On step 4 you say after you have achieved coverage and stepped out your base color you come back and hit the blend edge(ie..where primmer met the factor clear) with DBC 500 and then what?
go over it again with more base? If so how much?

Or, I think you mean you just proceed on to clearing the whole pannel, right?
I think I will clear the ENTIRE pannel twice is that how you do it?
Sorry to be such a perfectionist, just want to get it right the first time! ;)

I know this is not the blending tips you are after Zack, and don't let it confuse you from what Eric has explained to you. But I thought I would post it. I did this a while ago just in "rage" over what I see at work some times and pointing out the myths of blending that many painters are caught up in. It goes far beyond what Eric has explained probably too far. Again, Eric is has given you a good over view to blending and don't let me over complicate it. But if you read the text it may make somethings clearer as to what he has posted means.

Yesterday, I saw another example (not the one in the text, that was month ago) of what I am talking about. We put a quarter panel on a Toyota mini van. The sliding door was undamaged and off he van for the blend. The painter painted the quarter, THEN put a lame pee coat blend on the door. To make matters worse, he "blended" all the way across the door ! What he got as a "three stage" painted door and a totally different color than both the original front door (the next panel) and the newly painted quarter as well ! Making the side of the van three different colors !


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>


Blending tips
Yesterday where I work there was another example of a problem I see often there. When parts are painted off the car, they never match. Even though they are painted with the same paint at the same time. If it is a "blend panel" they will be off a thousand miles! They might as well not blend it at all and just "panel paint".

These are some of the reasons why this can happen. The car is in the booth and a few parts are hanging or on racks. Let's say they are painting the new quarter, then blending the original door that is in original paint and the original deck lid that is in original paint off the car. The deck lid is on a stand behind the car and the door is hanging from the ceiling. The quarter is in sealer and the door and decklid are in original paint as mentioned and have been completely scuffed with a scuffing gel for blend.

The painter THINKS the blend panels don't need as much color because they are "already the color". WRONG, they are already a SIMILAR but they are NOT already the same color they are painting with. If it was the SAME color, you wouldn't have to blend, right? So the painter covers the primered quarter with three or four coats of color. Maybe this color is particularly transparent and it needs five coats. After he shoots a coat or two on the quarter he then may (I don't know, I am not watching him, but I do KNOW the outcome) turn around and spray a little on the edge of the door and decklid. He THINKS being they are already the "same" color he just needs to spray a little. By the time he has applied all the paint to the quarter he has sprayed a few coats of the color blending it out on the door and decklid. Now as a side note, they ALWAYS blend too far, which makes the other side of the panel not match the adjacent unpainted (or blended) panels!! But that is a different issue, I digress.

What he has done is sprayed the quarter to coverage OVER a primer or sealer as a base. On the decklid and door he has applied sort of a "mid coat" over a base. This is NOT blending and WILL produce two different colors. In their case they actually produce THREE different colors because they blend all the way across the panel and create another color at the other end. The "mid coat" they have applied at the other end of the blend panel is another "mid coat" and will give you yet another color!

Lets exaggerate (you know how I love that to get a point across) with this. If you were to be shooting a true candy color. The base that you shoot under that candy MAKES your final color. If you were to add a little red toner to your silver base, just a little. This might be something that you can barely see in the silver base. That little change in the base would change the outcome of the final color. Now, let's go one step further, you totally change the final color by the amount of coats of candy applied right? Well how about the application of the coats? If you lay a three med coats as opposed to three heavy coats of candy, that would give you two different final colors as well.

So, going back to the paint job, that primer on the quarter panel is going to produce a different color than the original paint on the blend panels at one coat of new color right? So at two coats of a transparent color (like many metallics and pearls) there would still be two different colors at that point. At what point would these colors be the same? Two coats, three coats, four coats, when? How about this, the new paint on the quarter panel at three coats is NOT the same color at the original paint on the door and the decklid. So if the painter is thinking that the color on the door and decklid is the “same” and only needs a few light coats, he is dreaming! At two coats they are two completely different colors, or as in the candy analogy, two completely different “base” colors. So, two more coats on the quarter and two coats on the original paint on the door and decklid is going to product two different colors!

