When you carry out a car body repair yourself there are three main stages. 1, Prep work 2, Painting 3, Lacquer, or top clear coat application. Each individual section has equal importance for all stages need to be completed to a good standard in order for the repair finish to be of a good quality. The most important stage of this repair process for me is the final stage applying the top clear coat or lacquer, for if you get it wrong then you have to start back to the beginning or leave the car to cure before you can attempt to rescue the repair. So many factors in applying the lacquer can go wrong, below are few that might or have happen to you and a few ideas to prevent them happening again.
Running lacquer.
This can occur when you have put the lacquer on the car body repair to thick or if the panel or area that is being sprayed is not at a sufficient temperature. To reduce the chance of the lacquer running first try and have the panel at the temperature suggested by the manufacture of the lacquer product, and either quicken the gun flow across the panel, or reduce the pressure and flow of material through the gun. It's always worth trying out spraying lacquer on a scrap piece or on some unwanted cardboard to try and get the hang of applying the product.
Fish eyes
The fish eye effect can occur if the lacquer is applied over a panel or area that is not sufficiently clean. This can be reducing by cleaning the panel with an alcohol based cleaner at the start of the prepping stage. Don't just clean the area of the body repair but the area around for when you spray the paint and lacquer the area you spray will be greater than the area that was damaged.
Drying Time.
The most popular mistake to make when applying the lacquer is not giving the product enough time to dry properly. If you attempt to polish up the car body repair before the lacquer is sufficiently dry then the lacquer will just ripple up and stick. Always read the manufactures guide on drying times and do your best to adhere to them for they are there for a reason.
I hope the information contained in this article is helpful if you have experienced this problems stated above they might prove some comfort to you.