Build thread for the 72 GMC, finally. Thanks John!

The clear went on nice, but not that smooth. I'm okay because I got material on and will cutt and buff, but for some reason it's going on a bit tougher than before. 

In reply to tuna55 :

I think the clear is just so hard to see. Can't wait to see it all together! 

The whole truck got four coats in change of clear today. There are some problems,

I did clear the inside of the tailgate, but it was sitting on a canvas drop cloth in the bed. I simply flipped it over, and cleared the inside. I did not know this that a good deal of cotton had stuck to the initial coating, so I will need to sand that off.

The gap between the hood and the cowl panel is large, I can't really move anything else so I'm not sure what to do here. 

Obviously I still have a bit of work to do with the doors, but I will do that when I get the weather stripping on. 

The texture isn't great, but I got lots of material here to work with. I do have one run on the driver's side fender but it's small enough to take care of pretty easily.

Video coming. I pushed it out just for the photo op

This just keeps getting better and better!!

I ordered a whole bunch of clear coat, four cans of a gallon each. That seems like a lot. Anyway after four coats on everything I still have two unopened gallons. Granted, I still have to put white on the field for the tailgate and I still have to do the white stripe and paint the grill and of course those things will need clear coat, but still. I am wondering if I've done something wrong. Obviously I have at least one run in the finished product so I got decent material transfer, but it still seems odd. I'll upload a video later.

Looks great! 
 

and like butter 

I would have expected to see a much glossier surface.

My guess is you're not laying it down wet enough.  Which would, of course, use more material.

So cut and buff now or add more material? That is the question 

In reply to tuna55 :

Absolutely no sense cutting and buffing if you're adding more material. Follow the data sheet for more clearcoat after it cures and lay it on

The more material you put down, the more you can cut and buff without injury.

But is there really a need for more? That's the question. 

(grin)  Doesn't matter what it is, every man wants "More."

I guess if you don't cut through the clear, you won't need more.  But don't return the other gallons until you know.

Let me put it another way: I'm happy to do more, but it will be until the weekend again. Setting up and taking down the paint booth takes a lot of time. I have an honest five or six coats, as thin as they might be, on everything. When I blocked yesterday before starting, on two coats, I wasn't having an issue going through. Now I have four more coats on top of that. 

I've also asked the SPI guys. 

For the clear, I sprayed a heavy wet coat. (their universal clear with slow activator). The directions said something along the lines of spray the first coat like you want it to look. So I tried to get it "Shiney" looking. The pics in my thread are zero buffing or sanding. 

Now. I did get a lot of runs..... 

The prevailing thought on the FBI forum was that I did not get a material on, and then it was unwise of me to sand with a thousand grit before the clear anyway. Today I set up the tent again and sanded the truck with 600 grit. Tomorrow I took the morning off of work accidentally, so I will do more better.

I almost forgot! I put the tailgate on today with my two helpers, tuna kids 1 and 4. This tailgate is super annoying, you can't put it on yourself like you can in any other pickup truck, you need to sort of walk it in in an angle and then bolt it on at the pivot points. Anyway they helped me and it went great.

Now the truck is in two giant pieces.

That's a lot of runs

That is good 

And that's average. 

Pushing the cab out and the bed in after a half hour dry time 

And the tent caught a gust of wind and wrecked the driver side clear before I could get to it. 

So I have runs and a huge area where the tent blew into the truck. Thankfully at least they are on the same side. There are runs elsewhere, but much less.

Any hot ticket for taking care of them? This is very frustrating.

Also: Paint people are frustrating. Here is a summary of the advice given on the SPI forum, which is the most user friendly forum

Get a bigger compressor (??? 11.5 cfm @ 90 psi!!)

Get a different gun (1.3 tip is all that Eastwood offers and at least one guy said it had to be 1.4)

Get a different color tent (white is hard to see in)

Sand the entire truck to bare metal and start again

Set the gun to 28 psi

Set the gun to 38 psi

Set the gun wherever you want it to be

Get a different regulator with a more precise gauge

Get a better regulator

Sand with 800 grit to re-clear

Sand with 600 grit to re-clear

Sand with 400 grit to re-clear

Never leave the basecoat uncleared for 24 hours

You can leave the basecoat uncleared for months

Never leave the basecoat, uncleared, out in the sun

It doesn't matter if the basecoat is in the sun before clear

You are seeing dieback

You are not seeing dieback

Take 180 grit to everything and rebasecoat the entire truck

I hate painting, and I think I very much dislike painters.

So I deleted that thread on the SPI forum. That's frustrating.

I, however, have a line on a seat core. I am excited!