Ben Hart
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I just repaired a tailgate on a brand new Ram1500. It had 4 factory paint jobs (ontop of that ultra thick chip resistant Chrysler primer). Talk about nasty mil build…
You don’t have a detailer? I thought his name was Jack?
Good post.
One thing that’s very important is to start with a clean car (have your detailer clean it before it comes into the shop). Then re clean it well after its prepped before being masked/going into the booth, taking particular care to clean all jambs. A waterbourne cleaner does wonders for this.
My primer and (waterbourne) base guns get broken down every time.
My sealer and clear guns I rinse well and run through the gun washer. I break them down every few weeks or sooner as needed. They don’t seem to get gunned up all that much.
Looks great ding. The owner did a nice job picking the colours and pattern.
What paint did you use?
I do the edges first, making sure to get then decently, but not too heavy. Any openings like the fog light holes, I’ll spray from the backside as well as the front.
I don’t make any adjustments to the gun, just watch your speed and distance.
Glad to hear the new batch seems better. I know that I have gotten some cans of 310 that are way worse than others. Do you ever look at the production dates on the cans? I think they have or had an issue with proper inventory rotation, because I would get a 310 in and use it, then the next one could be a batch that is 6+months older than the last one. May also be consistency issues with certain batches and/or freezing in transit.
Good luck with the rest of it!
It sounds like you guys have started going about this in a positive manner.
What air cap are you using in your Tekna? The 7e7 works very well. Otherwise, it sounds like its set up properly. Are you spraying medium-wet coats? Making sure there are no dry areas?
What type of booth are you spraying in, how well does it dry the base and bake the clear?
For the clear, I know what you mean about the 757 curing slow. It’s a production clear and is slower to cure than the slow 755 clear.
Maybe a solution with the clear would be to go with the 755 and hpc21 clears. Yes they are thinner, but they will dry much faster. You could apply 3 thinner coats and get better build and dry times too. If the 755 is too slow you can mix in some hpc21 (like adding an accelerator). Mix 20-30 parts HPC21 to 80-70parts 755. Then take this combo and mix it 4:1:1 as usual with uh900 an es55).
Don’t forget to start double staring all your jobs that use 310!!!
I sprayed the 250 for 2 years as well. With the 4000 RP, my technique was the same as Jaysons, only difference is I sprayed at 30-32PSI.
This typically matched OEM texture easily, and with a slight adjustment in distance and speed (a hair closer and a touch slower) it would lay very smooth.
I assume you mean AWX Performance Plus, as I know exactly what you are talking about. The problem lies with the 310 Black toner that’s used in the dark colours.
SW recommends the 190 micron strainer (the finer 125 commonly used with waterbourne may affect metallic/pearl colours).
As Jayson said, double straining can help. If I recall, you are on the coast, so you probably deal with much more humidity than we do here. Is there any chance you guys can try using the 030 reducer rather than the 020? It will slow it down, but does help.
What gun(s) and setup are you using, what pressures are you spraying for your coverage and control coats? Minimizing any dry spray is an absolute must!
If you are slightly generous with your clear coat, you can almost alway burry the grit. The HPC21 is piss thin, and the 751 and 755 clears aren’t much thicker. The 757 has a much higher solids content and might work better, if you are struggling to get proper mil build with the other clears.
Once I got use to the paint, I didn’t have much issue with the grit, but you must work it to make it successful…
I was told a while ago that SW believes that the 310 black doesn’t react well with the 0700 metallic/pearl additive. They may come out with a new black toner to be used in metallics/pearl colours.
Have you guys done the AWX Performance Plus application training? Who is your tech rep, Reg from Vancouver? Let me know if there is anymore I can help with.
Welcome to the site. This site has a lot of Canadians and Americans, but there are a handful of members from the UK and other parts of Europe (as well as a few people from other parts of the world).
The whole bumper would be sanded once removed. Sanding it with 600-800 and a grey scuff pad would allow you to blend where needed, and clear coat the rest of the bumper.
Tri-stage paint takes more room to blend (since you are blending the ground coat then blending the mid coat beyond that). As a general rule of thumb you need about 18″ to blend a tri stage (although someone experienced painters could get away with less in some circumstances).
What clear are you using the the Ultra 7000? The HPC21 might be a good choice
Welcome to the site.
What most of us would have done is removed the bumper. If the plastic was cracked through, you would need to do a double sided repair with the adhesive ( or alternately, plastic weld it). The adhesive doesn’t stick well to paint, so the pant would have had to be sanded off, the damaged”Veed” out and adhesion promoter applied to the bare plastic. The repair on the inside of the bumper should be used with mesh for added strength. The adhesive/filler on the outside could then be blocked, followed by an application of adhesion promoter then flexed 2k urethane primer surfacer.
At that point, the primer would be blocked smooth when dry, then the bumper could get prepped for paint. Most professionals would blend the colour along the bottom (or apply basecoat to the whple bumper) then clearcoat the entire bumper.
If you are trying to stay within the area you circled, you won’t have much room to blend the 3 stage and blend out the clear coat too. That would be a very difficult task.
Just having a quick look at your numbers does make it sound like you guys are very well staffed in the paint department. How many bodymen are there?
With there being 3 painters and 5 preppers, how much consistency is there? Does everyone do things their own way, or is there more of a consistent stream lined process that is followed every time? Do you have a rep from your paint company that might be able to spend some time at the shop helping you guys out, maybe adapting some ideas from the Lean process?
In the end it is always about money. If your paint department does manage to become more effecient, will the bodymen be able to feed you enough work to keep everyone busy?
You are comparing 2 completely different guns. The Finish line is a very cheap gun, and its and HVLP. The 4000RP is top of the line and is a compliant style (RP, not an HVLP).
As Jayson said, see if you can try out the SATA. You should notice a huge different between the two