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Thanks for the heads up on odor-less MS, Marq. I went ahead and made up another mixture of MS and paint. To get it the consistancy of milk, I had to add a crap load of MS. Much more than the amount of paint itself. I went ahead prepped the hood and started rolling. It self leveled. I can see still see the paint.. BUT well see for yourself..



That is the way it will look if you are doing it correctly. Just remember that what we are doing is adding THIN layer after THIN layer....

As you add enough THIN layers it will begin to get darker and darker. Each layer is adding on to the previous layers and laying a little more color pigment each time. At some point you will achieve 100% pigment coverage...

The biggest mistake people make is going at this like they are painting a wall in their house and trying to get 50% or 100% color coverage on the first coat or two...

It will take 5 to 8 THIN coats to start nearing the 100% color pigment coverage. But in the process of this addition of thin coats, you are getting a more level paint job.

Another advantage to this is the 'depth' of the shine or color that you end up with in the end. If you just slap on one coat of thick paint... the refraction of the light bounces just off the outer skin of the paint and does not appear to have any 'depth'. But by laying on the thin layers, and depositing just a little pigment with each layer, you basically are giving your finished paint job 'depth'. When the light reflects and refracts off the finished paint job it will echo those various layers.

Imagine a diamond... in the rough a diamond looks like crap. To make a diamond sparkle, they cut facets into the rough stone which allows light to enter the diamond and ricochet around in it. That gives the diamond its sparkle. The final polishing of the diamond simply helps take it to the next level of sparkle. Each layer of thin paint you are laying is like cutting a facet in the diamond.

For trivia sake... let me tell you about my father's Jaguar XK 140 C type. When the car arrived at the dealership, my father did not like the Red. He wanted Black. So they took this brand new Jaguar to the local Rolls Royce dealership and they did a Rolls Royce Black paint job on it. That paint job consisted of 32 coats of paint... with wet sanding happening every 3 or 4 coat. The end result was a black paint job that you would have killed for...

Do you know that red colored, almost translucent plastic that comes with easter eggs ? You know.. it has a hint of red color on it, but you can hold it to you face and look through it to see the world tinted red ?

Ok.. imagine this paint job is like that. Put one sheet of that red color wrapping paper in front of you and the world is slightly red. Now... put two sheets of the red colored wrapping paper in front of you and what you will see through it becomes a darker shade of red.

Each time you add an additional sheet of that red colored wrapping paper in front of you, what you see through it will become even darker red.

At some point, if you put enough of those red sheets of wrapping paper in front of you, you will not be able to see through them. You will just see RED only...

This is the same story for how this paint job happens. Thin layer after thin layer...

One benefit of this 'layer upon layer' process is that at any point you can stop, let it harden fully... and do a quick wet sand to fix any imperfections that might turn up or catch your eye. Then you just go back and add 'yet another' thin layer and keep going.

One frustration that can happen is when you find that you have to wet sand to the point where you might fall back one or two layers.

So it isn't always going to go in a continuous addition of thin layers. At some point you will make corrections to a previous layer and it will have to be re-painted with a new thin layer.

But in the end.... if you take your time and give it the patience that is required, all the layers you lay down will add up to 100% color cover and a nice smooth finish.

Personally, I like to get to 120% coverage... ( ie. get to the point where it is looking like 100% coverage and then add one or two extra thin layers ). This will give you some working room for when you move on to the compounding, polishing and waxing stage.

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Last edited by Marq; 01/21/08 12:20 PM.