clear coat - no gloss/shine

[pujo]

hello to all, me again asking noob questions. anyway, just finished painting my rear skirt. after letting it dry, i applied 3 coats of clear coat. waited for that to dry. the problem is that its not shiny/glossy. have i missed something? i got the clear coat from autobarn. pics below.. someone please shed some light

the pics above are the skirt and the corners. as you can see, the corner is shiny (these are the ones i took of the car) but the skirt isn't anything like the corner.

thanks in advance

[qkslvr]

Hey mate =) I'm having trouble making out what i'm looking at in the pics. in the first pic, what is the darker piece (looks like the rear apron)

They both look glossy to me. perhaps it's a colour match issue. The humidity and the way the metalic flakes face also affect the final finish.

[pujo]

Hey mate =) I'm having trouble making out what i'm looking at in the pics. in the first pic, what is the darker piece (looks like the rear apron)

They both look glossy to me. perhaps it's a colour match issue. The humidity and the way the metalic flakes face also affect the final finish.

yeah, if i slide my finger across the skirt, it feels rough but in the apron its smooth. the apron kinda have have this mirror finish not like the skirt i painter and clear coated. am i meant to sand again after painting the base coat?

[CHA54]

looks like the colour isn't matched very well, silver is a hard colour to match at the best of times.

For the paint to come out glossy, you need to lay the final clear coat on fairly thick, which is tricky when you're trying to also not let it run.

Wetsanding the clear prior to the final coat helps, taking the ridges off with something like 1200grit paper.

How many coats of the base did you do? Did you sand them between the base coats? Was the primered skirt perfectly smooth prior to the basecoat being applied?

Edited October 11, 2007 by rollamods

[pujo]

looks like the colour isn't matched very well, silver is a hard colour to match at the best of times.

For the paint to come out glossy, you need to lay the final clear coat on fairly thick, which is tricky when you're trying to also not let it run.

Wetsanding the clear prior to the final coat helps, taking the ridges off with something like 1200grit paper.

How many coats of the base did you do? Did you sand them between the base coats? Was the primered skirt perfectly smooth prior to the basecoat being applied?

i did 3 base coats and i didn't wet sand them in between. am i meant to? ok, now i used 800 grit wet sand to get previous clear coat then 1200 grit. the skirt is pretty smooth not. i glided my fingers across and its not rough. i'm gonna try to clear coat it again. thanks..

[qkslvr]

Hey mate =) I'm having trouble making out what i'm looking at in the pics. in the first pic, what is the darker piece (looks like the rear apron)

They both look glossy to me. perhaps it's a colour match issue. The humidity and the way the metalic flakes face also affect the final finish.

yeah, if i slide my finger across the skirt, it feels rough but in the apron its smooth. the apron kinda have have this mirror finish not like the skirt i painter and clear coated. am i meant to sand again after painting the base coat?

sounds like you've got "dry-spray". are you using a spray gun or aerosole cans? the distance from the paint surface, how much paint flow, and how fast you fan accross the surface will determine how smooth your finish will be. Try some really fine grit wet/dry paper followed by a buff with some cutting compound (you'll have to let the paint cure for at least a week before you buff)

you don't need to sand between coats nor do you need to sand before clear coating; it will dull the finish.

Edited October 11, 2007 by qkslvr

[pujo]

Hey mate =) I'm having trouble making out what i'm looking at in the pics. in the first pic, what is the darker piece (looks like the rear apron)

They both look glossy to me. perhaps it's a colour match issue. The humidity and the way the metalic flakes face also affect the final finish.

yeah, if i slide my finger across the skirt, it feels rough but in the apron its smooth. the apron kinda have have this mirror finish not like the skirt i painter and clear coated. am i meant to sand again after painting the base coat?

sounds like you've got "dry-spray". are you using a spray gun or aerosole cans? the distance from the paint surface, how much paint flow, and how fast you fan accross the surface will determine how smooth your finish will be. Try some really fine grit wet/dry paper followed by a buff with some cutting compound (you'll have to let the paint cure for at least a week before you buff)

The wet\dry paper will get rid of the roughness. the buff will smooth out the paint surface. then some detailing polish followed by a coat of wax should do the trick. But like I said earlier, the colour match is still an issue.

i'm starting to see some light. after sanding the skirt with 1200 grit wet/sand , i cleaned it then started 1st coat of clear. after the 2nd, its starting to look glossy. then after the 3rd its heaps glossy but not as glossy as the apron/corner. unfortunately i've run out of clear coat so i'm gonna head down to supercheap and buy 2 more cans. i'll post the results later on.

cheers