Clear coat spraying tips???

Hello everyone. I'm just wondering if anyone on here does their own paint work. I'm an amateur painter for sure, but have had good results doing bikes and guitars. I'm having a super hard time getting a decent coat of clear applied on the sides of my van. Seems painting a big area is more difficult than I anticipated. I'm getting dry spray or runs. I would color sand and buff and polish, but I tried it with this particular clear and did not like the results. It seems this particular clear is a bit soft when fully cured. Anyhow, just looking for some tips before I wet sand down and try again. Thanks!

Depends on the clear coat! Brand wise. Is it the same as the pain previously applied?? Now- if DRY=?? Too much gun pressure, or flow is way too little. painting with a voc type gun?? or old skl pressure type?? I use old skl type only! clears are mixed with hardners too! Ive cleared entire vehicles before & can only tell from experience - its a pressure or flow problem =maybe =viscosity of the clear?

Look up the tech sheet on the clear. Most are 4:1-1 reduction. Use a 1.3 tip on your gun or as close as you can get. Use the proper hardener and reducer for the temp you are shooting in.Tack off the base coat before the clear, Clean is never clean enough! Feel for rough spots while tacking. If rough and grainy= Scuff with 600 grit and shoot some base over the bad areas, Then repeat tacking process.When shooting I start at the bottom and work my way up on a large panel like a van and overlap 50% each pass. I use 2 med wet coats and 1 hammered on coat though you may want to do what feels comfortable to you on the final coat. Always allow flash time between coats- 10-15 minutes is normal. Take your time and try not to run the paint, Dry orange peel is easier to work with than runs and sags when it comes to buffing.Last tip, Paint the roof first as a separate job. It will give you practice and its a ton easier just to mask off the roof and shoot the rest of the van instead of a balancing act doing it all at once. Good luck!! Oh and post some pictures!!! 

Thanks guys. It's a urethane clear from TPC global. RC4221 2.0 voc. 4:1 with cat. no reduction. Shooting over TPC global base. Was using a standard siphon gun. Thinking of trying a gravity feed. Shooting at 40 psi. I think I definitely have to play with the gun set up, also I think a lot of it is my technique sucks when spraying the 8 foot sides. It's hard to see (at least for me) it going on and maintaining a decent overlap when moving along such a big surface area. I did the roof separate. I also removed the doors so I could clear those separately. Temps have been about 75-80F

Try adding 10% reducer. It will flow out better and spray easier.Also play with the air pressure, 40# sounds low for a siphon gun. It is non hvlp?

Yeah, it's a non-hvlp gun. I'm a little afraid to add reducer, I did get runs in my first botched attempt. I think the dry spray was from not enough overlap on my passes. I'll try a small mix with reducer and give it a test on a practice panel. It will be a few days before I try it again, waiting on more catalyst to be sent in. Thanks!

No problem. I do this every day. Once reduced try messing with air pressure and spray pattern on a test panel ( old door, fridge ect) You should see a difference

Well, I reduced it, used a gravity feed gun, and played with pattern this past weekend. I got much better results, thanks for the tips. Still a couple flaws here and there, but that was on me, overall it's pretty good for hack spraying in his garage, ha ha. Thanks again guys

Glad to hear it, Good luck and post some pictures  

I'd like to post some pics, although I can't do it from my work computer. My home computer is pretty slow, I'll have to find the patience in the near future to get it done

If you haven't tried it in the past, get a photobucket.com account.  Its the best for forum photos.  it used to be more streamlined, but its still rather simple compared to other sites.  its gives you links for all your needs, and has a great phone app for uploading and grabbing links for posting on the fly.  Oh, and its free..  

here's a screen shot of a page so you can see the links and all.. use the 'direct' link for posting here. You have to click the photo icon in the reply box here, its two icons left of the youtube icon. Paste in the direct link and hit 'insert'. I always preview my posts before sending them too, just to be sure it looks right. Sounds hard, but its not.

Hope this helps.

HA!!!!! Fail!!!  

Ha. I deleted it once I posted. Like it was off my phone...  Doi