Hello. Happy to join !!! Hope to learn lots here I’ve started paint cars late in my life . Painted a lot of houses in my time but not automotive. So it’s been an about six month now have painted and repaired 3 vehicles now .. had to paint them a couple times thank god I was given lots of time to do so . lol So hope I can learn some good things here

Just ordered this to keep on hand when something lands in your clear. This was specifically marketed towards vehicle wrap installers. It has a very fine flexible tip with tiny little barbs all over the sides kinda like a fish hook on steroids. Not a paid endorsement, but I thought it was super cool. Definitely going in my booth cart. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FS5PFBM6

I did a small repair on a front fender. Initially, I tried to blend the clear with blending solvent at the edges. It worked OK but I knew it was there. I also didn’t like the color match so I have sanded the color repair and clear blend down to 600 grit. My intention is to redo both the color blend and then reclear the whole panel. After sanding, I still can see the clear coat blend line (in the picture the color underneath the clear blend is all exactly the same and away from my color blend, so what you see is the clear edge). Although I haven’t sanded into the basecoat. The line is actually a lot more conspicuous with the sanded finish compared to the polished clear. If I proceed from here and color blend the base in the small area that needs and then reclear the whole panel, will these clear blend lines show through? Do I need to sand the blended clear off back to base coat and proceed. Or all the way back to metal and then epoxy, base, clear? Any advice is appreciated.

Just left on my two- or three-day trip to pick up the used paint booth setup I purchased in June. My first stop is in 300 miles to pick up a secondhand refrigerated air dryer. Then I’ll continue another couple of hours to the small town where the pile of equipment is. It will be a long day because vans with trailers are limited to 50 mph in Finland.

Monday, I finished scuffing the tailgate, and yesterday, I was able to mask off the FORD letters so that I can paint the them and bury it under the clearcoat. I sprayed the letters with a couple light coats of Wimbledon White and then a couple medium coats. After it flashed off, I unmasked it and found a few small areas that bled under the tape edges, and one area where the line was crooked. I was really frustrated, so I got the wife to take a look at it. She suggested sanding. I have to give her credit, it was a great idea. I got my 800 grit on the soft pad from the booth box, and carefully was able to clean up the edges. It only took a few minutes, but I thought it came out really pretty nice. After wiping it down, and tacking it off, I sprayed it with a couple coats of clear. No runs, and only a bit of orange peel. Painting the letters and burying them under the clear was a lot of work, but it looks great and I'm super happy with how it came out.