First time painting a flat panel what went wrong

[tr6oldtimer]

This is a shot of my trunk lid. When looking at the reflection, you can see the destortion of the fence. Now I assume this is a really thin imperfection in the surface, but I could be wrong.

Is what I am seeing due to poor primer finish, uneven finish coat, or improper sanding, or all of the forgoing?

Then, how do it fix it?

P6040004.jpgP6040005.jpgP6040006.jpg

I also see that some more work is needed on finishing the surface.

[Len]

This is a shot of my trunk lid. When looking at the reflection, you can see the destortion of the fence. Now I assume this is a really thin imperfection in the surface, but I could be wrong.

Is what I am seeing due to poor primer finish, uneven finish coat, or improper sanding, or all of the forgoing?

Then, how do it fix it?

P6040004.jpgP6040005.jpgP6040006.jpg

I also see that some more work is needed on finishing the surface.

Hi Ray
I would probably take a long flat sanding board and lightly sand the surface using some 320 grit paper just to see where the problem is and what needs to be done. I think it's probably going to need a spray-on filler primer to correct it and, if this is the case, you can start by using some 120 to 180 grit on the board to level the material that is now on the surface then add the primer to finish the leveling.

Link

[Henry]

This is a shot of my trunk lid. When looking at the reflection, you can see the destortion of the fence. Now I assume this is a really thin imperfection in the surface, but I could be wrong.

Is what I am seeing due to poor primer finish, uneven finish coat, or improper sanding, or all of the forgoing?

Then, how do it fix it?

P6040004.jpgP6040005.jpgP6040006.jpg

I also see that some more work is needed on finishing the surface.

Hello buddy Ray!

Actually looks really good. Other than looking at what is reflected, how does the surface look just looking at the surface if you get down close to it and follow it all the way across from several points?

There is a curve at the upper end in the photos and before this radius there could be some lower metal on the left side. Maybe you could look at the distortion you are seeing and push slightly up from underneath and see if it moves.

Does not look like a primer/prep problem because the leaves in the reflection would be distorted also. Actually looks quite nice; from here.

Henry

[Bob K]

Before you do any sanding I would get the car to another place where you can see reflections of straight lines on both sides of the trunk lid at the same time. Just to be sure you aren’t seeing a reflection that is on a panel that may have a built in crown that is the same on both sides of the car. That trunk lid seems to be tipped up on the top of the photo. (Left side of the car?). Is it the same way on the right side? There seems to be a slight crown in the center of the lid that needs to transition to that structure on the edge. Just saying, be sure it wasn’t built that way before you work to take it out.

Bob K

[tr6oldtimer]

The panel is not really flat, it is crowned at the front and at the rear. On each side, the lid curves up to meet the rear fender line. Also, the slope of the lid for the first 3/4's or so is shallower then the last quarter. I did scan the lid looking straight down and saw no distortion or ripple. As Ken suggested, I will look at it in a different setting to see if both sides look the same.

trunklid.jpg

Also, in a couple of days, a neighbor will be by to take a look. Sometimes a different set of eyes is needed. I really do not look forward to a repaint of the lid, but if I have too, I will./

What I did find out from reading other threads here is that I do need to work more on the finish to remove some scratches and swirls. If only I had read the stuff here, I would have saved myself a lot of trouble.

Just for information, the color coat is a urethane single stage paint that was then sanded and clear coated to provide additional UV protection. Had I to do it all over again, I would have opted to not clear coat, well, maybe not.

Thanks for the input.

[style]

This is a shot of my trunk lid. When looking at the reflection, you can see the destortion of the fence. Now I assume this is a really thin imperfection in the surface, but I could be wrong.

Is what I am seeing due to poor primer finish, uneven finish coat, or improper sanding, or all of the forgoing?

Then, how do it fix it?

P6040004.jpgP6040005.jpgP6040006.jpg

I also see that some more work is needed on finishing the surface.

to me it looks like factory stamping,if you can get a flat putty knife inbetween the skin and the brace and cut the glue and see what happens...

call a pdr guy with a pdr light that way you can see it perfectly..

[Mooch]

If it was mine i would say good enough and drive it . Looks good .

Mooch btw ..Welcome back .