im painting something small. just doing it with a rattle can because thats pretty much all i really have acess to. anyway, i just finished my primer coat and wetsanding it. the surface feels very smooth, but when caught in the right light, there is a an orange peel texture present. i tried my best to prep the surface as well as i could before paint (wipe down with a light acetone and then go over it really good with a tack cloth), and yet i still got the peel. i dont really want to respray and sand the whole primer coat, so is there anything i can do when laying down the color coat to cover up the orange peel in the primer and minimize the chances of getting it again in the color coat? i also have a clear coat to be layed down as well. any suggestions would be appreciated.
What is the material you are trying to paint?
How heavy were your coats?
What grit did you sand it with because feeling smooth and being smooth are very different.
well, its actually a guitar body. it was painted prior to me re-painting it, so i just sanded down the finish (not the the bare wood, but enough for the paint to stick), and sprayed over it. i wetsanded (with very little water, because water and wood dont mix) with 1000 grit until it felt smooth with the sandpaper.
uhh you dont want your primer to be smooth…
spray it with filler primer and let it dry. then color paint it. let dry do a couple coats of paint and then let it dry like 48hrs and then wet sand with 1000 and clear it. do a few coats of clear, then wetsand with 1000, then with 1500. then buff.
ive started working on this again, and have once again run into problems. i ended up just stripping the guitar down to the bare wood, in the process, i ended up with a lot of decent scratches in the wood. i used some wood filler on the guitar to fill in what i could see, and figured anything i couldnt see would be covered up by the paint, right? WRONG! after 1 light coat of primer, i can see EVERYTHING (scratches in the wood). all the places i wood filler-ed are good, so should I just sand the guitar back down and cover the whole thing in wood filler and then re-sand? or if I use a filler primer, will that cover up the scratches in the wood?
you can wetsand primer … you SHOULD wetsand primer, it promotes adhesion AND results in a smoother final product. the only time you DONT sand primer is when your immediatly laying paint over it.
and orange peel has almost nothing to do with the primer. if you sanded the primer the orange peel is from HOW you applied the paint. lightly sand down the paint and blow a few light coats over what you have, just enough to cover the sand scrathes
1.) if the paint is translucent or even semi, your fucked, your either gonna see scratches, or parts with wood filler in em. One rule about woodworking. you may not see it now, but as soon as you hit it with primer or a stain/clearcoat, its gonna stick out likea sore thumb.
2.) what grit are you using that you ended up with some decent scratches? If you want it to be smooth, follow this Grit-wise, 1000, 2000. Dont work too hard on the scratches trying to sand them out. Youll end up with some nasty divets.
3.) using filler primer may or may not work depending on how nasty the scratches are. If theyre dep gouges, no, it wont work. If theyre fine scratches left by individual grains in the paper, more than likely, yes.
Anyway you look at it, with defects in wood, its either fix though experience or learn.
i got rid of the orange peel problem but sanding it down to the bare wood. there is no more orange peel but these are scratches left by 80 grit sadpaper (for those you you who have never stripped a guitar, the finish they put on these things is like an acrylic ‘armor’ that nothing short of 8 heavy coats of aircraft remover and a heatgun will take off). the scrathces i have are from sanding the wood.
80 grit??
follow these grit steps
150
300
500
Smooth as glass.
id start where you are with 3 coats of primer. wetsand with 400…apply more coats if you sand thru. once you get it smooth with 400 do 600 wet sand. then tack and apply paint. then apply clear. then do ne final sanding with 1000-1500-2000 wet grit
why would you wetsand primer? scothbrite is way mnore efficiant in my opinion.
wetsand primer provdes a smooth finsh for the basecoat or topcoat to bite too. if you just use a scuff pad you run the risk of seeing scratch marks.
best advice i have seen so far. You never sand the base surface with anything finer the “maybe” 800. I would not go finer then 600. This is because paint will not stick well to smooth surfaces.
The bare wood CANNOT have 80 grit scratches in it. That is WAY too rough. You need to take a spackling knife and fill the entire wood surface. You may need a light glazing filler.
Buy 1 can of BLACK primer(or flat black paint) After you prime and sand, DUST the surface with the black. JUST like 10% opacity so you see a mist of black on the piece. This is your GUIDE COAT. Sand completely throuh it back to the gray primer. The black will fall into whatever scratches are left. When you sand through the guide coat, all scratches that were not visible before will now show up black. REPEAT until the scratches are gone.
Once the base is a smooth 400 grit you can lay down color. Lay the piece horizontal so that there is less chance of runs.
Dust the piece with color. Wait 10 min. Lay down the first WET color coat. Make sure you put down enough but not so that it runs. Wait 10-15 minutes until the first coat tacks up. Lay down a second WET coat of color while the first is still drying. You can do a third if you want but 2 is usually good.
Now I would wait a few days for the color to dry. You can lightly wetsand it with 600. OR you can just wait a day and clear right over the color if it looks good.
You will want 3 good coats of clear. The clear gives the piece depth and makes it really look sharp. Same procedure as for the color. Wet sand the clear up to 2500 if you want but it may not be necessary and it is a LOT of work.
You MUST wetsand color and clear with water to get a good finish. Once the wood is primed you can consider it sealed.