Expert: William Forster - 8/12/2008

Question
I have been painting cars for some time now and every now and then I experience problems with metallic sag, my question to you is, what causes spotting in your paint job and what can I do to prevent it?

Answer
you are either over applying clear coat over high metallic colors, burning the metallic out of suspension by flooding the panels with clear, or you aren't doing a mist coat after painting single stage metallic paint. To mist coat, simply apply a normal coat of paint to a panel, then hold the gun about 18 inches away from the panel, and just let the paint fly. Misting is quick, it's done so fast that it melts into the paint without causing dry spray. You have to move, and should mist coat an entire hood with about 5 or 6 strokes. You acn also cross coat when misting- that means applying the mist coat in strokes going the opposite direction  of the normal headlight to windscreen strokes- go fender to fender with the mist coat.