paint help

[nicholaschesworth[501st]]

I just painted my dome, but i get an overspray look and not a nice, clean high gloss. It looks bumpy up close, \Any tips?

[Chef[501st]]

There are two possible issues for this.

 

Either you're spraying too far away in which case you're getting 'dry' spray dusting on the surface, or you are spraying too close and you're ending up with 'orange peel' (basically where the force of the propellant affects the paint surface).

 

 

Both issues are not insurmountable.

 

 

Depending on how bad it is will determine the best solution.

 

Either way, it's going to end up with some degree of flatting back and possibly some re-spraying.

 

 

Basically, you'll need to get some wet and dry sand paper, (you'll need a number of various grits ranging from 800 down to 2000).

 

Firstly soak the paper in water and then give the helmet a rub over. Rub in circular motions and don't dwell on any one spot.

After that initial hit, dry the lid off and rub off any dust. You'll now be able to see exactly how bad it is. The low spots will still be gloss, and the high spots will be 'dull' where they have been sanded.

 

Now at this stage you can either re-spray to build up the thickness of paint, or you can flat back further. Flatting back risks striking through the paint to the panel underneath, and further painting can risk wrinkling the paint or other stupid paint side effects. So it really is a judgement call on your part.

 

But either way... When you have flatted the helmet so al the high/low spots have been removed and the paint is the same 'level' all over (it will be all 'dull' from flatting) then you move on to the stage of reducing the grit to remove the sanding 'swirls'. Progressively use finer and finer grades of wet and dry to remove the swirls from the previous grit.

 

Again you need to be conscious of not striking through the paint to the panel below.

 

When you've got down to around 2000 grit, you can switch to a cutting compound or polish and then finish up the lid with a polish.

 

That will take it to a high gloss.

 

 

There's no real quick way to deal with it I'm afraid.