blend question, not enough coverage near rockers

B

bmxpegan411

HI guys,

I painted my MX-3 a few weeks ago and it looks great besides the passenger side near the bottom of the door and rocker. I had less lighting on that side and I can see I needed another coat of base there. Today I plan on prepping it and spraying it in the morning in my garage. Question is, how would you guys perform this blend as in gun angle and technique? I have SPI intercoat and am using chromabase. I plan on using 800 grit to prep it, then base coat a pass or two on the light areas, then hit the whole thing with intercoat then try to blend it upwards, but I don't want to angle the gun too crazy or get too close to the top of the doors with the color. I'm using the same can of base I painted the car with so the color shouldn't be too much of an issue.

Also, for the last coat would you do a 1 to 1 with the color and intercoat to make it more transparent?

(pic for a better idea of whats going on)
 

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Blending is relatively easy but it's a process that is simpler to show someone than it is to describe wholly with words, but I'll give it a try.:) What are you painting? The 1/4? The door and the 1/4 or the whole side? If you simply want to cover the light areas and blend into the rest of the panel then clear, it's a simple process. I'll assume you are going to do the 1/4 and the door. Prep everything normally, sand blend panels with 800. Keep the scratches going in one direction. Don't seal the area (you could if you really wanted to but I wouldn't). Basecoat, Spray a coat on the affected areas only. Try to start and finish your passes in such a way that you don't have readily noticeable start and stop areas. (hope that makes sense) Some call it wristing off, I like to come in and finish each pass by just slightly coming in and just slightly pulling away. With each coat carry it out a little further. After you have coverage if you can see a difference in color between the area you sprayed and the rest of the panel then you can mix some color 1:1 with intercoat and spray one coat over the entire area carrying out slightly farther. Let it flash and see how it looks. Taking the color into consideration you should be good. If not try one more coat.If you have any experience blending that color should blend fine without intercoat, but use it if you see a difference in color. You'll notice a difference in gloss and texture, that's ok it will hide when you clear.
 
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Thanks Chris! I haven't done many blends, but the car keeps biting me so I figured I'd seek advise first. The fender doesn't match the door and that's my fault so it's getting blended into the door, then the bottom of the door and quarter look like they needed one more pass so I figure I'll give them a coat or two then blend upwards, but trying to not get the color near that door handle.

The reason the fender doesn't match is because I sprayed it off the car, BUT I placed it on the car for the last coat of base so it would match and it did....but prior to clearing I sanded some dirt out and figured it was far enough away from the door to cover that area and I was wrong. When I did this I coated the fender with intercoat first which I'm not sure I needed since it was the same paint/session. I kind of assumed although it was the exact same base if i let some overspray land on the flashed off base it would cause a halo or something.....is that correct, or could I have just dusted some base over the sand scratches and cleared?
 
Crash, yes I'm clearing the whole quarter. I wanted a few more coats of clear on it anyways so it kind of worked out
 
So there's tons of room to blend, just extend it all out a bit to make sure the metallic is even. There's no real need to confine it to small areas unless you are short of paint, just don't go all the way up to the deck lid and hood, or all the way out to the bumpers. Well, I don't know about the front, since you said it didn't match. I guess you need to base that complete...?

Pretty much what Chris said, although often I will use whatever colorless basecoat is in the system being used as a bedding clear, where it gets a coat on the areas you are trying not to paint, and then the basecoat color goes on the rest. This can help the blend lay out.
 
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