[squidmarks]

I've been working on getting my body panels (front/rear hoods and doors) ready for paint. They've had a skim-coat of body filler, shaped with a body file (36 grit, then 80 grit) and now I've put a couple coats of filler primer on (PPG JP202). The instructions for mixing the primer indicate that you can either mix it 4:1:1 (primer:reducer:hardener), or 4:1 (primer:hardener), the latter for use as a filler. For the first coat, I used it mixed as 4:1 (no reducer), but it didn't spray very will (it went on like ceiling stucco). For the second coat, I used the reducer and mixed it 4:1:1, but it still left a very rough, pebbly surface. I'm using a good DeVilbiss gun and tried a variety of settings, but was not able to improve the resulting surface quality. I was able to sand it off, but I want to put one final primer coat on and don't need any real filling as these first two coats, as ugly as they looked, did the job of filling ok. I just needed to sand down to the filler in several spots and I want to give it a homogeneous primer coat.

Why is it going on so rough? Is it because filler primer is so thick? Could I cut it with reducer some more to thin it out? Do I need to get a bigger spray tip for my gun?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank.

Geoff