On going anomaly...?

[The Z'eer]

Base dries a lot quicker than clear - and you typically only put on a very thin layer, so usually much less chance of dust.

Any dust specks you get can often be denibbed or flicked out before you lay on the clear, if you are lucky.
Insects, hairs or larger trash you might be able to extract with some tweezers - and just tickle on some more base if required.

Ideally you want to avoid having to sand the basecoat at all, you want to apply the clearcoat before the basecoat has fully cured.
If you have to sand it you will have to wait for it to go off, sand and then mist on some more base.


The rest of the dust will get buried in the clear coat, and will be very difficult to see.
If you lay down a nice thick film of clear, then you have plenty to play with when it comes to wetsanding and buffing.
Once you have flatted the clear and shined it up, it will be almost impossible to see any tiny defects in the base.

You also have to exercise some self-control or you will go nuts - 99.9% of people looking at a paint job will not see the defects that you will see after working on it that closely for such a length of time.
A rule of thumb is if you can’t see them at an arm’s length, don’t worry about them.

I could go up to a new car in the showroom and almost guarantee I could find some defect in the paint if I looked hard enough - and yet nobody would ever spot it if they weren’t specifically looking for it.

Strive for perfection, by all means - but don't beat yourself up over it. It only needs to be good enough, and nothing is ever perfect.
One of the biggest lessons to learn is when to put the gun down and leave the job alone, its is all too easy to ruin a nice job by being too much of a perfectionist. I’ve done it several times.

I would recommend you work on getting your prep process right so you don't get any of those sand scratches - practise laying down the paint and then put some time in with a sanding block and a buffer - each of those stages is a different set of skills which takes time to master. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the results you get once it is polished up. You will get a little better each time you do it.

Thank you very much for taking the time to share your thoughts on this issue, really is very much appreciated That IS the problem of striving for perfection, I just find it very difficult to accept a job that isn't what it I personally feel it ought to be. They are my own demons and trying battle against them causes me a great deal of turmoil/anguish. As you say it'll drive me loopy should I not. I have experienced this attitude towards other pursuits as well, more of a curse than a blessing I find.

It's great to hear that it's considered nigh on impossible to produce a job that is completely flawless, regardless of how professional the environment is. This gives me a great deal of consolation

Yeah, there is other areas to more concerned about and much time is required to practice in these areas and develop the required talents.

 

[steveo3002]

concentrate on the block sanding ...if you can get it arrow straight looking down the side then its a good job

most other issues can be sanded and polished to near perfection