Blending touch-ups with 2k clear coat?

[Matt Bacon]

So I have and Aoshima GT-R body nicely painted with Zero Rosso Fuoco and 2K clear. Irritatingly, there was one spot of dirt which must have been under the basecoat, because when It sanded it back, I got a white primer spot, and into the bargain sanded through to the primer on a nearby sharp edge. I've successfully repainted the 2 layer base coat so the colour matches the rest of the car. Now, I need to clear coat it. If I make up some 2K clear, and respray it, how should I blend it in? Should I try to mask an entire panel, or just try to "feather" the edge beyond the repainted patch and blend it into the existing clear coat with Scratch-X or something of that kind?

bestest,

M.

[Cato]

I don't know if you can blend clear now.

But a future tip is to add 2K clear to your touch-up coats in increasing levels of clear. That will get you close.

[Ace-Garageguy]

On the hundreds of 1:1 cars I've shot with 2K clears, blending so rarely gave me results I considered acceptable (you can almost always see the blend if you look VERY close) I started clearing entire panels for touchups...when possible. Sometimes on a 1:1 you won't have any "natural" panel break, so blending of clearcoats becomes inevitable. There is a very tedious procedure necessary to get a completely undetectable blend, and it's not at all practical on a model.

So, on a model, I wouldn't even consider trying to blend.

Bear in mind you may still get the dreaded "halo" around a metallic or pearl touchup...under your clear (resulting from uneven "dry" metallic particle dispersion on the surface) And if that's not bad enough, you may also get a slight color-shift at the panel line, where the different refraction of the additional coats of clear changes the light reflected from the pigmented surface.

Your results may vary.

Edited April 3, 2015 by Ace-Garageguy

[ZTony8]

Is blending clear still made for real cars?That was/is some interesting stuff.I was at a paint sales training course in Chicago in 1989 and blending clear was demonstrated there.I couldn't see the blend on a test fender that was shot with two distinct shades of color.

Edited April 3, 2015 by ZTony8

[Ace-Garageguy]

Is blending clear still made for real cars?That was/is some interesting stuff.I was at a paint sales training course in Chicago in 1989 and blending clear was demonstrated there.I couldn't see the blend on a test fender that was shot with two distinct shades of color.

Last time I was full-time in the 1:1 car finishing biz, 2005, several manufacturers had versions of the stuff.

It works well to get the car delivered to "industry standards", but in my experience, it can be tricky to work with (getting the painter to follow the instructions exactly), and will show a blend-edge in a few months...long enough for the refinish work to be out of warranty, usually

Most recently (2011), my blending has been accomplished by scuffing an area well beyond the color application, and spraying 3 progressively over-reduced clear coats, farther and farther out, away from the color touchup. 1500 grit sanding and polishing, after an overnight cure, was getting me "acceptable" blends on upper-end private piston-engine aircraft, but you could usually still see the blend if you knew what to look for.