my adventures in painting the car thread, DONE! Some final thoughts... Options

[914 RZ-1]

So I painted my car. Got some orange peel, thought I'd see if anyone had ideas for getting rid of/minimizing it.

After painting:


After sanding with 1000 grit. The lighter areas are where I sanded, the darker areas are the lower points of the orange peel:


Option 1:
I'm thinking I need to go to 800 grit, then 1000, 1500, 2000, then polish. Before I do I thought I'd see if anyone else thinks this is a good idea based on what they may have done.

Option 2:
I can re-paint it. I'm thinking I will sand with 400 grit to rough up the surface and then re-spray.

Option 3:
I can polish it more, but the orange peel is still noticeable on the smaller pieces I've tried. I used a Torq X polisher, white pad, Chemical Guys V32 polish. I thought it might get smoother as I polished it with finer and finer pads/compounds, but I don't want to burn thru the paint. I put 3 coats of paint on.

[Costa05]

I thought I read in one of your posts that you were running 10 to 15 psi at the gun which is real low. 25 to 30 psi is better. From what I have learned from the net is 10 psi is at the tip of the gun but is unmeasursble. The pressure must be sustained obviously and with small compressors that can be difficult to do. Thus small parts its ok. A good test is release just air out of gun, set the pressure, and continue releasing while watching the gauge see just how fast it drops off on you. I had a 20 gal compressor once that gave maybe enough time for one coat on a small fender at the required pressure. It got way better with my 60 gallon.

[914 RZ-1]

I thought I read in one of your posts that you were running 10 to 15 psi at the gun which is real low. 25 to 30 psi is better. From what I have learned from the net is 10 psi is at the tip of the gun but is unmeasursble. The pressure must be sustained obviously and with small compressors that can be difficult to do. Thus small parts its ok. A good test is release just air out of gun, set the pressure, and continue releasing while watching the gauge see just how fast it drops off on you. I had a 20 gal compressor once that gave maybe enough time for one coat on a small fender at the required pressure. It got way better with my 60 gallon.

Yeah, I was spraying at that before I learned my lesson. I upped the psi at the gun to 30 and got much better results. I didn't realize how much pressure drop there was. The air even sounds different.

I did just what you suggest: I pressed and held the trigger to see what the pressure was staying at. Before, I just pressed and released and got about 30 psi, but that was just a burst. It would go down to 10 or so when I held the trigger for spraying. My gauge was covered with paint, then when I cleaned it with acetone, the plastic got fogged up. I sanded with 2000 and polished it up so I could see it again.

I don't get as much paint on anything, like I did before, so I've been able to see the gauge while spraying.