Hi, we just finished spraying my fireall and oh man does it look sweet!!! all the work was worth it! We sprayed Omni polyester primer first, then sanced then another coat then sanded, then sprayed sealer, then PPG blue, then PPG 2040(i think) clear, we put the clear on real thick with only one coat and another quick coat. Well it looks great but we got a few pretty bad drips in the clear, my painter said it was his fault for not having enough light and not taking his time. We are pretty disappointed in having the drips. He says that he can (once it dries in a few days) take a razor blade with tape on it and slowly cut out the drips and then sand it with some fine sandpaper, then scuff around the area that needs to be re cleared with some kind of special greay 3M pad and then clean and Clear again. We don't want to buff, because we woudln't be ablae to do the whole thing due to the curves and corners. One good thing of loading on the clear is that we got pretty minimal orange peel, it looks good, i am sure it would look better with a cutt and buff, but for no sanding it looks pretty darn good! Please Help! thanks

You shouldn't have to reclear IMO, buy a 3 inch buffing kit to use on a 1/4" angle grinder to buff these areas after sanding them out, or do it all by hand. The most important thing when removing runs, drips, and sags is to remove most of the excess material then let it set up so the cure is the same throughout, then buff. If you sand and buff too fast the areas where the excess paint was will cut at a different rate.

How did you like the Omni polyester primer? Did your painter suggest it? Did it dry with a tacky surface? Did it sand easily? Just curious, I've never used it.

Eastwood has a great tool for cutting drips/runs, comes in 2 styles - flat and convex. Follow the directions, let cure completely, shave the drip down flush, sand/buff. As long as the run is only in the top coat, you will never know it happened.

So is it better to cut and buff, or would it be best to re clear over these parts after first letting it cure then cutting down the drips? The omni primer dried just fine, i didn't notice any tackiness, it was really thick though, and it took, a lot of sanding but fortunately it sanded pretty easily. There was a good amount of orange peel to sand out but it was so thick it filled all the imperfections!

I'm glad to hear you had good results with the polyester Omni primer. I've known it was available for quite awhile but have never given it a try, now I might. The polyester primers are very good for areas you can't apply polyester putties on like weird shapes etc.
I would definately attempt the cut and buff rather than reshooting.

Why is it bad to reshoot? can you explain a little more?

Basically I am looking for info for a rookie, What is the best way to fix the runs? IF i wanted to reshoot the clear, what is the best way to do it? I looked at it again, and there are a few dry spots where we missed so it would be nice to clear again. What is involved in these process and which is better and why? thanks a lot!!!

Am with everyone else cut it and buff it out. I have several of those small buffing pads, as I used them to buff out the copper railing around my shop top deck. Anyway I bought them from the snap on guy but seen them at pretty much every paint store.

Id buff it because
1. its easier, no sanding the ENTIRE firewall again and reclearing
2. you ran it once you could run it twice.

No different then yesterday I painted a Buick Regal, put a slught run on the drivers door. A quick sand job with 1200 then 1500 and 5min on the buffer I was done and guess what NO RUN. Alot faster and NO worries compared to reclearing it.

So should we cutt them with a razor first, also there isn't too much clear on the car just one and a half coats. so i don't want to sand off too much clear.

Also; If we reclear we have to sand down the other clear? So basically would it be best to cut down the runs then wetsand the entire thing and then reclear? would this give the best results. I am a little nervous about buffing because;
1. I don't know how thick the clear is, we put one real heavy coat on, and another real quick one. I don't want to bust through the clear
2. I want a uniform look and dont think we will be able to buff the whole firewall, there are too many nooks and corners etc..
I don't want to argue however whatever you guys think is best i will do. I don't mind doing extra work i am just looking for the best/realistic(meaning it won't come out worst! than it is now) results. thanks again, I am pretty nervous and confused. If you guys could please address these two issues when it comes to buffing, I respect your advise i just want to get all angles covered!

Cody, I have been in your shoes smile.gif Go to paintucation.com and buy the color sanding and buffing video. The $40 is WELL worth it!!! graemlins/beers.gif

ttt