blending metallic without intercoat clear/blending clear

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PostPosted: Sat Sep 24, 2022 7:48 pm
How would one go about a small blend with a metallic, without having an inter-coat clear at hand? I don't suppose a 1k lacquer could be used lightly as one?

I hear spraying the metallic directly to a fine sand surface can cause haloing/bad adhesion. Not looking for perfection just a functional blend over a rust repair

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PostPosted: Sun Sep 25, 2022 9:13 am
You can reduce your clear coat to make an intercoat clear.

Mix the clear 3:1:9 3 parts clear; 1 part activator; 9 parts reducer.

Spray light coats if you didn't activate your base.
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 25, 2022 1:30 pm
You can also use a product like "bulldog" adhesion promoter
to spray over a panel just like any other blender.
It fills the scratches, increases adhesion, and leaves a uniform
surface for the color.
JC.

(It's not custom painting-it's custom sanding)



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PostPosted: Sun Sep 25, 2022 10:34 pm
you can use DuPont 222 may be called something else now, but it works well, very good for doing a blend with clear. i've also done spot/ blend areas with base right over the primer and old clear they looked perfect, must be smooth. the quality of your products makes a big difference. spot the repair area with light coats, blending each coat a little further out. don't put it on real wet, thats where your apt to get your halo or other problems. your substrate (underlying materials) play into this also.
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 26, 2022 2:15 am
One of my kids used to be convinced that before colour televisions the whole world was in black and white.

How in the world did we even survive before base coat blenders? What did we do before technology made skill redundant?

Well, funnily enough, because we didn't have them we couldn't confuse their names.
Blending clear - Actually about 98% aggressive solvent that is used to melt in the edge of the clear coat layer when it is finished part way across a panel. Nothing to do with the process described by OP.
Intercoat clear - Again, another product that has little to do with OP's described process. It's a clear coat that is designed to protect the layer below (artwork or similar) or sometimes used in the hope it might add "depth" by separating layers like a base colour and a pearl - as if 3 coats, making a thickness of maybe 70µ, or about the thickness of a human hair, is going to make a difference.

For purposes of clarity let's call this product "base coat blender", because it is used to improve the blending of a base coat, usually a metallic or pearl, when it is extended over existing paint of the same colour. That is to make the repair less visible, especially if our painter can't colour match either and needs to lessen the impact of the new paint being a completely different colour to the old.

The idea is to spray a layer of a clear product over the dry substrate so that the flakes of metallic or pearl all lay down nice and smooth when applied immediately after, i.e. before it dries. That's why it's also referred to as a "wet bed".

Generally it is just a clear base coat of the same technology as the base being used - solvent or water. If using solvent then JC is right, you can use an adhesion promoter as a base coat blender. Be careful though, some adhesion promoters have a tiny amount of metallic added so that coverage can be seen more easily. Make sure you use one that is water clear.

Now getting back to OP's question:

KyronxLK wrote:How would one go about a small blend with a metallic, without having an inter-coat clear at hand?


The old way. Keeping the gun perfectly perpendicular to the panel and a consistent distance from the panel, say 150mm, start moving from outside the area you want to paint, moving towards the centre. As you get to the blend area start pulling the trigger gradually so that you travel over an area of not less than 100mm, preferably 200mm, between first starting to pull the trigger and when you have the trigger fully pulled in. The size of the blend area depends somewhat on the size of the repair, the size and shape of the repair and the gun you're using. Smaller, mini or midi sized guns can make small repairs much more practical.

Practice first, until you can get a gradual application with no obvious edge. Always blend in, never out - that's the way to halos, black rings and other horrible effects as the paint travels much further in the air between gun and panel, partially drying along the way and then landing, and sticking, on the panel at all kinds of crazy angles, usually leaving a rough, dry finish. This is specifically why a wet bed is used - to counter poor technique like flicking a blend out.

The old way was to extend each coat out a little further than the last; that's now been replaced with doing the reverse, ending each coat within the boundary of the previous coat. Needs a bit more planning but helps to reduce the incidence of dry edges. So, yes, it works.
Chris



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PostPosted: Mon Sep 26, 2022 12:37 pm
:goodpost: I'm stuck on the old way, can't help it I'm just to old to retrain. and have always had good luck with the "old way". it was a good post, i really like reading your comments.
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 26, 2022 1:16 pm
badsix wrote::goodpost: I'm stuck on the old way, can't help it I'm just to old to retrain. and have always had good luck with the "old way". it was a good post, i really like reading your comments.
Jay D.


Me too :mrgreen:
JC.

(It's not custom painting-it's custom sanding)

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PostPosted: Tue Sep 27, 2022 9:27 pm
JCCLARK wrote:
badsix wrote::goodpost: I'm stuck on the old way, can't help it I'm just to old to retrain. and have always had good luck with the "old way". it was a good post, i really like reading your comments.
Jay D.


Me too :mrgreen:


Add me that list. :goodjob:
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 28, 2022 8:29 am
"Old ways," all around...... :lol:
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