Yeap, think I mentioned it when you were down with me, but put one light coat on first, followed by a thicker coat. The first coat is just there to provide some adhesion, don't try and get a perfect finish in that first coat as you'll end up putting it on too thick and getting runs/sags.
Practice, there’s a very fine line between enough paint that flows together and ends up lovely and flat and runs! Plus of course it’s all in the prep, if your primer isn’t flat the top coat never will be.
Thanks chaps and thanks for reminding me James, I had forgotten that . Would you put in the first light coat and follow with the second when it's tacky or leave to 1st to dry properly for say 24hrs?
Let the coat flash off between coats. The technical data sheet for whatever paint you end up going with should tell you how long that is, but typically 10-15 mins (that's what the data sheet for the paint I used on the baja states).
The first coat. When people say paint a thin coat, they really mean get a minimum coat of paint on to have a "proper" coat, just don't worry if it looks a bit patchy and see-through in areas. It doesn't mean a dry dusty coat.
Epoxy primer and body filler all done. Next stage is 2 pack spray-on filler primer (HBbody P261). It's taken a long time but I'm happy so far. As Dunc said above, prep takes time and every time I look at the door from another angle...there's another bit I missed....
Looking good Chris! I found with our van you can end up chasing perfection; I had to draw the line when it was flat enough. It's still straighter than how it originally looked. High build primer is a joy to sand compared to anything else. For panels that have minimal or no filler I now do high build primer straight over the epoxy; wet-on-wet. It then saves the additional step of having to sand the epoxy in-between coats. The data sheet for the epoxy I use states you have a window of between 1 and 20 hours for a wet-on-wet process, which means I could epoxy one day and high build the next if I run out of time.
Cheers Jim, mine is up to 14 hrs dry time, so I've missed that opportunity as I did it yesterday morning. I've got other stuff to do today, so primer tomorrow and then grey upper door colour. I then have to work out how long I can wait before I put the main panel red colour so that my masking does not spoil the finished surface. The shop said 2 days and the spec sheet says 8 hrs at 20°c, so two days sounds about right!
Primer filler all done. I had to redo the front panel as my garage is not dust free and something kindly settled on the panel last night after the first two coats....heyho. Assuming all things go well, tomorrow is painting day for the grey upper colour. I'm intending to do the whole door in the grey paint and then spray the bottom in red a few days later once the grey has dried/cured. I've been told that doing it this way, there is no chance of a tide mark where the grey stops and the red starts. The funny thing is, that no matter how good I get this door, it's going to look odd as both red and grey are stighly different to the rest of the camper - which will be slowly done like the Forth bridge
...just been telling Catherine what I've done today and her comment was, so you've put the moisturiser and the foundation and tomorrow your going to put on the blusher...girls hey!
True, but as you're waiting a few days so you can mask you'll also need to sand/key the entire lower panel. The alternative as I'm sure you've seen most others do is to paint the top with no masking and just let it go where it will onto the top of the lower panel. Near where you mask it will be nice - like the top you just painted, then you'll get a small band of fading overspray which is easier to flat back compared to sanding and keying top coat on the whole lower panel? Your way will get more paint on if that's the idea but thicker paint chips more easily.
@Zed, will try your way then as luckily, the primer is very similar in colour to the grey paint, so no excessive colour change!
Being mischievous now @Chrisd, sometimes people change the colour of the primer to suit the top coat. My grand daughter has just done her red bike in a red primer which was recommended, a pal of mine swears that black primer gives a stronger red and I've heard others say that a white primer gives a brighter red. Take your pick
Cheers John.... I've actually tried all of them and grey undercoat is the closest I can get to the original red.
a pre -oops moment question! I'm using HMG 2K gloss. The tech sheet talks about using either a compliant spray gun or a pressure pot. I'm guessing I don't have a pressure pot, but I've no idea what that is, so thought I'd ask here. (Edit...looking at the web, I don't have this) Linked to this is the nozzle size for my assumed compliant spray gun. I have a 1.3/1.4 & 1.7 nozzles...so I'm assuming 1.7 but that does feel big. Advice from the usual suspects would be useful as the shop is inconveniently closed on the bank holiday today! Thanks Edited new specs
Try them? The biggest change for me was when I got the right air cap. The one with the 2nd hand gun produced a fantastic finish for small parts, but was far too slow to paint panels where you need to get it on faster. Sadly I've totally forgotten everything I found out regarding actual sizes of this stuff.
I’d have a quick try with 1.7 and 1.4 , assume your gun is gravity fed? ie pot on top! I’m not at the workshop today but pretty sure I use 1.7 for primer and 1.4 top coat .
