Part 3 of this 3 part series.

Now the critical part of doing a successful blend. Immediately after the previous photo, while the clear was still wet, I ripped off the backmasked paper.



Then, straight away, melted in the clearcoat edge using Blending Thinner. I buy it in 5 litre tins but you can get it in spray cans. Works just as well. It melts the edge of the clear and any overspray in to the original finish so there is no line to show where I ended.

Final result, ready for the customer to pick up.



And, just because I haven't used the picture allocation for this post, the guns I used.



AZ3 for base and the Pro Lite for clear. Pro Lite used the TE10 aircap because Audis come with typical European peel and I had to try to match this.

OP, have another go and try to follow what I did. You should get a much better result, even with spray cans. Once dry, go easy on your buffing so as not to wear through.

NFT5 wrote:Part 3 of this 3 part series.

Now the critical part of doing a successful blend. Immediately after the previous photo, while the clear was still wet, I ripped off the backmasked paper.

2020-05-25 13.16.26.jpg

Then, straight away, melted in the clearcoat edge using Blending Thinner. I buy it in 5 litre tins but you can get it in spray cans. Works just as well. It melts the edge of the clear and any overspray in to the original finish so there is no line to show where I ended.

Final result, ready for the customer to pick up.

2020-05-25 16.24.06.jpg

And, just because I haven't used the picture allocation for this post, the guns I used.

2020-05-25 13.30.15.jpg

AZ3 for base and the Pro Lite for clear. Pro Lite used the TE10 aircap because Audis come with typical European peel and I had to try to match this.

OP, have another go and try to follow what I did. You should get a much better result, even with spray cans. Once dry, go easy on your buffing so as not to wear through.

Hello, thank you for the thorough write-up its truly appreciated. I will re-attempt this and try to get better results. I knew as I was going I was making mistakes.

Do you have any comments on the paint matching, do you think the original cladding has faded and I should have it scanned to get the exact colour?

It's sometimes hard to say with colour matches from photos. If you have to get more base then, yes, get it scanned. That will get it closer.

Using the techniques I've detailed will allow you to blend better and, on a bar, this will hide any mismatch. Just give yourself more room to fade the colour out gradually so that the change isn't so apparent.

Chriss (NFT5)

Awesome!

NFT5 wrote:It's sometimes hard to say with colour matches from photos. If you have to get more base then, yes, get it scanned. That will get it closer.

Using the techniques I've detailed will allow you to blend better and, on a bar, this will hide any mismatch. Just give yourself more room to fade the colour out gradually so that the change isn't so apparent.

Thanks again, I'll re-do it incorporating some of your advice.