Spraying Metallic Paint
Spraying metallic as a colur mixed top coat (such as in cellulose) is almost imposible. On the other hand it is surprisingly easy to get a good result from a base coat/ clear coat system. I'm using the 2K basecoat and clear paint system. It's lethal stuff and requires an air fed mask.
Metallic basecoat seems to go on flat no matter how badly it is sprayed. The trick is not to spray it too thickly. Too thick and the metal flakes settle and the finish becomes uneven.
The photo is the first coat which goes on especially thinly to avoid runs and provide a surface for subsequent coats. Further coats can be slightly thicker than this but not nearly as thick as you would spray primer or solid colurs.
I put on 4 coats of basecoat in total, allowing each to dry and running over any specs of dust with 800 grade sandpaper between coats. My workshop isn't the best place to paint in the world and I've not gone to the effort of making a paint booth from plastic sheets. Probably ought to have done as there was a steady supply of dust.
The final coat of basecoat can't be messed with as it provides the finish. Any sandpaper marks would be seen.
The paint is protected by clear coat which ideally should be sprayed on the same day as the basecoat otherwise it can lift.
The clear coat went on very well. The second coat is always a pain as it's more difficult to see where you've painted, but that ended up fine too. I didn't chance my luck with a third coat.
The finished surface can be flatted or polished when cured, but take great care not to rub through the clear coat as the damage would be difficult to fix without respraying the whole panel.
This one was finished by hand with T-cut which was surprisingly effective at smoothing out the parts that had a little too much orange peel.
