually working the surface to a level state.


What it boils down to is... Would I rather sand ripples or orange peel? We'll find out tonight which is easier.

While I've found the ripple remedy, I decided to apply a 25% thinned coat, then pop the bubbles with light pressure with the roller as prescribed in the very beginnings of the "Paint Job On A Budget" thread. These pictures are only 1 hour after rolling. I can see that I'll be dealing with significant orange peel, but this paint has proven to have good leveling qualities.

Way back... probably in message thread one of this epic I shared with everyone what I used to back my sandpaper when wet sanding. I thought I would again tell the tale because it worked for me and proved to be exceptional for the wetsanding task.

I took one of my wife's high density foam knee pads that she uses in the garden to protect her knees when working in the garden



The foam pad is about.. 15 x 18 x 3/4 inch...






At around $ 3.00 to $ 5.00 ( so it is a bargain ). And what you do is take your scissors or exacto knife and slice off a section that is handsize and tailored to fit a half page of sand paper. You simply wrap the sandpaper around the foam block, dip it in the water/soap bucket and it tends to hold together nicely as you use it to work the cars body surface with your wet sanding.

Here is a supplier on eBay that is selling them for $3.00 - $ 5.00 IF you cannot find any at your local garden supply stores..

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Gardening-Knee-Pad-LA...1QQcmdZViewItem


The key feature of this high density foam is that it holds its shape, keeps surfacing level, it feels great in the hand, you can tailor the size of the sanding block to whatever YOU want and feel most comfortable with. And best of all... for 3 bucks you can make a number of sanding blocks out of the one foam slab.


Nuff said. Hope this helps some folks out.. and once again proves that we can use things designed for one purpose for a totally different purpose than it was intended. Thinking outside the box saves money...


And in case you are wondering... YES.. my wife was mucho annoyed when she saw what I had done to her gardening pad hahahhahhahh... c'est la vie..

Marq

.

"Honey have you seen my knee-pad?" "Um, well here's the thing. I caught the dog chewing on it, and it was a mess. Why don't you buy yourself a new knee-saver?" I used a kitchen sponge I found under the kitchen sink that I am pretty sure my wife didn't need, and it worked much better than sandpaper alone.

I think I have settled on about 50/50 for mineral spirits and paint mixture. I know now I had it way too thick which is what caused some earlier issues(see picture).

Upon reading your post, I'm afraid that I may have forgotten more than I've learned about the roller process. I've read 90% of the threads 4-5 times and it's amazing how many great ideas will slip your mind each time... stuff that you don't think applies to you so you skim past it.

I have an 8" wide curved panel that runs the entire length of my truck, just above the upper moulding. Since hand-sanding is useless with ripples and the rubber block won't conform to the panel, your foam pad may be perfect for me regardless of which technique I use.

I'm sure glad my truck has plenty of straight, but junk panels. On my most recent test panels, I've learned that I may not have been working the surface long enough with the roller. At 25-30% mixture, I'm getting close to 10 minutes of work time in the sun(85 degrees). The bubbles are gone, orange peel is minimal so we'll see how it levels out. If this works, my tipping brush may be headed for the trash can... this is good!

This is my first post! whooo! anyways, I hope to join you guys very soon, and plan on painting my celica (im not even a car guy, but I want to repaint the car and practice using bondo on a small dent..) I'll be driving the car on the off days between coats..
anyways! I've read through the first entire thread and partly through the second but it's hard to keep up with all the information.

1. What is the general opinion on what paint to use now? Rustoleum or Brightside?

2. Odor , or odorless Mineral spirits?

3. If possible, is it advisable to use a sprayer instead of a roller?

The rest I've read through about the technique and how to do everything, seems simple enough. If anyone can answer the above two questions I'd really appreciate it. I have down how to avoid the orange peel effecets, and any other defects that may occur, I just want to be up to date on the new products.

Has anyone used rustoleum charcoal gray??Ill be trying it on a 67 cougar soon.

i plan on using charcoal gray but am having a hard time finding it in a quart can. i can find the spray bombs no problem, though.

WOW,,,,WHAT A FANTASTIC LOOKING CAR. DO YOU HAVE ANY BEFORE PICS?

The verdict is in.... Ripples and orange peel both stink.

Ripples are easier to remove from a flat panel but have proven difficult on curved surfaces, where a firm block cannot be used. Unlike orange peel, it needs to be completely removed to look presentable. Orange peel is a bit more tedious, but you can stop sanding once you've arrived at a satisfactory smoothness.

I'll try the foam pad trick on a flat test panel to see how it performs against ripples. If it doesn't work, the most practical solution is to use the roll-and-tip method on flat panels, roller-only method on the curved panels.

Back to the drawing board...

Well I have to admit, I'm not exactly thrilled with my polishing skills. After the third coat, I gave it another once over with 1000 grit, hand polished with some turtle wax polishing compound and finished it off with carnauba wax. The beautiful gloss of the paint after the third coat is gone, replaced by an endless haze of swirl marks. Go me! So until I can get some kind of power tool or work on my skills, I'll paint the rest of the car and leave the polishing for another time. The paint itself is incredibly smooth to the touch. Theres no ridges, no orange peel, not even a hit of brush marks. Just a bunch of hazy swirl marks. I either figure out a better way to polish this panel or just give it a 4th thin coat. Its good to know I can fix it.
You can almost see the swirl marks around the reflection of the sun.


Before polishing

After


Not exactly mirror finish anymore.

tjts1 - it's allmost not possible to get the shine a power polisher will do in 5 mins by hand. With that said, get a polisher, you'd be amazed at how fast they bring that shine back. Otherwise your skills look great as far as painting goes, that's the hardest part to get down pat, the polishing I find is the easy part.

Marq Wrote:-
"One nice thing about Brightside is that Interlux, the manufacturer, does have global distribution. So it should be locatable anywhere in the world.

It's odd that you are encountering difficulty locating a distributor within Poland."

Just wanted to say you were right about the Interlux being available. Every other avenue of enquiry proved fruitless, but the guy in Poland came through today with 4 x 750 ml of Brightside Balck Gloss, it'll be with me by the weekend .... then the fun starts.
I've a question about spraying. I picked up on this product from an Australian car forum where a guy was saying he'd had fantastic results using it spraying his car. Here's the URL

http://www.prevalspraygun.com/home.htm

Again, none here in Poland but if it seems a good product, (and I've not a clue as I just saw it today), then I might use it for door jams and the engine bay etc. I can buy them in the UK. And if it looks viable for Brightside how much would you guess I'd need to thin the paint?
Thanks.

The price figures as they are £5.50 ($11) in the UK, the Brits mostly just swop the $ sign for the £ sign. I just thought they looked a convenient and simple way to apply a paint in a spray form. If anyone has used them and found they just don't do the job that well it would save me the bother of another purchase from the UK. A handy accessory though, I can think of a lot of uses for this thing.
Cheers.

That's one sweet-looking third coat. I wouldn't have had the heart to sand it... but don't worry, it'll come back. Take it from me... There's nothing worse than waiting for a random polisher to come into your life.

My 75 plymouth is a deep maroon, I think called Rallye Red. Pro Rustoleum Regal Red:Royal Blue::2:1 looks nearly dead on...Count me in on PJOAB!