# Satin finish to gloss after paint disaster?



## Boothros (Jun 1, 2014)

Hi im a happy amateur whose been working on my old car for the last few years, (it has almost been a total rebuild). However, just at the final stages, I have decided to upgrade which means getting this one sold as quickly as possible. I am also on a very tight budget for this particular car so a professional respray was out of the question. I do however know a great amateur guy who was willing to spray the car using paint that I had provided and last week he did a few test runs to great effect. I bought more paint at my local paint store (who are normally excellent) and the guy proceeded to spray the rest of the car. This is when the disaster happened as the paint shop had mistakenly supplied satin finish paint. Now hes done a lovely job and the paint shop will replace the paint with the gloss I originally asked for but now the guy isn't available again for a few months. Is there any way I can make the car shinier? It looks ok at the moment but a satin finish was not on my agenda and I hate to think of all the wasted work we've put in. I was prepared to do a lot of finishing work after the car had been painted anyway but I wonder what would happen if I applied the same tasks to satin paint?


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## craigeh123 (Dec 26, 2011)

Id imagine if you wanted you could machine it but it would take a while &#55357;&#56852;


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## Boothros (Jun 1, 2014)

Oh I've been perfectly prepared to do lots of work myself after the paint job, I've got the time and the equipment. I was intending on wet sanding and then buffing the whole car after the gloss had been put on, now I'm wondering what standard I can be hoping to achieve if I do the same to satin paint which to be honest I have no experience of?


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## Paintguy (Oct 31, 2005)

I think we need to know exactly what this "satin paint" is before we could give really useful advice.

If they have supplied you with basecoat (which does dry kind of satin) instead of a gloss topcoat then you are in a bit of trouble. Basecoat has no real durability and is designed to be top coated with a lacquer or clearcoat to provide the shine and durability. Even if you do manage to get it to shine it won't last long at all.

Do I take it we're talking about a solid (non-metalic) colour?


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## supernova-dw (Apr 26, 2014)

As has been said please provide some more information on the paint itself...If you ordered 2K Direct gloss and instead got 2K Satin then possibly you could flat and polish it however I'm not 100% Sure a it's not something I've ever done...

If it's just a base coat you have then it'll need lacquering which isn't any hard labour.

Anyhow let us know the exact situation your in?


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## craigeh123 (Dec 26, 2011)

I didn't even think about it being base coat


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## Boothros (Jun 1, 2014)

Thankyou everyone for your kind replies. I returned the paint tin to the shop and its code matched against cellulose gloss paint so it was obviously something we had done. We think we have found the problem. Due to lack of suitable facilities, all of our car work has had to be performed outside and this paint job was done last week at about 7 pm. (It was far too hot here down South earlier in the day to paint) I think this odd satin effect is a result of the gloss dulling overnight (although the night was still warm and as far as I remember dry). The test area was the bonnet which was done in the garage and that came out fine (using a different tin of the apparent same paint). Anyhow, for the last 2 days, I have machined on rubbing compound and I can see light at the end of the tunnel as I have a nice flat surface which is responding nicely to polish and at last I am starting to see a shine.


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## Paintguy (Oct 31, 2005)

Cellulose. Now it makes sense 

There are several things that could have gone wrong with the application that would have caused the satin effect (or low gloss to be more exact), but providing there's enough paint on there it should polish up a treat.

Wet sanding then compounding is the more usual route with a celly paint job, but since it is so soft compared to modern paints it may be safer (if much slower) to carry on as you are.

Best of luck and remember to put up some pictures when you are done. :thumb:


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