I’m concerned about not getting good adhesion between paint coats on body repairs.
Will be using good quality spray cans and intend to sand down (800 grit) clean with panel wipe, etch prime where down to bare metal with 3 coats allowing 15 mins between coats, leaving for 24 hours and sanding with 800 grit. Then clean with panel wipe and 1 light and 2 wet coats of metallic base coat again at 15 minute intervals followed without sanding by 1 light and 2 wet clear coats.
This is what my research suggests is the best approach but I’m concerned that 15 minutes between coats may be too short a time and how long should I allow between the final base coat and first clear coat ?
Any advice that can be offered would be very much appreciated.

You lost me when using quality and spray cans in the same sentence.

'68 Coronet R/T wrote:You lost me when using quality and spray cans in the same sentence.

Sandit wrote:etch prime where down to bare metal with 3 coats

Read your TDS. One light coat is usually sufficient.

There are such things as quality spray cans, some that spray almost like a spray gun. But you won't get them from a hardware store, or even an auto parts store. From paint distributors only. They're expensive and you can waste 30% of the contents once pressure drops inside.

Why is everyone hung up on 3 coats? For base, assuming that your primer is a suitable shade, 2 coats, medium wet, is plenty. This is quality paint, remember? Same thing for clear - paint manufacturers are recommending 1.5 coats.

Thanks chris for your informative reply and yes I did get the paint especially mixed by a paint distributor. I like your thoughts on number of base coats it seems logical and it is something I will do.
Any chance You could advise on the min and max time between last base and first clear coat

Times depend on the paint you're using,how thick you've put it on and ambient temperatures. More information on the TDS for your paint.

NFT5 wrote:There are such things as quality spray cans, some that spray almost like a spray gun. They're expensive and you can waste 30% of the contents once pressure drops inside.

I will agree their are some 2K rattle bombs out their some with adjustable spray patterns to boot that are preaty cool in there own way.
Some one well experienced painting may well indeed easily pull off using them to perform a small repair I have seen it done.
A Newb should avoid! for the exact problem you pointed out.

Some Newb are trying to respray a whole side of a car with these or whole roof or whole Hood or trunk lid when in fact they are designed for Spot repairs. or Small repairs not whole panels!

By the time you buy a Half dozen or so cans you've easily exceeded the price of a Low cfm gun and the price of enough material to do the job without worry of Loosing air pressure when using a compressor. While ya you may pay a little more Buying a gun and a good small compressor you'll have those tools for the Next small project.


https://rothmetalflake.com/products/rat ... br-red-kit

https://www.eastwood.com/2k-aerospray-h ... s-red.html

https://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-s-2k- ... clear.html

Paint gun for $79 consumes 4.5 cfm
https://www.eastwood.com/concours-lt-hv ... 51275.html

I am not endorsing any Spray guns! I am only putting out their that their are better choices than Spray bombs, Newbs have enough problems to over come, Accepting that Rattle cans are a good alternative or a cheaper alternative for the Newb is not cool.
Add to the fact that Most not all BUT MOST Newbs end up having to redo everything they start out to do to get acceptable results because they are new and learning.

Following the slight change in thread I had thought of getting a gun and small compressor but having done a bit of investigation my main worry in using a compressor was ensuring that the air was in fact dry enough. Rightly or wrongly I assumed a cheap compressor might produce a lot of moisture that an in-line bowl type filter would not be capable of fully removing hence ending up with problems developing over time,
Again thoughts would be most welcome

The problem with most compressors is that the process of compressing the air produces heat and heated air is able to hold a lot more moisture than cold air. Thus the solution is the cool the air once compressed, thereby condensing out the moisture which can be separated.

Generally speaking, the smaller the compressor the harder it works to produce a given volume of air. Small pumps have small volumes and must go through the compression cycle many times more than big, slow pumps, clearly creating more heat in the process. Direct drive units tend to be worse then belt drive and they can (except for the silenced type) also be very noisy. Even the silenced type get quite hot and produce a lot more water than an equivalent sized belt drive unit.

There are quite a number of ways that you can dry your air, ranging from expensive refrigeration units and filters to a coil of copper tube in a bucket of water. I use a long array of tube on the wall with multiple drops and drains. Choose a method that suits you but remember that you'll get less moisture out of a bigger compressor that isn't working so hard and has a tank that's big enough to allow the air to cool a bit before being taken off to power your spray gun.

Bear all this in mind when you go shopping for a "small compressor". In responding to another thread I noticed that better compressors seem to start at around £300 for around 3hp and 40-50 litre tank.

Once again an extremely informative response from chris (for which I thank him) regarding compressor moisture which has really got my brain working thinking of tanks/copper pipe/ drain points. Any idea what moisture level would be good enough and how can it be checked?