I have a habit of sanding down through my clear while trying to do my artwork - I know "Don't do that".

The other day while trying to get the ridge out between the silver base and the trunk’s brown base I ended up sanding through a little part of the point in my artwork at the area of the red circle.

My steps so far have been;
1) Strip the entire hood to bare metal
2) Epoxy Primer, HB filler, sand, repeat
3) Epoxy sealer
4) Waterborne Basecoat
5) MS clear
6 ) Silver Sealer, then Silver Basecoat with Flake
7) More flake in InterCoat
8 ) 5 thin coats of MS Clear to bury the flake
9) Sand 600/800
10) Add 1st round of artwork using Candies in InterCoat
11) 3 coats of MS Clear (next time I will use 5 thin coats!)
12) Sand 600/800 to prep for next round of Clear

This is where I sanded through some of the artwork in the red circle trying to eliminate the ridge between the silver and the main brown. You can kind of see the ridge that the arrow is pointing to. I thought that I had enough clear over the artwork, but I guess not

Anyway, my clear is laying down pretty smooth and I get nervous sanding over the artwork with just 800 (no 600) for the next set round of artwork.

I tried the grey scuff pads but they don’t seem to do much.

• Should I try some scuffing paste?
• Any particular brand?

I just want some good adhesion for the next IC and Clear

when i clear over art work and i find some edges i usually dont get them all the way out before shooting more clear.


my steps

clear art work 3 coats
sand 500/800
scuff with sanding paste or waterbase cleaner

reclear 2 coats

then i can block smooth and not burn through

PainterDave wrote:…my steps

clear art work 3 coats
sand 500/800
scuff with sanding paste or waterbase cleaner...

Any suggestions on brands or does it matter?

3M 06013 Scuff-It Paint Prep Gel?
SEM Prep, Scuff & Clean?
Meguiar's M31716 Unigrit Sand and Clean?
??????

nope i use PPG DX101 i think the number is

I really like the one made by Presta.

I got some of the 3M Scuff-It scuffing paste

* Will the grey scuff pads along with scuff paste provide enough of a tooth prior to reshooting more clear?

I shot the panel below this last weekend and the area of the roses I would like to get more clear built up before I start sanding over them. Everything came out to my liking and I don’t want to sand down through the clear into the flake, which I kind of have a habit of doing!

That is looking really good!

Yep, looks real nice
Jay D.

Thanks guys for the compliments, now back to my question...

* Will the grey scuff pads along with scuff paste provide enough of a tooth prior to reshooting more clear?

yes it will