How to Blend Paint On A Car Or Truck - Automotive Paint And Body Tech Tips - Part 1 

This is exactly what happenes if solvent selection is incorrect. Solevent e treatment is a main cause of solvent pop and delamination. Ultimately it depends some on your shop air movement and the panel and air temp. With base coat it's advisable to go slower and have to let it flash slightly longer than faster and have entrapment. Base should get dry enough to tack cloth with a low tack tack cloth in under 10 min. Usually more around 5. Of course the solovent matters as does the gun. Most base costs do well out of a 1.3 mm too if hvlp or a 1.2mm hte gun. Tech sheets are helpful to an extent but they leave a lot out and are somewhat driven by marketing department not actual use cases. The reducer or solovent is how you control your flash time but typically the catalyst has more to do with your cure time. You have to go by the 15 degree rule with catalyst. For every 15 min a catalyzed product will tend to either half or double it's cure time. But a catalyzed product usually won't keep reacting after 24 hours. So watch it if you hace a clear with a slow 16 hour cure and it's only 65 on your shop or the panel. You'll be out of time and it may dry but won't be as durable. Start by using the reducer and catalyst according to a temp range and job size and adjust if it's drying too fast or slow. Don't hammer on your base so hard that it takes for ever to dry either. That will cause failure too since solovent base will skin over if the costs are too heavy.

@@bobbysenterprises3220 Thanks for the detailed explanation, that is helpful. "For every 15 min a catalyzed product will tend to either half or double its cure time." I'm presuming you meant every 15 degrees up or down from 70 degrees, not minutes. Thanks for taking the time!

Correct. Do is 30 min with 401 and none with 402.

100%. Some of the rides at wwd has pretty decent finishes though. And I didn't notice tape lines on all of them

1000 ? …. where’s the tooth for the clear . Why 1000 ?

​@@lawncuttingplusdelta800-1k is fine. Scotch pads often leave random inconsistent scratches. They are better for edges or places you can't get paper into. Your better with a finer scratch than deeper scratches with gloss between them. A wet bed can help with covering stuff scratches but that contributes to other issues like DOI and requiring full 2 mills of clear right to the edge that makes it even more noticable.

1000 has been the standard for years for blend panels..No chance of scratches showing thru...

Is thinking maybe 600 finest necessary

@@lawncuttingplusdelta I have to sand finer than that where color is going. With solovent might get away with 600 under it depending on color and what brand and type of 600 it is. Not 600 Norton cyclonic or other ceramic abrasive. Also if your using a wet bed 600 is easier to get away with. Actual sop for solovent may be 600 but given there's only a total of 3.5 mils total on some OEM finishes you would be panel painting everything. Newer color coats require 800-1200.under them. So doing 600 for a blend area wouldn't work. Generally 400 ecoat under sealer top surfaces to adjust texture if needed Finish primer with 400 or 600 before sealing Under color 800-1k also on blend area that's only getting clear.

This is Mr. Know it all for anyone who is wondering

@@lawncuttingplusdelta I forgot comments section is full of trained certified professionals. I'll try and remember so I do better

Who said anything about trained and certified …. A life time of real world 🌎 experience is worth more

@@lawncuttingplusdelta oh right. That too but doing this crap for 30+ years just means you start to feel old. I've had more than a couple people struggle and ask why that were doing to the hard or wrong way for years. As someone once told me doing it a long time sometimes just means your getting old. Never stop trying to find the better way and be open to improvement.