Another Clear Question, Probably A Dumb One

[Quick GMC]

I need to sand some heavy orange peel from the clear coat, which is over metallic paint. I expect to go through the paint in some high spots, but the majority of the clear will remain. Can I touch up these spots by spraying more basecoat, then clear over the whole thing without it looking weird? 

most of it will have base paint+clear, while the areas immediately surrounding the touch ups will have base paint+clear+base paint+clear. 

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

If you were working on a real car and you had some room to do blending of the metallic in, then you could make it work and be entirely invisible. This is essentially how we do spot repairs on metallic or pearls...but it takes a sufficiently large amount of panel to pull it off.

What I would respectfully suggest is that you try to just "knock the top off" your orange-peeled clear, level it as much as possible WITHOUT breaking through the clear into the metallic base, and shoot additional coats of clear over everything...followed by another sanding / polish job.

[Quick GMC]

ok. I know I have read in the past you have to be careful touching up and sanding metallics, so I just wanted to be sure. 

[StevenGuthmiller]

Many times, when sanding metallic paints, you will actually begin to "smear" the metallic in the paint, ruining it's appearance.

If you sand through the clear into the color coats, chances are you'll wind up with this problem.

As Bill said, I would go as lightly as possible to avoid sanding through.

A couple of more coats of clear may help level some of the remaining orange peel.

Although, it sounds as if your clear may be a problem.

 

Steve