I have rusty wheel arches on my car. I've sanded, treated, primed, painted, and laquered the repair.
Primer went on fine, as did the metallic colour coat. But my problem is with the laquer. I just cannot seem to get a smooth finish on it. It always sprays on 'speckled'. All the cans are from Halfords. And I sanded the paint coat with 1200 grit paper before laquer.
Can anyone recommend a different laquer manufacturer, or some advice on what I may be doing wrong? Or am i expecting too much?
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I suspect it's the modern water-based paint, not you. Twenty years ago I could get a good finish without even trying.
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Long time since I did the dreaded touching up.
Does the can actually produce a fine aerosol spray, or does it sputter?
If the former, you may be just using it too close to the car. Give a few light coats , allowing lacquer to dry each time. Paint the car in a warm and draft free environment if you can.
If the can sputters ,bring it into the warm for a while and shake thoroughly.Lacquer may simply be too thick in these sub zero temperatures.
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you really need to shake it well for 5 minutes first and spray it upside down pointing away from the car between each pass to clear the dribbles in the hole
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Well im not going to lie and say that I did a text book job. It was cold and outdoors.
The laquer was at room temp and well shaken. Its thicker than the primer and paint, so is spluttering a bit. From a distance it looks ok, but on closer inspection its not great.
Can you still buy non water based spray cans?
Also - could i re-laquer by sanding it down with 1200 grit paper and not have to reapply the paint?
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I think this needs just too much skill to be done properly. I touched up two small areas very carefully, using the car manufacturer's part no. spray and recommedations. Now the areas stand out more than they did with the damage showing
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If all the bare metal is well coverd,I'd leave it until the weather warms up or you can get the car into a warm garage.
You may remove more than the lacquer coat with wet and dry.Be cautious.
Try 'T-cut' as a gentle alternative- this may polish up the bumpy lacquer if you are keen to fix it now.
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I've had exactly the same problem. In the end I just sprayed the coat MUCH thicker, and it seemed to give a nice glossy finish. I'm not sure whether it's the correct way to do it, but it worked for me. Unfortunately I was doing a wing mirror which was quite difficult and a lot of paint ran to the bottom. I fixed the runs by sanding and polishing though.
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Leave the colour coat a week or more to harden, and then clean and spray the lacquer, build up the coats thicker until it is glossy on the final wetter coat. Then wait until hard and sand with 1000-2000 et and dry with warm water and washing up liquid to remove orange peel, overspray and runs and then buff with cutting paste and wax. Having said all that, it's too cold and damp to get a good result at the moment due to blooming.
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I always use a 'warm air gun' to follow the spray across the panel ( not too close). I my case a paint stripper gun but I'm sure SWMBO wouldn't mind her hairdryer being used. This dries off the paint whilst it still has a shine. I recently did a whole front wing on the classic car (and it's big) with black acrylic and it has come out very well. I shall give it a coat of clear acrylic varnish when I have time.
Ted
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This damp air doesn't help either. I don't think I'd even try outdoors at all until it dries out and warms up.
My local auto paint supplier will still fill aerosols with cellulose paint and lacquer.
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Its too cold and damp at the moment for any kind of result.
I've used Halfords lacquer before on a mirror case and after a few weeks it crazed so I'm not a fan. That was on top of a fresh basecoat and all cleaned and keyed before application.
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I had all sorts of fun this summer trying to get acrylic paint to work, not to craze, and produce a good finish with the lacquer.
Even after letting the primer dry for 2 weeks before applying 3 coats of base colour, then the lacquer a day later as per instructions, it still crazed and was almost impossible to give a gloss finish without sanding/polishing afterwards.
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So general consensus is that its too cold and damp at the moment. Guess I'll have to live with the poor finish until it warms up, as if i dont get the bits of rust treated now it'll be a massive job come summer.
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