Ya' know, learning as you go is part of the process, but I'm getting a little tired of these "lessons" With all of the "loose parts" in clear coat I sprayed base on the body yesterday. Had one little boo-boo where the hose kissed the corner of the top, but letting it dry for an hour and hitting it with some 800 grit with wax & grease remover as the wetting agent smoothed it out really quick, and a couple of coats of base had it good as new, but needed to dry at least an hour before clearing, and the time wasn't going to work so I delayed clear for this morning. In hindsight I should have gone back after dinner and shot the clear!!
This morning I was hoping to get done before any rain hit, but just as I got into the first of three coats there was a clap of thunder and raindrops were hitting the tin roof. I checked to see that it wasn't blowing into my air filters, and decided it was going to be OK. Besides, what choice did I have, other than stop in the middle of a coat?
All went well, but then in the second coat the sky opened and it started POURING! Just finishing up the roof and all of a sudden I see a spatter of moisture! Now I'd had zero problems with my air, but my first thought was that it had spit a little drop that had spattered on the surface. Little did I know, but there was a bigger drop there, and it made a MESS Having been schooled to keep spraying through any problem I finished that coat, and while waiting for it to flash I went in, blew down my compressor, checked to be sure that I had indeed cracked the drain on the moisture separator to bleed off any collected water, and blew my air line into a cup to see if anything came out - all was clean and dry About that time I looked up to the rafters and saw a wet spot with a drip hanging, right above my wet spot! Now this roof has never leaked that I recall, but the wind & heavy rain apparently blew just enough under the ridge panel to form a leak.
I blew out all of the moisture from the surface, and that opened up several small bubbles in the clear. Shot the third coat, going light on that area, and now will wait for it to dry thoroughly before I work it down to fix the flaws.
At this point the body's like a beautiful centerfold model with a big zit!! The water "floated" the clear, forming a nasty sag down the recessed molding above the window. Going to have to be careful to not sand through the clear into the base here. Sure wish I'd have gone back out to spray last night....
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