Hey I painted my car and it has no shine. Should I use any special clear? I used regular duplicolor brand clear. But I finished painting and there is no shine at all to the paint. It looks like flat red instead of shinny red. Where did I go wrong? Its my first paint job and im very dissapointed. Can I still save this paint job or do I have to repaint?
Did you look at their site for any help? I've seen a few cars painted with that stuff, and even the one they did on Muscle Car, and none of them really looked that good.
A picture would help greatly. Be sure you didny get a flat clear first off. But most likely you dry sprayed it. My suggestion based on this is to sand it down with a good 600 paper and clear again. But after i see a picture it could be as simple as cut and buff
Did you use Lacquer paint???( the duplicolor stuff I see here is lacquer) It will dry flat and a bit orange peeled. It needs to be color sanded and buffed out to achieve a glossy finish...
You need to color sand the finish. You should have colorsanded the red before you cleared it. You are going to be re-painting unless the red layed down flat with no orange peel to it...Or you can cut (colorsand) the clear to get it uniform. Do not cut into the red underneath it, and lay a few more coats of clear on it. But...This is a shabby way to correct the finish...Best bet...Cut the clear down to the red...Sand it all flat and uniform and re touch the red where you sand through it (you will) then either re paint the red lacquer and colorsand/buff it out OR after fixing the red colorsand it all and re-clear it...Then colorsand and buff to a high luster...Good luck!!!
Old school lacquer can be cut/buffed about an hour or two after it dries (Its plastic in liquid form) and dries pretty quick. One of the reasons it allways dries with an orange peel look to it as well. Just be careful. It is soft and easy to burn right throug it while sanding/buffing. The part that makes it easy to use is the fact that its simple to repair if you burn through it...Just re spray the damaged area, let it dry and continue sanding/buffing. I like to give the finish 12 to 24 hrs to thuroghly flash off (Dry) before colorsanding lacquer. You can do it in quick sucession if need be. (it was the paint of choice for collision/custom shops for years) Due to the speed you can achieve finishing a job and getting paid for it. just remember...lacquer gets brittle with age/sun exposure and looses its adhesion and color fastness as well as luster. Dont pile it on too thick or it will crack the first time you slam the hood/door or trunklid. The trick to lacquer is laying on just enough to achieve uniform hiding (color uniformity) and enough to cut and buff without burning through it. Thats where the real talent comes in with lacquer...Good luck!!!
I'd be worried that you got enough coverage to wet sand it out...that Duplicolor is pretty thin outta the can..it's not like "real" automotive paint.
Depends on how rough the surface is but...Generally a properly applied lacquer finish should cut with 1500 grit easily to achieve a uniform flat surface. Buy lots of sandpaper...Lacquer will plug the paper up quickly. If you dont know what kind of surface you have...Start with the finest grit you think will cut the surface with little effort and see what you get. If its not cutting and smoothing the surface well, move to the next roughest grit. Just remember...You will have to sand in steps from roughest to finest grit to achieve a flat uniform surface to buff with no sanding scratches in it from the coarser grits left over. If you dont have enough paint on the surface...Useing multiple grits to achieve a buffable surface will just cut the paint off the car...Good luck
