need advise on blending 3 stage

[sprayboy]

never sprayed any three stage. have no clue where to start. plenty of experience with blending bc/cc metallics. all help greatly appreciated

[another2centsworth]

Welcome Sprayboy,

Take a piece of clean metal (old panel) and cut it to say....4in.X4in.
Prepare it to apply paint. Wipe down w/grease remover and tack off.
1). Take your first stage and mix up enough in your gun to put two or three coats or until hiding occurs...just like regular base coat. Let it dry.
2). Place 1 inch tape strips side by side on the panel leaving one strip showing base coat. (this should be a 1 in. strip left exposed w/ 3 strips of tape covering the other 3 inches).
3). Mix up few ounces of your mid-coat. Spray the panel with your (mid-coat) color 1 coat. Let dry.
4). Peel the piece of tape off next to what you just sprayed.
5). Spray another coat on. Let dry.
6). Remove the next strip of tape. Spray another coat. Let it dry.
7). Take the last piece of tape off. Spray the last coat. Let it dry.
8). All tape should be off. Cover with clear as per directions 2 or 3 coats.
9). Let it dry.
10). Now you have a "test" or "drop down" panel to compare your original paint to because you have 4 different shades of color.

This will tell you how many mid-coats to apply for a match.:cool:

Best Wishes,
Tim

[sprayboy]

thats something i have never thought of, should work good appreciate the reply.

[mmooney84]

I dont know why they had to come out with tri coat paint. There are plenty of cool colors without the tricoat.

[brokencars]

The only real neat thing about blending tri coat is that close counts . Once the car is out in the sun all panels have a different shade. So before you even start on the car take a good look at it so you don"t beat your self up if it does not match the next panel like regular base coat would.

[another2centsworth]

Looking at it in the sun is good advise.
Checking from different angles.
It has a "flip side".
Later,
Tim

[sprayboy]

well that was a lot easier than i thought it would be, the job turned out very well. blended in just like bc/cc thanks for all the help

[another2centsworth]

Thanks for allowing me to share with you what an old friend of mine that's been doing this for over 25 yrs. has shared with me..
(paint & body work).:cool:
Best wishes,
Tim

[jimmo4life]

3-stages just sound intimidating, theirs really not that much to them. Theirs some good advice up already. I just thought I'd post this vid another guy posted today, it may be of some value to you:

http://www.refinishnetwork.com/forum...s-and-vid.html

[Serge]

This guy did not blend in the door...looks like he sprayed the whole quarter...where's the blend?

[Serge]

You have to blend the first foundation coat, then the mid coat...

If you dont blend the foundation coat you will most certainly not get an invisible blend, especially with kandies but also with pearls...

[another2centsworth]

I didn't quite get it either Serge.
Later

[jimmo4life]

i guess it didn't really illustrate 3-stage blending, but I guess it shows that spraying the mid coat isn't really any different. The original poster sounds like he's very unfamiliar with tri-coats, maybe their will be something he will get out of it. If not nothing more then 5 minutes lost.

[Serge]

That has a Gold base, Red kandy clear coats and then a clear...

You would first blend in the gold base by bringing it in the pannel the same way you blend in any other base coat. Then you would spray the red clear on top of that blending it over the blended base then clear.

All 3 coats are blended this way...That Lexus pearl would be the same, blend in the white base, blend the pearl then clear.