Painting help!!!

[axl911]

On my 2nd clear coat, I got some runs in the clear coat. So how do I go about fixing it?

I know that I must use wet sand down the runs. My question is that should I put on an additional clear coat to have plent of clear for the wet sand?

Or should I to wet sand to remove the runs, then put on another clear coat? If so, should I rough up the clear with 600 or just spray clear over the clear.

thanks,
anthony

[chris911sc]

It all depends on the clear you are using. If you are using a good high solids clear, you might be fine with two coats. Most paint systems will allow a window of 24 hours to recoat without sanding(sometimes less or more depending on temp and humidity). If you are unsure of your film build and it has been less than 24 hours I would put one last good coat on. Anything more than a day in average conditions, you need to sand the clear and recoat. You can safely sand the clear with anything from 400-1500 grit before recoating. I would play it safe and stay around 800-1000 to not break through into the base. As for sanding out runs, I like to let the clear harden for about 2 days. If the runs are in a fairly flat area, I usually trim them down with a razor blade. You have to be careful, but you can take a single edge razor and hold it prependicular to the panel and actually scrape the area flat. I cannot stress how careful you have to be because you can really screw things up like this. Once I have accomplished the task of leveling out the run, I will block sand the area with 1500 or 2000 and buff.

[axl911]

I am using PPG. It seemed that my clear is still soft (only couple hours and the weather is cool) and that this will be my first time wet sanding out runs in the clear, I don't want to burn through the base coat. So I went ahead and laid down another clear coat. It seemed to have worked fine. Still have to correct the runs and in certain parts, it built up more of the runs. But at least there is a bit less chance of me sanding through the clear/base.