hi all, I have been youtubing way too much lately in search for review for my new gun and came across a fellow aussie on there called the gunman, he does a pretty good job at explaining painting, right down to his gun setups,
anyways, he does his blends by using some clear base on just the "ends" of the blend right before he does the blend so that the "tails" of the blend has a wet bed to lay in, so its not just sitting ontop of the existing paint, he says its to help stop delamination of the blended area as the blend "tails" go on pretty dry and sometimes don't bond well.
has any1 else tried this, sounds plausible and seems to work for him, paints lambos and porches etc..
opinions??
krem

Wetbeds enable metallics, usuallly more difficult ones like silvers, to lay down correctly when blending to eliminate a halo. I don't use it for an adhesion aid and I blow it on to the panel's edge, not where I think the blend will end. Wetbeds are common practice in the biz.

It's no trick, but as Scott says, quite a common practice. I was taught the more traditional method of reducing your mix and extending, then reducing again and extending. If you use a system with separate binders then reducing your paint with a mix of binder and reducer works even better - kind of like a wet bed but in a single application. The one thing that I learnt later was how to blend in, not out, and I can't say that I ever really have a problem with halos around the blend edge.

Given that you clear over I don't see delamination as justification for using a wet bed and I certainly wouldn't try it with a 2K or acrylic solid. The other thing you need to be very conscious of is whether what you use for the wet bed is going to be compatible with your base coat. I've seen suggestions to use clear, for example, and that is just a recipe for disaster - mixing incompatible solvents.

Some spray the entire panel with Bulldog adhesion promoter first
so as to have a even surface for the blend.

I watch the gunman too. His videos are high quality. I watch several of hid vids before I do a project. I don't paint every day do it keeps the technique fresh in my mind. Less mistakes.

-vetsen

oh ok, ive just never heard of it before, watched heaps of "pros" on you tube and the gunman is the only 1 ive seen do it so far, ive had painters tell me how to blend also but they haven't mentioned it, hence why I thought it was a neat "trick"
thanks for posting guys
krem