Fixing botched paint job?

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dmopar74

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I painted my duster with summit single stage performance yellow paint and have many areas of thin paint and lots of orange peel. I am NOT a painter lol. I was wondering if I can spot repair the paint, sand it smooth, and clear coat it? Basically treating the yellow like a base coat that I can get perfect and flat, and if I get orange peel or defects in the clear, I know I will have enough build up to fix it.
 
I have a professional restoration shop right down the road. He does six figure builds all year long. He's one of the best painters I've ever seen, as is his hired painter. They both routinely spray clear over single stage. Call Southern Polyurethane and talk to them about it. They can tell you how to do it.
 
What do you mean by "thin"? If it needs more color then no. If you can sand it without going through then yes.
 
Single stage paint is not intended to have clear coat. Do as in post 2
You can still use clearcoat with single stage paints, also. It won't hurt anything. Be sure to sand down what you have now so it's smooth first. If you're doing it in a wet-on-wet situation, just be sure to use the same compatible clear coat system. If the paint you have on it now is cured, then it should be sanded with 600 grit or finer before clear coating or proceeding to respraying.

In this guy's case, if it were me, I would sand the car down with 600 grit, then give it a fresh coat of the yellow using a base coat color which is more forgiving and faster drying. Just make sure you don't really soak it and eat into the prior single stage paint because that can cause some wrinkling/lifting. Take your time and spot in the bad areas.
follow up with clear coat for the most forgiving fix. 3 good coats of clear to allow enough buildup that could be sanded and buffed to a great shine.
or, you can use the single stage paint to spot it in and follow that with clear coats so that you sand and buff it afterwards. Again, make sure the clear coat brand is the same and compatible with you're single stage paint.
Hope that makes sense.

-that's this old body/paint guy's advice.
 
What do you mean by "thin"? If it needs more color then no. If you can sand it without going through then yes.
To revisit, too thin to me means not enough coverage of the color. You can sand it, add some basecoat and clearcoat it.
 
Yes there are spots with not enough coverage and spots where I try to wet sand the rough texture and get down to the primer. I still have a gallon of the single stage left as I bought two gallons because I knew I would probably need extra.
 
There is a lot of different options here depending on the pocket book. I have to bow out of this conversation.
 
As said, you can clearcoat over single stage paint. I would just sand it smooth with 600 grit and respray seeing you have the paint. Take your time and do a nicer job this time or have a friend that can spray it? Wait the right time between coats. Three coats of single stage or clearcoat can get you what they call (panel pop). Little pinholes in the paint because the paint didn't sit long enough between coats and the thinner can get out.
 
Yellow can take 6 plus coats to fully cover since it's transparent.. If it still looks blotchy the only fix is more coats.. at this point scuff and shoot more coats as clearcoat will not magically blend it will just protect the blotchy and make it more noticeable.
 
Make sure all the air hose fittings are high flow high volume. Otherwise paint gun won't be able to properly atomize the paint causi g orange peel and roughness.
 
Where you broke through to primer just spray a little light gray primer over it and sand. You don't want the new paint to creep under the edges of the existing paint.
 
Yellow can be tricky because of it's transparency characteristics. It takes a ton of material to get full coverage. It really helps to go with a white sealer coat or white color coat before moving on to the yellow.
 
Depending on how many coats you sprayed on you can wet sand & buff it. It you go the clear route make sure you get clear made for spraying over single stage
 
So the 600 is really working well to smooth it out and overall I think I'm in better shape than I thought. I do have some sand through on edges and a couple thing spots but I think if I hit the thin spots with primer, a touch up gun, resand, and apply 2-3 more coats I should be good. I really need a bigger compressor, so I will probably rent one or buy one if the funds allow. I still want to clear coat it, and this paint is compatible with clear coat. The only reason I went single stage is I thought it would be easier and cheaper. First picture is before sanding and that's not even a bad spot, second is after 600 da.
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Summit single stage will work, I would just sand and add more color.
I painted my Willys with Summit single stage, no buffing required.

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Interesting. I always thought single stage was just that. One and done. Did not know it could be cleared…
 
I agree with talking with Southern Polyurethanes, best tech out there. Great products.

I feel for you, as my compressor is NOT really adequate either. I shoot single stage and it is hard for me to not have some orange peel and yes I know clear will give a different "shine" but I am old school and have no need for 2024 shine! But you must have coverage!

I agree with some color paints are very transparent and need perhaps even 5-6 coats in a single stage. Always be sure the solvents have "popped" before another coat.

I have cleared single stage, no issues. I have asked various paint techs and all said I could use their clear over single stage. disclaimer: If anything can go wrong, it will!! :BangHead:
 
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