Found a trick for blending clear coat on metallic paint that actually works

I kept getting tiger striping on silver metallics until I tried reducing the clear by 10% and spraying at 30 psi instead of 25. Has anyone else messed with pressure to fix streaking, or is this just a fluke on my end?

2 comments

2 Comments

uma8967d ago

Honestly I used to think pressure was the least important thing for blending, but after fighting with a silver Ford for two hours I tried dropping to 28 psi and it laid down way smoother. Your theory makes sense to me now because lower pressure probably keeps the metallic flakes from getting too scattered in the air stream. I'm going to give your 30 psi tip a shot next time I'm stuck with tiger striping.

shanenguyen7d ago

Nah I actually went the other way with it. I bumped up to 35 psi and got way better results on metallics. The tiger striping usually happens to me when the clear is laying down too wet and the solvent just sits there pushing the flakes around. Higher pressure atomizes it finer so it dries faster and locks the flakes in place before they can shift. I tried the lower pressure stuff on a Graphite Metallic Tacoma and it just made the pattern worse because it laid down too thick. You might be onto something with reducing the clear though maybe that's what actually fixed it for you not the pressure.