vandalised paintwork

supapete said:

On the bright side, the primer isn't showing through any more so, even with the pig's ear I've made, black-all-over looks good from a distance! I'm in Anglesey. I'll update my profile straight away. regards P.S

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Adz said:

Good! Primers tend to be more porous than colour coats and lacquer.

Everyone makes mistakes the first few times they use a spray can - here's some basic pointers from the limited stuff I've done before:

First thoroughly wipe down the area you're going to spray with some meths and paper towel, don't use cloth and definitely not a chamois as there are usually oil or detergent residues in them which is what you're trying to get rid of - there are specialist solvents and panel prep stuff you can buy, but with a Halfrauds spray can you're not going to notice the difference I reckon.

Now mask off anything outside of the area you want to spray with newspaper and decorators masking tape - basically, anything you don't want a fine patina of black spray on, cover it up, especially the glass and the light filters as they're the biggest pain in the ass to clean. I've found it's best to leave an area two or three times as large as the area you 'need' to spray to cover imperfections, so that you don't spray directly over the edges of any tape - this leaves a line that you then have to flat or t-cut out. Obviously, if you're only covering a 5p piece, you'll need to leave a proportionally bigger area than that. Bear in mind that anything you don't cover up will, even though you're sure it won't, get spray on it somehow.

Shake the can for twice as long as the instructions on the tin tell you to, once shaken use it straight away - if you put the can down for more than a minute, give it another good shake before you spray again.

Never press the spray nozzle down while the can is stationary! Can't emphasise that bit enough. Start the can moving in a left to right sweep and only start spraying whilst the can is in motion - let go of the nozzle before you stop moving and then repeat from right to left. Lots of sweeps because you're moving the can too fast is better than moving the can too slowly.

Stop spraying as soon as the area is covered in paint - again, can't emphasise that enough - several thin and even coats of paint will look a hell of a lot better than one fat thick one.

Always allow the paint to dry thoroughly before touching it, flatting it or polishing it - might sound obvious, but you'd be surprised how many people test to see if the paint's dry yet by touching it on the piece they've just spent ages painting - if it isn't you'll be polishing a fingerprint off it before you spray it again. Having a 'test bit' that you spray immediately after finishing on the car - any old bit of metal will do, biscuit tin, cigar tube etc. - can save a lot of elbow grease.

I prefer to t-cut than flat using wet and dry - it's a lot slower, but I'm always worried I'll take off too much of the thin coat of paint I've just put on - your call there, which ever you feel happiest with. If you use wet and dry, you'll get a much better finish if you use it wet than dry.

Repeat all of the above for the 2nd (and 3rd if you can be bothered) coats... putting one or two coats of clear gloss lacquer over the panel once you've finished with the colour coats makes it a much tougher (as in harder wearing, not difficult) job and more resistant to chipping/fading.

Hope that helps you some

Cheers,

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