Yesterday a guy with 40 years in paint showed me why my clearcoat keeps failing

I was bitching about a job that orange peeled on me last week. Old timer named Rick came over from the next bay and asked to see my gun settings. He said I'm running the fluid knob too open and the fan too tight for the temp in our booth. He showed me his setup on a scrap fender and the difference was night and day. Has anyone else had some random old head just walk over and fix your whole process in five minutes?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_olivia1mo ago

Hang on, doesn't orange peel happen from the clear being laid on too thick or the reducer flashing off too fast? I thought it was a flow issue, not a knob setting thing.

the_piper1mo ago

Wait, isn't that kinda what I've seen too? Honestly, a buddy of mine thought his gun settings were perfect but his clear looked like a damn golf ball. He finally figured out he was spraying way too heavy on the second coat and the reducer was just drying before it could even lay flat. He had to sand the whole thing down and start over, wasted like three hours on a Saturday. Ngl, it was painful to watch.

price.ben1mo ago

Wait, three hours??? Man, that's brutal. @the_piper wasn't kidding about that being painful, I'd have cried.