I need some help! Orange peel?

rustover

rustover

Member
I'm frustrated. I don't know what I'm doing.:livid: Some parts I do have turned out nice. Some not so nice. I laid down some epoxy on the inside of my repo quarters. The first coat went down fine. Everything looked good. I had a few thin spots, but the coat was light and laid down flat. Second coat looked like it was going on good, but had some peel in it. I was hoping it was going to flow out better. NOT.

Anyway I know the gun setting thread says that the orange peel is a fluid adjustment. I'm not sure if I needed more fluid or less fluid. I'm guessing I needed more. The reason being if I hammer an area I could get the orange peel out, it would be wet and slick, just on the verge of a sag or run. The other option I guess is to slow down. It seemed to me that I was already moving kinda slow.

Now the gun choice was a mistake. I used my Iwata detail 80 gun. Pressure at the wall seem to make no difference, I was at 4-5 inches from the panel, and the fan was set to around 4 inches and psi was 16. Like I said I thought I was moving slow. The reason I chose the detail gun was I wanted to make sure I could trim it out good in all folded areas. I don't guess there wouldn't have been anything wrong with trimming it out with a detail gun and then using one of my large guns for the open area.

I do have a board on the wall with a piece of paper taped to it. I can check my fan pattern using this board and set it however I want it. I can also tell if its an elliptical pattern, like a football. I can also make a few passes like I plan to spray, but the material looks fine on paper however it a different story when the paint hits metal.

I'm close, but have a lot of learning to do. At least its not running in the floor. Will save that one for the clear coat. I'm not ready to give up yet. I've got a lot of people in my hometown that have already told me that I was crazy for even trying to learn to spray.

I've got an Iwata lph400 that has a 1.3. I'm thinking about getting the 1.4 for it and breaking it out.

Here is some pics. Hope you guys can give me some pointers. What adjustment would you guy make if the paint was looking like this?






Here is an area that is smooth, but I really laid the paint to it.



Thanks,

Russ
 
Your "peel" area is just dry spray, or a very light spray (gun too far away, moving too quickly). the small gun with the small tip is amplifying things too on an area that big, maybe reduce further or slow down some more. The lph400 is a whole different experience and i think would solve your troubles. Not that they are really troubles, on the back side of a quarter panel! Get the 1.4 tip and leave it in there for good.
 
Yep that is typically a dry spray thing. I set my 1.4 lph 400 to fan like a cigar. Also be careful getting too close it will tend to crater if you try and hammer it on like 2k. Epoxy seems to spray the best like base, more of a medium wet kinda coat. Also just reducing 5-10% will help with flow out. Also with the 400 I tend to run pressure quite a bit higher than the 16 psi. I haven't noticed the epoxy being nearly as finicky with wall pressure as the UV clear, I think the high solids just really need that umph to get them broken up.
 
Thanks for the reply. For practice purposes I will sand with 180 and re coat using the 400. What would be a good starting point settings using the 400.

How much do you think the 5 % reducer would affect the color if any?
 
A good start would prob be about 2-1/2 turns out on fan, 3/4 turn in on fluid, and prob start 23-25 psi trigger pulled and work from there. I doubt you'll see any difference at 5%.
 
Thanks Bomccorkle. These panels actually look a lot better today. You can tell that its still not perfect but you have to look for the orange peel. Its not as pronounced as it was yesterday. I'm going to go ahead and fit them to the car. Before I weld them in, I may sand and re-spray. I will need to spray the inner structure once the old 1/4s are off.

 
Not to hijack but I have a question, bomccorkle, when you mention 3/4 turn in on the fluid do you mean from when the adjustment cap starts on the threads, then 3/4 of a turn in from there? My fluid adjustment cap screw comes off completely so maybe that is where I am confused.

I have had some of the same problems rustover is having, Im thinking I didnt have enough fluid.
 
Yes. Back your fluid out as far as you can then go in about 3/4 turn, if still peely then up air a tad then if still peely then move in on the fluid 1/4-1/2 turn.

Make sure your fan is uniform first tho, a goofy fan will peel as its not laying down fluid evenly and your overlaps will have different amounts as well.
 
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