Need help with painting and clearing

[martinfan5]

I am redoing the A-team van kit, and I am kind of at a stall, the body is painted, I sprayed the black , but brushed the gun metal color on ( I know brushed), well my questions are these. what is the best way to smooth out the brush strokes?

Now my other question is, the weather here has made it hard to get a smooth paint job, I need to wet sand, but the with the van, it has a lot of body lines, and raised areas, so would it be better to clear and then wet sand down?

Thanks

[W-409]

The best way to smooth those brush strokes would be maybe polishing... If you don't have a polishing kit, maybe some wax which polishes at the same time, would work fine too...

And about the wetsanding, do you mean that it needs to be wetsanded smooth for new paint coat? I've heard that some builders shoot some clear to the body, and then they wetsand with very fine paper and then some more clear.

But I'm not a professional on this, maybe someone else can say better. Those are just my ideas...

[MrObsessive]

I'm biased against brush painting on bodies for the very reason you stated.............the brush strokes or "marks" will remain no matter what you do to 'em. You can try to clear over them, but you can still see the waves-------or you can try rubbing then out, but then you may still end up with an uneven surface due to the very nature of brush painting. Not to mention that any time you rub out a metallic.........you run the risk of getting a mottled or splotchy appearance in the paint due to the metallic flakes getting "disturbed".

Now as far as getting a smooth paint job on a black vehicle------in my experience solid colors need not be clearcoated since there's enough hardener in the paint to make this rather redundant. Since you're dealing with a lot of raised edges, it may be a good idea to mask off the edges with Tamiya Tape or Parafilm to keep from burning through those edges.

I mention those products because in my experience, those are the least harsh to the paint surface unlike regular masking tape which in my book is a big no-no!

Especially with wet sanding, I'd work very carefully in this respect because the water can tend to "hide" those areas you are rubbing out, and before you know it, you've burned through to the primer or plastic.

You'd run into the same problem if you were clearcoating...............Clear coats tend to dry in thinner coats, so you'd still need to use just as much care and caution when dealing with a vehicle with a surface like that. You don't say what kind of paint you're using or how many coats................if it's a hobby enamel (such as Testors) I'd say get ready for a repainting as those paints are so soft, they don't stand much of a chance of lasting through too many rub outs.

Hope this helps--------this is just one man's opinion!

Edited August 4, 2011 by MrObsessive

[martinfan5]

Thanks for the help guys, I was able to get the black smooth enough, there is still some slight orange peel, but its not bad, so I am going to skip wetsanding. For the gun metal color, I think I will just get it in a spray . I found out myself that trying to smooth out the brush strokes wasn't going to work.