A
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I have been working on my TR7 project, and have some pics posted in the Restorations section. Now, I'm wondering about my mil thickness and whether to sand and add more clear.
The main shell shown below took around a quart per coat (maybe 30 oz) sprayable, in universal clear. No reducer. I asked a very experienced guy to help me with the clear because I didn't want to screw it up. He was there, and I decided to let him spray it and I'd watch. (my first big clear spray job and I had too much time into it to want to screw it up).
He wasn't on board with spraying more than 3 coats. Each coat was really wet and glossy, and we had a few small runs. I don't think we could have sprayed much more per coat.
I was curious about mil thickenss, so I took off a few pieces of masking that were in areas that should have been painted just like the rest of the car. I cut them and looked at them under a microscope at work. Seems to be right around 3.5 mils for those 3 wet coats. Is that right? I was hoping to see more thickness.
Here is a cool picture from the lab at work. The blurry yellow stuff is masking tape, then there is black epoxy, then red base, then clear (the part with dimensions on it).
I sprayed the trunk, doors, and hood myself in subsequent weekends. I decided I was going to do 5 coats (expecting to not spray as consistently or as wet as he did).
I also set up 5 panels of aluminum flashing (the brown and white painted stuff) and pulled one out after every coat, figuring I could easily measure paint thickness with a micrometer after it dried. I was spraying right around 0.6mils per coat. 3 mils total for 5 barely wet coats. These were puposefully sprayed as light as I thought I might have went anywhere.
I ended up needing to order a 2nd gallon of clear and more activator to finish my doors. I used a little spraying test panels, etc, so I figure I have about 2 gallons sprayable universal clear on the project. Does that sound right?
All was sprayed with my LPH400LV, 1.4.
The body was sprayed at around 34PSI, 5 turns out (OMG!) He was moving fast! I sprayed at 28PSI, and 2.75 turns out (moving a bit slower LOL). Maybe all my paint went into overspray.
I have almost a full gallon of clear left, so I could certainly spray more clear.
The main shell shown below took around a quart per coat (maybe 30 oz) sprayable, in universal clear. No reducer. I asked a very experienced guy to help me with the clear because I didn't want to screw it up. He was there, and I decided to let him spray it and I'd watch. (my first big clear spray job and I had too much time into it to want to screw it up).
He wasn't on board with spraying more than 3 coats. Each coat was really wet and glossy, and we had a few small runs. I don't think we could have sprayed much more per coat.
I was curious about mil thickenss, so I took off a few pieces of masking that were in areas that should have been painted just like the rest of the car. I cut them and looked at them under a microscope at work. Seems to be right around 3.5 mils for those 3 wet coats. Is that right? I was hoping to see more thickness.
Here is a cool picture from the lab at work. The blurry yellow stuff is masking tape, then there is black epoxy, then red base, then clear (the part with dimensions on it).
I sprayed the trunk, doors, and hood myself in subsequent weekends. I decided I was going to do 5 coats (expecting to not spray as consistently or as wet as he did).
I also set up 5 panels of aluminum flashing (the brown and white painted stuff) and pulled one out after every coat, figuring I could easily measure paint thickness with a micrometer after it dried. I was spraying right around 0.6mils per coat. 3 mils total for 5 barely wet coats. These were puposefully sprayed as light as I thought I might have went anywhere.
I ended up needing to order a 2nd gallon of clear and more activator to finish my doors. I used a little spraying test panels, etc, so I figure I have about 2 gallons sprayable universal clear on the project. Does that sound right?
All was sprayed with my LPH400LV, 1.4.
The body was sprayed at around 34PSI, 5 turns out (OMG!) He was moving fast! I sprayed at 28PSI, and 2.75 turns out (moving a bit slower LOL). Maybe all my paint went into overspray.
I have almost a full gallon of clear left, so I could certainly spray more clear.
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