I'm looking to do my own paint in the next couple of weeks (some shade of dark green metallic) and hear horror stories about tiger striping. Any of you pros have tips when painting w/ metallic (bc/cc). I've never painted a car (besides primer). It's going to be a driver quality car so nothing exotic. Most likely a nason paint or a similar brand. As of now the comet is in primer k36 that I recently shot. I'm hesitant on going metallic and considering a solid bc/cc due to my lack of painting experience. My plan is to remove the front clip and doors and shoot the jambs/trunk/hood, reinstall, align gaps then block and rent a booth to shoot the exterior. Thanks
It all comes down to spray technique. Getting proper coverage and overlap will prevent tiger stripes. Tiger stripes happen when you spray with too little overlap. If you can practice with some cheap paint on an old panel you can teach yourself the proper overlap. Set up your gun to have a fan pattern of about 8". Over lap by 50% - in other words, with an 8" pattern, move the gun down 4" each pass. This will set down an even mil thickness across the panel without tiger stripes. If you moved down say 75% or 6" each pass, you will have tiger stripes. Number of coats, how heavy to spray, how to thin out the base, all will depend on what paint you use and temperature you are spraying at. I know I tend to put down lighter coats and more of them with metallic paints - but talk to your paint mixer to see what they say to do. Practice, practice, practice!
Are you doing a single stage or a base/clear coat?....The reason i ask is that you mentioned Nason which is usually single stage and avoiding tiger stripes is tough with a single stage metallic Best is to use base coat/clear....Paint as necessary with the base, then mist the last coat or two by thinning the paint a little more, turning your pressure a little higher and move the gun a little further away from the surface to eliminate any stripes and then clear
Personally.. I'd much rather use the paint I preferred and be forced to learn how to properly apply it.. than use a solid just for the sake of being too lazy(figurative from lack of a better word) to practice and learn how to properly apply it. IMHO, shooting away $10 bucks worth of paint is really cheap insurance in the long run. Solids are much more forgiving.. but they can also be mottled/striped and certainly ain't fool proof either. Darker bases make things tougher and can easily allow the heavy amounts of pigment to settle and move around on you(builds in the valleys and pulls off the highs).. if you don't have the technique, viscosity, proper temp range reducer, tip/nozzle/pressure spec, and a few others I can't think of right now.. all set up correctly. I've been pro painting just about every substrate known to man over the last 30 years now.. and even after all that I still prefer to do practice runs(pun intended, lol) to make sure everything is right for best results. Especially on products that I'm not familiar with when working on money projects that really matter. Auto paint sure ain't cheap and you want to get it right the first time. Couple of tips and random thoughts for you to consider. Keeping the gun perpendicular to the metal while spraying is VERY important with metallics. Avoid tipping your gun as much as possible while trying to reach the middle of the roof/hood. Best chance is to start with a fresh pot full of material to do those areas. Amounts of overlap can be generalized with a specific percentage.. but some guns will require or allow slight changes to best rule. Generally speaking.. cheaper guns require more overlap.. while more expensive ones can do with less overlap to allow faster coverage from their wider usable patterns/better atomization. And from the point above.. cheap guns tend to have poor'ish to downright horrible.. edge atomization characteristics(some of which can be offset with thinner/hotter mixtures but takes more practice skill) and can add insult to injury when relating to novices spraying metallics for the first time. Unless you modify some above listed variables with plenty of practice to get a better end result?.. you're almost guaranteed to have a few bad panels when the mist settles and you do the inspection. The problem with "fogging" a high metallic paint is that it causes the paint to be a lighter shade of color compared to the rest of the paint that was sprayed normally. Also If you fog it too lightly and/or too late.. then when you apply the clear coat the metallics can settle and can cause mottling. With some paints.. there's just no way of getting around doing a drop coat. Cheaper paints can quickly become a metallic nightmare for even the most experienced painters unless a drop coat is done. Don't ask me how I know this because it brings back too many bad memories. lol I usually just plan on doing a drop coat on the cheaper/tougher metallics. Apply as many coats as needed untill full coverage is obtained, usually 2-3 medium/wet coats with good flash time between coats. Then apply one more medium/wet.. then pull the gun back while that coat is still fresh and mist on a couple of light drop coats. I also prefer to do this from a few opposing directions(called cross hatching). If the timing is right and the proper temperature range reducer is used that drop coat will melt right into the previous coat with even metallic layout. Now let it flash for a good amount of time.. denubb if required.. and apply your clear. Singlestage(ss) metallics.. and sometimes even darker solids.. require a drop coat almost every time and the technique is basically the same but no clear applied. Timing is key here though since dry coats are still a great big no-no. When people have material layout, adhesion, and/or durability problems with bc/cc after doing a drop coat it can be blamed on using reducer that's too fast.. or the timing isn't right when the drop was applied causing dry spray related issues. A slower reducer is another "trick" with the cheap stuff, since it stays wet longer giving the metallic more time to flow out. Practice would be even more important with that trick though since edge builds and runs are much more likely on the verticals/transitional edges. Well.. I'm just rambling off key points.. so I'll leave it at that for now. Again.. I wouldn't be scared off from using a metallic just because you're a novice. Because you'll surely need plenty of practice to use solids/metallics.. bc/cc/or ss however you decide to go here. Personally.. I'm biased a bit here since I once restored a 69' Mustang Coupe with a dark evergreen metallic and even the people who said they didn't really care for green.. loved it. The heavy metallic content almost gave it a candylike appearance wherever the cars bodywork caught the sunlight. Dark and mean looking in the shade.. and bright and classy looking in the sunlight.
I am also in the process of painting my Maverick.Three coats of primer,block sanding the last one to get a smooth finish.Using Limco paint,base then the clear,light metallic blue with white racing stripes.My friend is painting it for me,he said once we start,you have to keep moving.He has learned that set up time between coats is critical,you can't wait.Follow the instructions of the Manf. and go to it.
If you've never painted before,take it to Maaco or a paint shop.Your going to spend alot of money on supplies and be dissapointed.I know it's nice to say you did it yourself,but trust me the end result is all anyone sees.
