I painted a hood today using Sherwin-Williams paint and recommended Hardner.

Almost the entire hood as orange peel.

I'm not sure what to do next.

Do I sand it, and respray the clear?

I don't think this comes out with compounding.

Should I spray it with the hood flat? More pressure or less?

Bewildered. Thank you

your going to have to list the products you used
like paint brand
catalyst number
reducer number
temp of spray area
gun and gun setup
air pressure, at the gun preferably
spray technique how far from the surface with the gun.
just to start with. many things can contribute to your problem. not standing right there beside you its somewhat difficult to figure out, so be patient.
Jay D.

badsix wrote:your going to have to list the products you used
like paint brand
catalyst number
reducer number
temp of spray area
gun and gun setup
air pressure, at the gun preferably
spray technique how far from the surface with the gun.
just to start with. many things can contribute to your problem. not standing right there beside you its somewhat difficult to figure out, so be patient.
Jay D.

Here's what I am using. Surface was vertical. Spraying at about 8 inches away. HPLV spraygun. Spraying left to right with an overlap of about an inch or so.
Air pressure at the regulator was 20 psi.
Hightek sprayer 1.4
Temperature of spray area was about 88.
Humidity about 85%

Products below.

Thank you

Paint was:





Clear coat was:

as said before it can be any number of things. so it looks like your activators are good both slow dry. air pressure at regulator? regulator on the compressor on the wall or on the gun? it makes a difference. 20# any where sounds like not enough. 8" back with the gun is just a little excessive, but depends on gun and jetting. what you should do is try find an old piece of body metal sand it smooth and paint a small spot. to much O/P? try apro. 6" back, then turn the air up a little,10# and see what that does. you can also at those temps reduce the color with slow reducer. start with 5% and go up if you have to, no more than 10%. it doesn't take very much to make a difference try this and let us know happens. do he same with the clear. this is the end of the first class.
Jay D.

badsix wrote:as said before it can be any number of things. so it looks like your activators are good both slow dry. air pressure at regulator? regulator on the compressor on the wall or on the gun? it makes a difference. 20# any where sounds like not enough. 8" back with the gun is just a little excessive, but depends on gun and jetting. what you should do is try find an old piece of body metal sand it smooth and paint a small spot. to much O/P? try apro. 6" back, then turn the air up a little,10# and see what that does. you can also at those temps reduce the color with slow reducer. start with 5% and go up if you have to, no more than 10%. it doesn't take very much to make a difference try this and let us know happens. do he same with the clear. this is the end of the first class.
Jay D.

I think I may have clicked on report post instead of quote. My apologies.

Thank you for your reply.

For the existing orange peel, should I sand it with 220, then 400, then 600?

YES, you can do that.
Jay D.

Musthave wrote:

badsix wrote:as said before it can be any number of things. so it looks like your activators are good both slow dry. air pressure at regulator? regulator on the compressor on the wall or on the gun? it makes a difference. 20# any where sounds like not enough. 8" back with the gun is just a little excessive, but depends on gun and jetting. what you should do is try find an old piece of body metal sand it smooth and paint a small spot. to much O/P? try apro. 6" back, then turn the air up a little,10# and see what that does. you can also at those temps reduce the color with slow reducer. start with 5% and go up if you have to, no more than 10%. it doesn't take very much to make a difference try this and let us know happens. do he same with the clear. this is the end of the first class.
Jay D.

I think I may have clicked on report post instead of quote. My apologies.

Thank you for your reply.

For the existing orange peel, should I sand it with 220, then 400, then 600?

Thank you.
Ok, I will sand and prep again.
Then
20# just before the gun.

Try spraying at 6" on separate piece first.

Dial back to 10 psi to see how it goes.

Perhaps try 5% slow reducer.

Better to paint hood flat or standing to get best beginner results?

I like to set my spray gun up on paper.

As stated, you need to be sure the required air pressure and CFM requirements are met in order for your HVLP to properly atomize the paint.

These should be stated on your tech sheet for the gun. Something like 10 CFM at 20 PSI.

This means your compressor needs to put out at least 10 CFM (SCFM) to satisfy the spray gun. The PSI setting is measured "at the gun" with the trigger pulled full open.

Once there you can put some paint in it and then hold it the gun about 4-6" away from your paper and pull the trigger full open for 1 second. Look at the pattern, it should be about an 1" wide and depending on the gun 8 or more inches from top to bottom.

The droplets should be fine and consistent in size. They should fill the entire pattern evenly, with no runs or thin spots.

This will get you close. Next is your spraying speed and overlap. You want to be consistent in both while maintaining the proper distance to the panel.

Base coat should go on nice and even. This is one coat, the car will get three coats:


The clear will require slightly more air pressure to the gun and again consistency with your distance, speed and overlap.

Here's one coat of clear on the car, it will get three coats minimum:


Try to paint the panels in the position they will be on the car when assembled. Here's the trunk lid:

Musthave wrote:

Musthave wrote:Dial back to 10 psi to see how it goes.

Perhaps try 5% slow reducer.

Better to paint hood flat or standing to get best beginner results?

I can only tell you my experience with eliminating OP in clear......about 3 yr ago I was struggling getting a flat finish in the clear with my AZ3 gun. I could spray base really nice at 28 psi but if I laid down clear at that pressure it would OP like yours does. I upped it to 32 psi and kept my same technique and it turned out glass smooth. Now take this with a grain of salt as it worked for me and my style (good or bad) and my particular gun. I did try thinning out the clear and I really can't say it helped or hurt but I know it made it a bit easier to get runs (although I'd rather cut/buff a run than get a dry spot). Again, I'm just a hack at best but that's how I fixed my OP deal. I'd do some experimenting with your materials and equipment and take the advice from the Pro's on here.