clear over polished body

[Gaoza]

Hi everyone,

I'm new here (I've actually been surfing this forum for a few years but this is the first time I've made my presence known to y'all). I have a quick question about clearcoating. Can I clearcoat over a highly polished body (ie one with already a mirror finish from rubbing compound/wax)? i dunno, i just thought the clear wouldn't stick onto the paint because it's already super smooth? Thanks in advance!

[stevenoble]

Originally Posted by Gaoza

Hi everyone,I have a quick question about clearcoating. Can I clearcoat over a highly polished body (ie one with already a mirror finish from rubbing compound/wax)? i dunno, i just thought the clear wouldn't stick onto the paint because it's already super smooth?

If you have waxed the body in my opinion it wouldn't be wise to apply clear over the wax as you may have adhesion problems or even an adverse reaction to the wax which may cause you all sorts of trouble.Personally if you have a nice paint job which as you state already has a mirror finish,why do you feel the need to apply a clearcoat? If the paint job is that good I wouldn't risk clear coating at all.But if you were to clearcoat I would clean the paintwork first to ensure no wax remains and very lightly sand the paint surface with a VERY fine wet and dry,just enough to flat the surface and create a key for the clear to stick to.Hope this helps.Welcome to the forum as well.

[exhaust smoke]

Pretty much as stevenoble said. If you clear over a wxed surface, the clear will not adhere to the oily surface and will cure in a mess and wreck all of your hard work (I've been there before! )

[ModelerSite]

Originally Posted by Gaoza

Hi everyone,

I'm new here (I've actually been surfing this forum for a few years but this is the first time I've made my presence known to y'all). I have a quick question about clearcoating. Can I clearcoat over a highly polished body (ie one with already a mirror finish from rubbing compound/wax)? i dunno, i just thought the clear wouldn't stick onto the paint because it's already super smooth? Thanks in advance!

After reading your email and answers I realized that perhaps you were asking about to clearcoating a polished unpainted body. If it's so, yes you can do it, but will need to clean the wax...etc in soapy water.
Many years ago it was very common to build unpainted models, just clearcoating the decals...etc