Clean gun between base and clear

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PostPosted: Fri Sep 05, 2014 8:14 am
This may sound weird, and not sure I want to do it, but I was recently with a painter watching him do his base and clear coat, and he never cleaned his gun going from base to clear. He said you really don't need to clean you gun before doing base if you are spraying the clear within say an hour. His paint job looked great a few days later, so I was wondering if this is a common practice?

I paint about 1 car every couple of years, as a hobby, and have always cleaned my gun after everything, including going from base to clear. Are there any problems that can arise by not cleaning between the base and clear?

Bill



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PostPosted: Fri Sep 05, 2014 10:46 am
Do what I say NOT what I do



What ya can sometimes get away with and whats the first best practice?
I definitely would not condone this practice heck I have a special gun just for clear to prevent contamination of base coat and clear coat.
Dennis B.
A&P Mechanic, FCC General radio Telephone Operator
Line Maintenance A&P Mechanic and MOC Tech specialist.



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PostPosted: Fri Sep 05, 2014 7:40 pm
Doright is for sure right. Just think that out a bit more. If you don't clean your cup and internal parts of the gun what color is left will in fact wash out in the CC. So even if a one color job where there is some color flushing out in the clear it will have a different look than where the clear is not contaminated. I would admit it may be slight but it will be there. What if you're clearing over a two tone job and there is one color washing out of your gun on the other color on the vehicle? Like Doright said, many guys have a dedicated CC gun just to avoid the issue of color spitting out in your CC. Don't fall for that bad habit of not cleaning between coats, just use the flash time needed for the BC to clean your gun and "Do It Right" after all where do you think Dennis got the handle of "Doright" :goodjob:

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PostPosted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 10:56 am
If you want your paint guy to spray consistently take it apart and clean it immediately after every use. Otherwise the passages are going to be restricted and it won't spray consistently. That will add one more variable you really don't need.



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PostPosted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 7:52 pm
A real painter has different guns for different applications. Lazyness in my opinion.

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