Touch-up painting of bumper - do I need plastic primer?

xci.ed6 · Apr 3, 2015

I believe that's lacquer based...

As for multiple coats, yes and no it helps glossy. It tends to get 'bumpy' (MICROSCOPIC!) reducing color, adding coat after coat after coat, it balances out. When you polish, you sanding it to make it smooth, very softly sanding with polishing compound. So you can paint more, or polish if it is thick enough (might need 3-4 coats), up to you.

mossberg · Apr 3, 2015

xci.ed6 said:
I believe that's lacquer based...

As for multiple coats, yes and no it helps glossy. It tends to get 'bumpy' (MICROSCOPIC!) reducing color, adding coat after coat after coat, it balances out. When you polish, you sanding it to make it smooth, very softly sanding with polishing compound. So you can paint more, or polish if it is thick enough (might need 3-4 coats), up to you.

I've got 7 light rattlecan coats down already. And yeah, there is some texture, which I assume is what everyone calls "orange peel".

So maybe the 7 light coats is thick enough that I can do a little wet sanding with 1200 or 1500 grit paper to knock down the orange peel? And then polish.

Or, since the bumper is still masked off, maybe I should put down another couple of coats to ensure the clear coat is thick enough to withstand wet sanding and polishing? If I opted for this, now that the earlier clear is mostly cured, would I need to do some light wet sanding to get another coat to adhere?

xci.ed6 · Apr 3, 2015

I'd probably go with like 2000 grit for actual paper.

I'm not a body shop guy, btw.

mossberg · Apr 4, 2015

xci.ed6 said:
I'd probably go with like 2000 grit for actual paper.

Yeah, I can start with a lighter grit and see if that is sufficient to knock down the orange peel.

Might skip adding more layers of clear right now since I'm guessing I'd have to sand the cured clear a little to get new layers to adhere, and I don't want to mess with that and clean and remask.

Need to buy a DA polisher and then I'll wetsand (by hand) to knock down the orange peel. If that takes off too much clear, I'll spray a couple more layers of clear, otherwise, I'll proceed directly to polishing. This doesn't need to look perfect, just decent for a 14yr old daily driver.