Proper basecoat texture

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 10:16 am
I've been painting a while now and consider myself fairly knowledgable about auto painting. However, I learned everything I know from these forums and have never seen anyone spray paint before short of watching youtube videos. I've seen the question about basecoat texture many times and it's a question I have myself. Here are a couple pictures of basecoat on a motorcycle tank. My fingers is in the second picture to give a reference for size. The first was sprayed more wet than the second. Which would be the correct way to lay it down?

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 11:05 am
Yeah, basecoat was always an "odd bird" for me because I came from the old days of lacquer, enamel, etc. Laying down thinner color coats was just something I wasn't use to.... Looking at your pic.s I would say that first pic. is way too wet compared to what I do. You have a mottling there that wouldn't be a big deal in solid colors but if it were something like a bigger metallic flake it would have distortion in the clear look. Your bottom pic. on the other hand doesn't look like the coating has flowed out. Hate to say it but you need to be somewhere inbetween those two pictures with no discernible "texture." I'm sure other guys do this much different from me as well.....
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 3:53 pm
I agree with Darrel, though I am far from any kind of expert having only done one base/clear paint job...that second pic looks like something went horribly wrong. Base on the Camaro I did, no idea if its right or wrong, but it seemed to look fine to me at the time and when cleared it looked great. 3 coats of dark red metallic base. Sorry I have no closer up pics

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 4:50 pm
Novafreek has it there.... that is more like what mine looks like. Flat even satin to almost dull sheen that makes the lighting look like it "glows" on the surface. Again you don't see any noticeable texture on that car.
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 5:55 pm
Yeah, if it was "bumpy" (orange peely) I wouldn't have attempted to spray clear over it because that would make a bigger mess... best I can remember, and its been a couple years, I sprayed medium wet coats and it laid out nice the metallics were spread out evenly with no striping. I used a warwick 904 HVLP set on about 20 psi or so w/ trigger pulled, 50% overlap. Base/clear was a good experience for me other than I should have bumped up the pressure more on the clear (high solids) because it was orange peely, but not severe. I used single stage on my latest job to save money (black)

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 8:11 pm
Looking at pictures taken from several feet away is misleading I believe. Both of the finishes I sprayed looked just like the pictures Novafreek posted. They both had a nice sheen to them and looked flat from a distance. Only when looking up close can you really tell what the texture looks like. The problem is there aren't any good pictures on these forums of base up close.

In my first picture I sprayed it wet. On the second picture I sprayed it more of how I would think base should be sprayed. It does have quite a bit more texture than I would have expected, and as you said DarrellK, I don't think the base had time to flow out. I used a cold temp reducer that I had and it was about 80 degrees when I sprayed. Maybe this contributed?

I cleared both of the tanks to see if it made a difference in the final product. After clear I can't tell the difference between them and neither of them has any visible texture through the clear. A color with flake or pearl may be another story.

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 8:41 pm
Alls well that ends well. :) Sorry I dont have any closer up shots, but I do remember it looked like spraying satin finish paint on something or maybe matte.

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2014 9:55 am
Here's a couple of close ups of base only (dark green metallic):
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 1:34 pm
I've done a lot of other stuff before but here's my first basecoat. I used a small gun so it's not like the exterior of a car or anything.

What paint are you using? I think your first picture looks like how you may want to put the clear on, the base should be a tad less (get coverage but don't try to make it really flow), if that makes sense?

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