The way people feather clear coat drives me nuts

I swear every third repair I see coming through has that harsh line where the clear just stops. They'll sand down a spot and then shoot clear right to the edge of the blend without any fade out. On a silver car in afternoon light it looks like a damn tide mark. I spent 20 minutes on a job last week just wet sanding and buffing out someone else's hard line because they couldn't take an extra minute. Does anyone else see this getting worse with newer guys?

2 comments

2 Comments

kevin_harris787d ago

Gotta respectfully disagree with you here. A hard line on clear is almost always from bad prep or wrong spray technique, not from skipping the fade out. If you feather your base properly and lay the clear with the right overlap and reducer, you won't get that tide mark even if you don't blend it way out. I've been spraying for 15 years and I barely ever do a full fade on clear unless its a weird metallic or tri-coat. The real issue is guys spraying heavy coats without matching their air pressure to the panel shape. Silver cars show everything, sure, but if your clear laydown is smooth and you wet sand the edge, that line disappears.

pat_coleman7d ago

Maybe it's just me but wet sanding alone won't fix a poorly laid clear coat edge.