Blending new clear coat with old...

[Alex Brown]

I've been doing a bit of paint work on my car and it required me painting some clear coat in certain areas. I've tried hard to fade it into existing clear coat then proceeded to wet sand in stages but the lines between old and new is so obvious! And I just can't get rid of them no matter what I do. I've gone up to 3000 grit and still no luck. Forgive me I am a complete novice out of my depth so if I sound a bit clueless that's because I am!

 

[norsa]

exactly what did you do to get to where you are, we can then get you sorted out
Nick

 

[steveo3002]

you cant just sand over the edge and get it to look nice it doesnt work like

you need to do a fade out or blend and even then it will still be a bit fragile

what you would do is prepare the area where you want it to fade with a grey scotch pad and /or blending paste , clear coat the panel and keep away from the blend area , on the last coat waft it into the prepped area , dump the gun pot and then use fade out thinners over the edge , some people like to spray a little thinned clear coat over the edge before the thinners but i get away without

once dry it can be gently polished so that it looks good...over polishing will cut it back and make a line

its easier to just clear the whole panel when possible as good quality fade outs can take some pratice to get right and look awefull when they go bad

 

[steveo3002]

p.s your pic looks like you sprayed on a unkeyyed surface

 

[Alex Brown]

I went over the panel with some 1200 grit before painting, sprayed some colour, then 1200 grit again before spraying the clear coat. I guess I should start again and just do the whole panel...

I did manage to blend it ok on the front bumper, I just buffed it really hard and managed to get rid of those lines...

 

[norsa]

3 mistakes unfortunately Alex if i read this right. mostly as Steveo advised
1 1200 is too fine to get adhesion
2 never flat colour coat immediately pre clear
3 you wont successfully polish clear blend without fade out thinner
Nick