kjcmusic17

Painted my stock LS6 intake on my 02 WS6. Sanded, cleaned, primered, painted, cleared. It didn't come out glossy though. It looks very dull red, kinda like the rest of the paint on the inside of the engine bay. Did I miss a step?

D-Man304

iTrader: (1)

Did you wetsand after you cleared?

justin455

Hard to say without seeing how it looks. You say it looks like a dull red...does that mean the color isn't bright? Or when you ask how to get it glossy do you mean how to make the paint look wet?

If the color is off then something is either wrong with the color coat paint you used or the method of painting you used.

If the paint just doesn't look glossy after the clear coat it's hard to say. If you have a lot of orange peel it should still be glossy, just "wrinkled" looking in the light. If it's cloudy then either the base and clear coats aren't compatible, you sprayed in un-ideal conditions (too humid, etc.) or sprayed the clear on improperly (held the paint too far away and it dried in the air before landing on the intake.

Adam's Polishes

Wetsanding in between coats is the key.

kjcmusic17

I'll take some pics later and post them up. I mean it's dull as in the outcome isn't glossy. The exterior of the car is bright red and looks glossy, shiny. The same paint in the engine bay is more dull and less shiny. The intake I painted is even more dull. I did not wetsand between coats. That might be my problem.

justin455

Sanding between coats helps if you're going for perfection or show quality, but is far from necessary for a decent paint job, especially on something like an intake.

I painted interior trim pieces from my G6 recently as the stock clear coat was peeling off. All I did was sand with 400 grit, 3 coats of primer, 3 coats of color, and 4 coats of clear.






As you can see, there's a small bit of orange peel, but nothing 2000 grit wetsand and some polish couldn't take care of. Honestly, I didn't even bother anyways.

What was your painting process? How long did you wait between coats and how long did you wait between primer/color/clear? Maybe you waited too long to lay on the clear for a wet coat, but not long enough until the previous layers had gassed out. That could cause a cloudy clear coat as well.

Also, the reason your engine bay paint looks dull is because they aren't cleared from the factory. It's just straight color coat.