Do I scuff the whole clear coat before applyin….
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Hi All
I am having to do a repair after my car was vandalised. It’s metallic silver basecoat plus clear. I will have to blend into the adjacent panel.
My question is do I have to scuff the entire adjacent panel or only up to the point where the basecoat will blend up to? – beyond the blend the rest of the panel will remain untouched.The reason I ask is because as I understand it when applying new clear coat over an old clear coat – the old clear has to be scuffed to provide a good key – but when scuffing a clear coat it goes ‘milky’ and a ‘dull, matt white’ – wont this show up through the new clear coat? many thanks in advance.
(BTW – I’m in the UK so some of our terminology is different)
On a blend panel, the entire panel should be scuffed with a grey scotch brite pad (wet with paste) or sanded dry or wet with 800-1000 grit. You will blend into the panel as needed with the base coat, then clear coat the entire panel as usual.
If you are sanding it dry the dust will look white/ powdery. One you blow it off and clean it with a water based cleaner, you will see that it is not an issue.
Would it pay to even go so far as scuff round the panel edges etc then clear not quite up to them? My thought being that way you wouldn’t get any edges lifting. Then after flatting the whole panel back after clearing, then compounding, the haze would all be taken away.
No, Richie. Scuff or sand all the way to the edges, as Ben says, and clear all the way, too. You want that clear to wrap around the edge a little, not finish before it gets there. What you’re suggesting would leave a clear coat edge before the end of the panel which would be visible. Grey scotch also can leave some fairly deep scratching that could be difficult to compound out.
[quote=”NFT5″ post=32179]Grey scotch also can leave some fairly deep scratching that could be difficult to compound out.[/quote]
For that reason, I no longer use grey scotch when preparing a blend panel (cleaning yes, preparing no). I use the 3M 1000grit 6″ pads on a 2.5mm orbit DA with some water to prep the blend area. Also, when blending a lighter colour metallic such as silver, I always lay down a couple coats of colour blender (basemaker) over the entire blend area which provides a consistent, uniform blend and fills any minor scratches/marring created in the cleaning/prep process.
Btw, to the OP….you sure picked it, silver is THE most difficult colour to blend!
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