Second coat finishes

[cruizer]

This is the piece that I have ben working on where I have had a hard time getting the paint out of the corners. OK, it's not this exact piece, this is the second one I've done. I imagine you can see why I've been having problems.

Anyways, this is ghow I pc'd it. After paint removal, a light bead blast, cleaning, I baked it up to 200 deg. While warm I pulled it from the oven and shot paint right into the corners. Then i proceeded in painting the remainder of the piece, and then cured it. When it was done the finish was nice and smooth (no dust, lint, anything!) but the coating wasn't think enough, you could see right through to the metal, and it was splochy. Dangit. And I still had problems with paint getting into the corners.

So the following day I used a steel wool pad and gave it a light scuffing. Cleaned it, preheated it to 200 deg, and reshot it. I pulled it out when it got done baking, and low and behold, you can see bits of steel wool in the paint. DANGIT! But, if you look carefully at the picture, you can see the paint isn't smooth, bit almost kine like orange peeled. This is over the entire part.

Why did this happen? Is it just a charasteristic od a second coat?

[wamontgomery]

I'm pretty sure other's will agree with me, powdercoating will always have a SMALL amount of orange peel to it. It's not as smooth as liquid paint IMO. When I reshoot a part because something didn't turn out good, I just scuff the area that didn't turn out (I don't scuff the WHOLE peice) and then heat it up to 180 or so, spray the powder, the cure. If I were you, I'd get some fine sandpaper and get rid of the steel wool. Little peices of steel wool get everywhere.

[cruizer]

Originally Posted by wamontgomery

If I were you, I'd get some fine sandpaper and get rid of the steel wool. Little peices of steel wool get everywhere.

Yeah, I got little pieces of steel wool everywhere too! I saw someone suggest it, and I had some, so i figured I'd use it.

As for the orange peel, I understand that. but my first finish seemed ALOT smoother, almost like liquid paint. I didn't know if I did something wrong.

Thanks for the info!