Hey everyone, recently my 2004 dodge neon srt 4 got Keyd all along the upper drivers side so me and my neighbor who did auto body about 20 years agoe got together and decided to repaint about the upper 1/2 of my drivers of my car using PPG paint and clear he got from a friend. After Sanding out the scratch and scuffing up the surrounding paint with 800-1500-2k-3k grit sand paper we layed down afew coats of paint wet sanding flat in between coats we then did the same with the clear. unfortunately our heater we where using was blowing particles into the clear so we turned it off about 10 minutes after our last coat of clear was applied, this caused afew bad runs. My neighbor said in about 3 weeks once the paints completely dry i should use masking tape over the bigger runs and wet sand through the masking tape so i don't mess up the surrounding area using progressively finer grit sandpaper and then wet sand using 3k sand paper on the rest of the newly painted area to lay it out flat before compounding/polishing and waxing. In all the clear turned out pretty great but i want it to be perfect does anyone have and tips i don't want to mess up and this is my first auto DIY auto painting experience.

4ast4orward wrote:Hey everyone, recently my 2004 dodge neon srt 4 got Keyd all along the upper drivers side so me and my neighbor who did auto body about 20 years agoe got together and decided to repaint about the upper 1/2 of my drivers of my car using PPG paint and clear he got from a friend. After Sanding out the scratch and scuffing up the surrounding paint with 800-1500-2k-3k grit sand paper we layed down afew coats of paint wet sanding flat in between coats we then did the same with the clear. unfortunately our heater we where using was blowing particles into the clear so we turned it off about 10 minutes after our last coat of clear was applied, this caused afew bad runs. My neighbor said in about 3 weeks once the paints completely dry i should use masking tape over the bigger runs and wet sand through the masking tape so i don't mess up the surrounding area using progressively finer grit sandpaper and then wet sand using 3k sand paper on the rest of the newly painted area to lay it out flat before compounding/polishing and waxing. In all the clear turned out pretty great but i want it to be perfect does anyone have and tips i don't want to mess up and this is my first auto DIY auto painting experience.

You can use a razor blade and knock down the clear coat sags/runs. you first gotta round of the corners of the razor blade with 320 grit paper. second, on the upper and lower part of the clear coat sag,beyond the sags, lay some tape. then with the razor blade start shaving the clear coat runs.

You can start sanding the runs out of your clear the next day. Clear is usually cured within a week at most. The more exposure to the sun, the faster it tends to cure. You can skim over the run with a 2-part putty or regular filler. Then sand your run until the run is gone.
Here is a quick video using poly putty for removing runs:


You shouldn't be wet sanding your base coats (color coats). A light nib sanding here and there is OK, but it should not be sanded if at all possible, and definitely not right before you clear. Single Stage and clear coat can be sanded without much issue, just not base coat.

Thanks to those who posted in this thread.
I just used this method for the first time and successfully removed this mess:

I used an old style one part nitrocellulose putty and was able to remove any excess with thinners once I decided to stop sanding.