Panellines disappear after metalic paint + clear coats......

[yellow15]

i got a question about painting the bodyshell using metallic paint....
i understand that we'll have to put a few layers of clearcoating on top of the metallic paint before i can polish it.. unfortunately most of the panel lines (esp the tiny one like the door handle) will disappear or become very blurry after the 2 layer of primer + a few layer of metallic paint + a few more layer of clearcoat that i spray onto the car. Which means it's almost impossible for me to do the panel lines afterward.. so how do you guys solve this problem??? i've tried to widen the panel lines a bit but it looks really ugly and fake.

or do you guys do the panel lines before the clearcoat?


I do put quite a few thick layers of clearcoat because i always polish back to base paint if i don't do that. (even so i do polish back to base paint sometimes!)

[ZoomZoomMX-5]

You eventually get a feel for how much paint you normally apply, and how deep the panel lines need to be to avoid getting filled in. You must think ahead of the problem.

If it's a problem, you need to have a few tools in your arsenal, mainly a sharp-pointed scribing tool which can easily be used to deepen the original panel lines and sharpen them up. A set of curved riffler files is very handy, the triangular-section file is the best, it can help to widen the lines and it's fairly easy to freehand some new panel lines. My current project needed rescribing, and those two tools came in very handy, and my panel lines look great, even after paint.

[Vric]

make panel line before clear coat ?

[yellow15]

yeah i think i may just paint those lines befre clearcoats?

ZoomZoomMx-5: do you have a pic of the tools you are talking about?

[ZoomZoomMX-5]

Originally posted by yellow15
yeah i think i may just paint those lines befre clearcoats?

ZoomZoomMx-5: do you have a pic of the tools you are talking about?

Actually I do, but not digital pics. I have slides that I'm taking of the project for a magazine article. If I get time I'll take a digital shot of the file and scribing tool.