Molotow spray can clear coat use

[Suggynz]

I read the other day that if you have a good finish using Molotow Belton Spraypaint you ?DONT SAND before using Molotow clear coat for the gloss finish?
Anybody used this I have used 4 coats on the body and it looks very smooth
Cheers Suggynz

[king casey]

I've used it on a few guitars with no issues.

cheers, Mark.

[Simon Barden]

There's a difference between needing to sand a finish in order to get the next layer to stick to it, and sanding the finish in order to get it fully level.

Without sanding, even lightly, it's very hard to tell exactly how smooth the finish is. You really want to get the gloss to a truly flat state before applying the clear coat. If you are spraying a metal surface where no paint sinking occurs, then I see no reason why you couldn't simply spray the clear coat over the top if the colour coat looked nice and smooth. But paint finishes will invariably sink into wood, so it's very unlikely that the finish is perfectly even all over. I'd bet that if you ran some 600 grit over your finish, then you'd certainly see shiny pits appear, especially visible when holding the body up to a bright light at a shallow angle.

You'll get the very best finish if the colour coat is level and the clear coat on top is level. It's not going to look bad if you don't level the colour coat but only level the clear coat, just that if you do both, then it will look just that bit better.

[McCreed]

It also depends on what kind of basecoat you have IMO.
If it's just a solid colour, you can get away with (very) light sanding before applying the clearcoat.

If it's a metallic basecoat, I don't recommend sanding as you will lose depth in the metallic effect. Think of it as flattening out those little sparkly bits.

I generally don't sand a final basecoat unless I absolutely have to though.

[Simon Barden]

I do, though I don't spray metallics.

[king casey]

I do, though I don't spray metallics.

Molotow being aimed at Graffiti artists I don't think there would be metallics involved anyway.

cheers, Mark

[McCreed]

Molotow being aimed at Graffiti artists I don't think there would be metallics involved anyway.

Well they're just not trying hard enough!!!