Advise on spraying metallic paint

[Jerry1]

I am in the process of restoring a 1967 912. I have started filler work and primer and was test painting the color I am interested in. The color is 334 metallic blue. Can someone examine my sample and tell me what I did wrong. The spray gun I used was a small HVLP touch up sprayer with 1.0. I laid the the piece of metal flat to simulate the roof. I tried to spray as flat as possible I even dripped from the top of the bottle. I held the sprayer about 4" away and at about 7 PSI. I like the outer edge color. Any suggestions

picture of the car to be painted



Paint sample



You can see the drip in the lower right corner. I have an other question can you change direction of the spray like side to side to up and down to get better coverage.

[962porsche]

in a word every thing ! a tuch-up gun is to small for that size panel . thow with some work it could be made to work . with all the striping , you put the color on to heavy . the drip , take a peace of paper towel and a rubber band then rap the paper towel around the top of the guns cap and hold it in place with the rubber band . i only use a mini gun on places smaller than a cars license plate . when applying base color put it on medium wet . with about a 50% over lap in the spray pattern .

[Jerry1]

Thanks for the reply. The painter I talked to today said the same. I did forget to mention that this is single stage which the painter did not recommend either. But can I use it on the door jams and use 2 stage on the rest of the car? I will be practicing with the single stage. I will post if I can get it right.

[GradyM]

Single stage paint is generally no good for metallics.If you have to use it however ,you cannot load it on. Keep a bit more gun distance and air pressure. You can also spray a mist coat in a cross pattern from how you sprayed the last coat, increase the gun distance even more along with the air pressure and this will even out the metallic.It must be done fairly soon after the last coat in order for it to 'melt in' to the previous coat.

[962porsche]

shooting a single stage matalic is very ez . you can let it strip all it wants to the last coat . on the last coat pull the gun back alittle more from the panel and do a drop coat .

[Jerry1]

Thanks I will try that. Question what is the pros and cons to single stage verses two stage. From what I have seen of clears looking like crap after 5 years. With the proper maintenance a single would do fine wouldn't it.

[962porsche]

no its just the apposite ! only a repaint the was doen improperly will not last . on a matallic color single stage there is very little UV protection also when you color sand and buff you end up sanding off some of the metallic flacks . most OE and good repair shops use base clear for there finishes for good reasons . a big plus for the home sprayer using base clear is the fact that you can denib any dust that gets into the color coats when painting . then when your finished clearing and once dryed you then can wet sand and buff with out fear of the color changing or in your case removing some of the metallics too. with out maintenance no finish will last as it should . the only plus to a single stage color is you can at times bring a badly fadded color back to life with a good buffing . were with a base clear color once the clear goes bad its repaint time . but on the other hand when any top coats go bad its time to repaint ! the simple fact that the top coats are the only protection for the under coats and metal substraight . in most cases your looking at about 4 to 6 mills of protection . under coats offer little to no protection at all and are not designed to . so with a car that the color is badly faded and you bring it back to life by a good buffing you have also removed more of the only protection the substraight has . if you have ever buffed out a badly faded car i'm sure you noticed it fades back out fast .