Jeff's #2 build - RCA-4

[Sonic Mountain]

Hey Jeff, give the primer a bit more time to go off before you sand it. You get away with a lot more with primer as its porous and drys quickly, but you can end up with 'sink back' if you sand and re coat too soon. So the finish will look great to start with, but then as all the layers cure the grain will become evident again. Give it a good coat and let it dry for a week. Then do a sand back, you'll notice the difference straight away in the way its sands. Repeat that a couple of times and you'll have a rock hard surface that polishes really well. It takes longer, but its worth it.

[phrozin]

Hey Jeff, give the primer a bit more time to go off before you sand it. You get away with a lot more with primer as its porous and drys quickly, but you can end up with 'sink back' if you sand and re coat too soon. So the finish will look great to start with, but then as all the layers cure the grain will become evident again. Give it a good coat and let it dry for a week. Then do a sand back, you'll notice the difference straight away in the way its sands. Repeat that a couple of times and you'll have a rock hard surface that polishes really well. It takes longer, but its worth it.

Sonic is spot on with lacquer takes about a month to cure so it will shrink back in to the grain it will happen, what i do is i put a few more coats of clear and ill polish it in about a week and use it then ill do a final polish after a month or so, you can avoid that by using a decent binder other ways is to use a glue to seal the grain, if you go lacquer try avoiding timber mate as a grain filler as it swells and shrinks back quite a bit can turn a 50 hours paint job in to shit. You can also go the 2k route but you need the spray equipment to paint it correctly and 2k is expensive. Over xmas i been playing with clear over base candies which look amazing when done but you need a good technique to spray them evenly

other things i do always use a primer filler about 6 coats and always use a block to sand as it will avoid the wobbly looking finish sonic is on the money with the primer always dry sand the primer as it is porous never wet sand it on wood