Modern Vespa

A primer surfacer must be painted over body filler to prevent that from happening!

Sanding wet by hand. I'll try it again. Refill, 320 grit, spray it again. This was my guide coat wanted to see if it covered ok and it didn't.

WDC , using this primer. Is this a surfacer too?
https://www.optimasolution.co.uk/aerosols-and-coatings/primer/high-build-primer/

Looks great, Jack!

It is.

But if you can source glaze (aka glaze putty/aka glaze compound) you'll have a much easier job of it. Keep in mind that your high gloss clear-coat will highlight every, little, thing.

Glaze is a little spendy! But in terms of time and effort saved it's worth it, vs multiple coats of sandable primer/surfacer, sanding, re-coating.

And btw, sorry if I came off as an arse in my earlier reply...
"I'll use a filler of my choosing."

This a decent part of my day-job. I've got quite a few fillers to choose from here, depending on what I can get away with in the shortest time possible.

Technique here at 3:00. Adheres to bare metal as well.

The solvent is getting absorbed differently by the different surfaces. The bare metal vs filler/primer vs existing paint, hence the world map.

This will happen with epoxy primer as well, but a filler primer would level out the finish for a base colour coat to sit perfectly on.

If you aim for a cleaner finish, like CM mentioned you'll aim to finish on at least 320 grit… if not you'll always have scratch marks

I use 320 to get the filler smooth, then 600 after high-build primer.

And if you really want the clear coat to shine, you'll want to do a wet sand with 600 before you lay down the final coat. It'll be a royal PITA, but the difference will be significant.

When I fixed my GL, the parts I'd sanded with 600 grit before clearcoat were so much glossier than the rest that I had to go back and do the other panels because they looked dull--and I'd though they looked shiny before the comparison!

So close. Been following all your advices. Rubbing, filling, priming, repeat and repeat and repeat. Now its so close. From this shot I filled some tiny pin marks and and given it another coat.
If this dries any good, I'll rub it with 600, give it a last thin prime, 600 again....and we're done. Ready for actual coloured paint. So excited to see if its any good.
Its not going to be any pro job but hopefully good enough until it falls over in the wind or something.


Hopefully this is it.

Pre this last coat of primer...or maybe the one before that


Last edited by Jack221 on Tue Jun 07, 2022 10:09 am; edited 2 times in total

The worst that will happen with a nice, smooth starting point like that is that you'll have to wet sand it to get the color coat nice n' shiny.

I posted a while back about how to rattle-can the color coat. Used metallic paint as well, which can be really tricky.
Page 8 on the "how to paint" thread.

One addition (particular to cowls) is ONLY spray perpendicular to the surface, to avoid dripping or orange peel. Kind of like a robot paints a car.

If you can, shoot something else(even cardboard) you don't care about with the same primer, to practice on.

Looks great!

Ray8 is the man on advice here, obviously.

I literally taped a piece of cardboard, in a mock spray, and practiced moving the gun and keeping the fake cardboard spray perpendicular to the cowl surface. It's easier said than done.

I literally practiced this for two hours. You heard me right - TWO HOURS, until I felt like I could turn the gun and keep the spray straight, especially on the inside.

After I let my arm have a break, I dialed in the pressure and spray, on a big ass piece of cardboard, purposely going over and under, to see what was what, then went for it.

Your cowl Jack is looking fabulous!

Yeah that is going to look good. You are under selling yourself. Can't wait to see it finished.

that cowl looks very good. Nice work. Layers and layers and layers of primer, and sanding, and work. It will pay off.

Done. Maybe colour today. Doesn't look quite this good in reality, some slight bumps and a high spot but not filling anymore.

QA Two hours gun practice, if I had a gun I'd do it too. This is just a rattle can job on a piece of cardboard, on the ground in the garden. If the colour nearly matches and doesn't run I'll be happy.

RAY that painting thread only has 4 pages. Is there another one? Might be a gem in there that helps me not screw it up.

CM this is two stage. Should it be shiny after just the colour is on? How many coats of colour should I do? and rub down in between?

Based on my GL, since it's two-stage paint, it should have a sheen about like if it was sanded with 600 grit.

This was the legshield after color coat but before top coat.

We have colour. looks just like yours CM. Right colour but flat. This is coats 1 and 2 below. I sanded between and it went really flat. One more coat of colour and that's it. Should I sand the last coat of colour before clear coat? Or not?
And how many coats of clear?


1st coat not sanded

2nd coat not sanded

I only sand between coats if I've messed up something and need to fix it or gone outside the window for chemical bonding of coats. Re-prepping is just so much work and it stretches out the process significantly.

That being said, I wound up having to re-clearcoat a lot of my GL after the accident because I sanded and then re-clearcoated the mudguard and it was so much glossier than the rest of the bike that I wound up having to do the same to other parts that I wouldn't have done otherwise (and I *thought* it was glossy before the accident!).

Nothing needs sanding due to issues, so I'll leave it. How many coats of clear? With sanding between? Or just until I like it?

I did two coats of color, two coats of clear, but wound up with three from the re-coating after the accident. I think two, then if it needs it, sand and shoot the third is probably the best bet. Others know better than I, though, I'm sure.

Three coats, ten minutes between. No sanding.

First coat should look dull.

*Watch this video at around 10:00. Clear-coat lays out differently vs color:

Thanks for that. Watched it all. Seems like I did it about right so far. Three coats of colour on but a small bit of fluff got on it, so light rub and do that once more.

Impressive how the clear goes on. Dull paint just wakes up. Mine doesn't have hardener but hopefully shiny enough to match the original paint.

Panel on then it's road test and MOT time. Can't be long now.

Base coat is ready usually flat…like inside the trunk of any modern car. It is usually just base coated. Only exterior seems to get clear.

I never thought about that until you mentioned it.