I was painting the hood of my wife's "hooptie" Honda and I ran into several problems over the weekend laying down the basecost. After I had the hood primered with some rattle can primer(I know don't kill me, I should know better), I wiped it down with some wax/degreaser and the primer lifter up like nothing.

So, I layed down a coat of K38 primer(nice stuff) and sanded with 600 after it was dry. Layed down the basecoat and I had the wrong setting(40 psi instead of 23psi as recommended by the manf) at the gun and got some dry spots with the metallic. I'm not sure if it's acutal 'tiger stripes' or if that's the way the base lays down(Omni DBC). I'm pretty sure it is though. I am going to knock the basecoat down again and then lay another coat of base on it.

Is there anything I can do to get the metallic to laydown better?

What would happen if I shot the clear over it now? Would I see the dry spots?

Don't spray the clear yet, it will magnify the spots. Be sure and stir the paint can before each batch is mixed. Scuff and spray a uniform coat. Hang in there everyones messed up some paint.

What you are seeing is probably tiger stripes. It will look like light and dark streaks. The #1 reason for this is because of improper gun handling. On every pass you should have 50% overlap onto the prevoius pass. When you paint look at the edge of the paint pattern, when it come time to make that overlapping pass the center of the gun SHOULD be pointed at the prevoius paint pattern edge.

If you still have that streaking after you got the panel covered you can do a few things. You can over reduce the basecoat, this will thin out the paint making the metallics lay out. I dont care to do this as thinning the paint can lighten the color of the basecoat making matching an issue. The other method is calling mist coating. Basically you are appling the paint in drier applications not getting that med-wet coat. You can TURN UP the air pressure or hold the gun back farther. But care also must be taking when doing this as to MUCH will make the basecoat look grainy or dry under the clear.

The BEST thing for you to do is get that 50% overlap. Also make sure that the gun is held at 90 degress to the surface. On hoods painters tend to be lazy and slighyly angle the gun, this will also lead to that streaking as the angle closer to the surface will get more paint causing the stripes even thou yu have that perfect 50% overlap.
If your wrist doesnt hurt when spraying that hood then you ARE NOT 90 degrees to the panel

Ok, thanks for the info guys.

Just curious, when painting a hood should you start in the middle of the hood and work your way out to the outer fender and then do the same on the other side? It seems you might get some dry spots if it's done like this.

Metallics are new for me. Plain color I can just sand down if I goof up, but metallics are much more difficult. I'm learning though! graemlins/hurray.gif

You always want to keep a "wet edge"
Start on one side, and work towards the middle, then go to the other side and continue across.