uh oh...HELP!!

[GlowinGTZ]

Ok. So all of you know (Or most...I think) I bought a Mitsubishi Eclipse model for my girlfriend and was going to give it to her on valentine's day. Well, I got the body painted along with some custom stripes, but when I pulled up the masking tape, there was a height difference between the basecoat paint and the stripes on both side of where the tape was. Would spraying a couple more coats of clear over it get rid of it or did I just screw up badly? Please anyone help!!! I have 7 days to finish and the neon UB kit isn't even started yet.

[freakray]

Um, it's normal to have a step between 2 different paint colors when you've masked and painted.

You can try the clear coat and polish thing, it should bring everything back reasonably even, but unless you spray several clear coats reasonably thick and then polish, you'll always have a slight step.

[mike@af]

You'll learn with practice, but this is normal. Just tons of clear, some wet sanding, then some polishing.

[hirofkd]

You didn't screwed up. It's natural for paint to develop a ridge along the masking tape. Still I don't think clear-coating will solve the problem in just 7 days.

Have a 2000 grit (or finer) sand paper, cut it to a small piece, then sand the ridges very gently. Sand only a few times, clean, inspect, then repeat the process, until the step is not so noticeable.
Always check after a little sanding. After the ridges are gone, use compound and rub the sanded area in the direction parallel to the stripe extremely (!) gently. Too much rubbing will fade the stripe, so make sure not to over-do it.