Plus, to put another wrench in the transmission, even if the door hanging in the booth is getting completely painted as opposed to blending it may not match. If he doesn’t paint that quarter and then turn around and paint the door that is hanging there EXACTLY the same (remember distance, and speed can change metallic or pearl distribution) as he did the quarter, it is going to be two different colors!

You have to paint the start of the blend on the door and decklid EXACTLY as you do the quarter.

The misunderstanding of this simple fact is what has led to the painters myth about bumpers being a different color because the plastic or rubber parts “take the paint differently”. There is absolutely NO difference in base material that is going to “change” color. It is the application that changes color.

Thanks Mr. SR

Just think some people go to school for years and pay thounsands of dolars for info like this, and it still doesn't compare with someone who has been in the field for many years and isn't too grumpy to share the wealth. Thanks again, Zach smile.gif

That is one reason I always use sealer, I also put sealer on the edges of blend panels. If I'm doing a front end I put sealer on the edges of fenders then my base color is ALWAYS the same!!
My .02 Mike

Mike that 69 is so beautiful I think I would stare at it more than I drove it! What clear is that? What buffing compound do you use?

Standox clear and the 3m Perfect it compound, Finesse,and the black swirl remover with a black pad.Wizard's spray wax ta keep it clean. Thanks, Mike

Martin, am sitting here reading this and thinking whats the purpose of hanging the undamaged blend door?? Is it cause they are trying to jam and paint the quarter at once, or something else that am missing?

Sometime ago I tried this method and it really bite me hard. Did a 00 or 01 Chrylser LHS painted the color from HELL that god awaful PTE gold. Installed new quarter and rear door, fixed slight damage on decklid and blended front door. Hung the rear door to paint complete and removed decklid so I could jam and paint 1/4 all at once. Well needless to say I ended up with 4 different colors and repainted the thing.

So it makes me wonder if your paintes havent learned yet like I did or more to it...Eric

On a personal note: You get those shells?? Hopefully they worked for you.

Eric, first off, yep I got the shells,thanks. They are too small for my project though. One could be used as the "center piece" in the item but I need to get a bullet to put in the shell to make it complete. Anyway, I will use one at least. The other one my boy has been playing with and is having fun with it so it has gone to good use even if I don't use it on my dads ash tray. Thanks again very much.

On the blending question, yes, we hang the parts so everything can be painted at once. It really works well if the painters get the thing shot correctly. I even had them blend the wrong end of a deck lid once! smile.gif

But anyway it works very well most of the time. Not all cars of course, because they are so hard to hang like fenders on late model Chevy truck for instance. You aren't going to hang those painted, at least and have them fit well. But like the doors on that truck, they hang so nice now with the new hinges that GM is using. You can trial fit the door, tweek it if needed, then pull it off for paint.

But the problem you had, it is exactly what I am talking about in the blending tips above. I feel that we should jamb and assemble everything. That is just how I see it, I think it by the "odds" would give us less trouble. It would be the "Bestest, fastest" way. We seldom repaint anything so what happens is these cars leave with missmatched panels. They do leave, so it isn't "that" bad. But why, that is what I ask. Most of the time the paint dept. will jamb parts before I get them anyway, many times before the car even comes in. Then I hang a quarter or something and they want to paint the parts off. HUH? you already wasted your time jambing! Anyway, just because of this, I say just jamb ONCE and then paint the outside ONCE. But if you should find yourself doing it, just follow the guidelines in the "Blending tips" above.

update, followed Erics prcedure and it worked great! I did get one run in the clear but it was on the second coat so it should buff well with enough left for UV. I am going to put it back together and clean out the garage and get ready to do the body off on the 53' 5 window!

I try to paint some parts off, but for 1/4 panels I like to cut them in and then hang doors and decklids. I usually get less dirt and you don't get all that silicone blowing out from inside the car. Seems 3 outta 5 cars are loaded with the stuff!! graemlins/angry.gif Mike