paint finish

[m408]

I know, I'm getting to be a pain with all of my questions, but just trying to learn from the best.

Just finished a paint job. Washed the body, slightly roughed it up and applied three coats of primer with a 24 hour wait before wet sanding after each coat. Applied three coats of color. Again with a 24 hour rest period between wet sanding the first two coats. Finished with a coat of clear right after the last coat of color. It came out great. Smooth as my old bald head and shinny as a new nickle. Might add a coat of McGuires car polish. Why would I need to take the time and effort to use a polishing kit? Am I missing something here?

[djway3474]

I know, I'm getting to be a pain with all of my questions, but just trying to learn from the best.

Just finished a paint job. Washed the body, slightly roughed it up and applied three coats of primer with a 24 hour wait before wet sanding after each coat. Applied three coats of color. Again with a 24 hour rest period between wet sanding the first two coats. Finished with a coat of clear right after the last coat of color. It came out great. Smooth as my old bald head and shinny as a new nickle. Might add a coat of McGuires car polish. Why would I need to take the time and effort to use a polishing kit? Am I missing something here?

In my opinion polishing can never match a good gloss coat. But that being said if the gloss is not perfectly smooth and has particulates however small you would then need to polish. I know some guys here in So Cal that won many paint awards that alway went for the perfect wet gloss coat.

If your happy with the finish leave it.

[MrObsessive]

Milt, you know the old saying........."if it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

As was mentioned, if you're happy with the result, don't bother it. Generally I don't clearcoat solid colors as there's enough inherent gloss in the pigments to rub out and polish to a nice shine. However, metallics I always clearcoat as polishing disturbs the metallic flakes which can lead to a mottled, splotchy appearance.

This '58 Chevy I did for instance, has no clearcoat as it's a solid color................but was rubbed out with a polishing kit and waxed with Meguiar's Car Cleaner Wax.

What did you paint and with which color and brand BTW?

[MonoPed]

Like Bill said, if you're happy with it as-is, don't worry about it. Some cars get polished, some get cleared, some get cleared an polished, but occasionally, I get lucky and put down a nice looking paintjob right from the can. This '65 Corvette is Tamiya Italian Red, no clear, rubbed with Novus plastic polish #2:

This Deuce is PPG Ford Sonic Blue Pearl with PPG clear, rubbed with Novus #2:

And this old Woody is Tamiya TS-14 Black, right from the can, no rubbing, no clear:

I'm happy with how each of them turned out, but they all took different approaches to to get there.

[m408]

Milt, you know the old saying........."if it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

As was mentioned, if you're happy with the result, don't bother it. Generally I don't clearcoat solid colors as there's enough inherent gloss in the pigments to rub out and polish to a nice shine. However, metallics I always clearcoat as polishing disturbs the metallic flakes which can lead to a mottled, splotchy appearance.

This '58 Chevy I did for instance, has no clearcoat as it's a solid color................but was rubbed out with a polishing kit and waxed with Meguiar's Car Cleaner Wax.

What did you paint and with which color and brand BTW?

Dupli-color light blue metalic over Dupli-color primer. Also used Dupli-color clear. I can see where polishing a solid color would get a good result, much as on a 1:1.