[fastflats]

Not sure what type of paint you used, but in the past I have had blushing occur from high humidity & not enough time between coats. If you didn't allow enough time between coats it would trap thinners/reducers causing paint to look cloudy.

[BigFish]

anybody think sanding it down with 400 or 800 grit and re painting will do the job? i tried painting over the clear coat but it made it look nastier!

In a word, yes. Ideally you would use a high quality clear and base coat that are compatible.

When something similar happened to me I used 120 on an orbital sander (like Dexter suggested) until the base plastic started to show through. At that point I switched to 220. Some will tell you this is too aggressive ...and they're right. You'll lose a bit of plastic thickness by doing this. I'm just impatient, and hate long days spent sanding.

Once all of the paint was gone I hand sanded it with 320, 600, and 1000 grit sand paper. My paint guys suggested 2000, but I found that with my specific base paint it made no difference at this state. It did make a difference with my mid coat and clear coat though which looked much better at 2000 grit smoothness.

Not sure what type of paint you used, but in the past I have had blushing occur from high humidity & not enough time between coats. If you didn't allow enough time between coats it would trap thinners/reducers causing paint to look cloudy.

That's a really good point. Different types of paint will often react to one another, and less to themselves. I discovered the hard way that when spraying clear (and others to a lesser extent) it's very helpful to spray a very light mist over the object the first pass. Then a light dry coat after giving it sufficient time to dry. Follow this with a medium (almost wet coat) or two and it should come out good.

[Dexter]

You at least need to sand your massive shell of clearcoat off... as I said, I've seen thick clearcoat shatter almost like glass when it gets stone chipped.

When I did my paint job, my final sanding of the primer was with 800 wet sanding for the pieces I painted red, and 1200 wet for the pieces I painted silver. After I had it all cleaned up, hung, and prepped, I layed my coats of base coat and my clear coat allowing proper flash time in between coats... and that was it. No more sanding or polishing.

[lynwoodca1]

thanx for the help guys

[redkatana]

If you want it to look good don't use a rattle can at all. I would sand with p320. If you use something that is too abbrassive you will leave small cuts in the plastic. Once you have the entire bike smooth with p320 move up to p400 (before p400 never make steps larger than 100 grit). Someon earlier said to go from 320 to 600 which is fine if you want to leave cuts from the rougher paper. Once you have the bike looking smooth spray a sealer. Of course clean the whole bike with wax and grease remover before spraying the sealer and tack it off. Let the sealer flash then tack off again (be very light when tacking this time). Spray a realitively light coat of base. Followed by one to two more coats of base allowing proper flash time between each coat. Then lightly tack again and spray clear. Usually two heavy coats. Basically if you don't know what your doing or this is your first time I would have someone with some experience there.

[kevin2502000]

The highest quality clears will mostly be available in a sprayable form only. there are a few that are actually a two part system with the catalyst in the rattle can, but I have never used any of them. If you get the part repainted (color) you should be able to take it to a body shop to get a quality clear sprayed on for a reasonable price. Then again, spray guns can be bought relatively cheap... a little practice goes a long way.

I bought a cheap hvlp spray gun at menards, (touch up gun) and had phenomenal results with it, check out my paint thread. Of course this wasn't my first time painting, only my third but learned alot along the way.

http://katriders.com/vb/showthread.php?t=101014