I’ve always worked in high volume shop, so I do my best to be efficient. This was my solution for addressing any finish Issues. I intended it to be as mobile as possible with the need for airlines or extension cords so all my polishers and sanders are battery operated. I was hoping to see anyone else’s to see if I’m missing some great ideas.

This is a mini hood that I got at an airbrush workshop several years ago. it's an aluminum panel stamped into a hood shape but it's about half size. Think the actual width is 28" or so. Mainly did this panel to keep me motivated while I slog through the body work and mechanical issues on a build I'm doing for the wife - A fiberglass bodied dune buggy. Wanted to see if I liked the main blue color (and I do). The base is Tamco's slick silver coarse metallic silver. The darker blue is Tamco' SoCal Candy. The lighter tealish blue is Tamco Monaco candy. This hasn't been cleared yet and it may never get that far- I'm gonna experiment a bit with some interference pearls in hopes of a ghost effect of flowing water. - Anyway, I thought I'd share. Apologies for the crap photo.

Hi to all. I am beginner in the automotive painting world which I challenge my self to complete my project car and paint myself. I bought the Volkswagen Caddy with a light front collision damage which I replaced the front bumper, sidewings, hood and it’s a different colour which I need to paint it silver colour which I learned that is most difficult, but I don’t give up from this challenge and start to learning on Internet and on YouTube and recently joined this community to learn more about painting from the professionals like you and I hope I will get very good tips how to do my first painting job and I hope will be great. I bought the one cheap spray gun from Temu I believe is copy from DeVilbiss GTI pro lite with TE20 cap. I bought the silver colour and clearcoat. I try first paint on the damage hood. The paint come very rough, is feel like a sandpaper. I belive my paint mix was not so good as well the pressure setting was the problem. My second attempt was much better but still the base colour was more rough than the original. Is good I have test panels where I can learn and compare the colours.

Painted this car with a single-stage metallic (Tikkurila Temadur 90) yesterday for a friend of mine. This was my biggest undertaking so far. I've learned that single-stage metallics are extremely tricky. I practiced on one fender, four doors, and two hoods (some of them more than once) to get the gun settings right for my WS-400 1.3HD. Despite all that, the first panel I sprayed at my friend's garage immediately started showing tiger striping. If you spray too wet, the flakes start swimming and you end up with tiger stripes or blotchiness. I was constantly struggling to find the happy medium between acceptable orange peel and good flake control. This paint definitely needed a control coat, and that's what fixed the sunroof, too. There were some dust issues in his space, but he's very happy with the result. No runs, no tiger stripes, and the orange peel is relatively uniform. His own attempt at painting the car hadn't gone well, and taking it to a professional shop wasn't within his budget. He also wasn't willing to switch to a basecoat/clearcoat system. Personally, I don't think I ever want to touch single-stage metallic paint again. I lived under constant stress for a couple of months planning this spray, and I'm so happy it's done! 😆

On my 86 F150, I am just about ready to start painting. I plan to use Raptor Liner on the underside of the bed as an undercoating. A friend was telling me I should paint the bed first, and then do the Raptor Liner, as it will be easier to mask, but I really don't want to stand it on end with a fresh paint job. I was thinking of standing it on end and spraying the Raptor Liner, and then put it back on the dolly, mask off the underside and inside the bed, and spray the base/clear. Later, I'll spray the inside of the bed with tinted Raptor Liner, but that will be after the truck is painted. I'm leaning toward doing the Raptor undercoating first, but I'd love to get thoughts and opinions from everyone regarding what order I should apply these coatings. Thanks.