As Jeff suggested below ... I went ahead and used spraying of the Slick Sand to get in some practice with the 3M ACCUSPRAY Paint Gun System.

I have to admit that I futzed around Saturday and the early part of Sunday getting ready ... not so much physically but mentally ... it was like I had "painter's block". Well I finally took the leap yesterday afternoon and here are the results.

As part of my futzing ...I spent a large part of Saturday evening watching videos on spraying Slick Sand and reading posts on its application on a fiberglass bodied car. Some of the additional insights I picked up:

1. Don’t reduce more than 10% and don’t do it until the last coat although there sure is a lot of views about thinning this sprayable filler;
2. Make sure the SS is thoroughly mixed ... the solids will settle in the bottom of the can;
3. Reducer with acetone or reducer but the later is better;
4. Filter the primer **before** adding hardener: don’t waste pot life time filtering;
5. Have everything ready to spray (meaning panel preparations, equipment, etc.) **before** adding hardener;
7. Remove the cup strainer; and,
8. Do not let the primer kick in the gun ... virtually impossible to clean after it does (most said no more than 30 minutes in the gun).

Painting Conditions

Temperature: 71 to 77 deg F
Humidity: 24%
Coats Applied: 3 at least
Thinning: Approximately 5% on final coat

Gun Settings
Fan Setting : 1 Turn
Flow Settings: 3 is the baseline
1st Coat - 4
2nd Coat - 3.5
3rd Coat - 3
Stage One Pressure: 35 psig
Stage Two Pressure: 20 psig
Gun Cup Filter: 200 micron filter removed





The panels were both cleaned off with compressed air and then wiped down with Eastwood’s Pre Paint Prep. For this “practice” I settled on bottom of the hood and the top of the trunk.

I also “settled” on a whole lot of orange peel mostly on the trunk top. So I need input on what I am doing wrong.

Trunk Lid After Final Application but Before Sanding



Trunk Lid After Partial Sanding with 180 Grit.



Here are some of the things I “think” I did wrong:

1. I didn’t always keep the vertical fan perpendicular to the surface;
2. I didn’t get close enough to the surface;
3. One the first pass I increased the flow from 3 to 4 turns ... maybe I was trying to put too much paint down; and,
4. I lost discipline layering more coats at the same time making kickoff of the covered layer harder.Some areas had little or no orange peel ... the rib line belowThis stuff also reveals flaws I missed with Rage Gold ... which is a good thing.

Pinholes



Bigger Holes (not the big round one below) After letting it cure for at least the minimum 2 hours i started blocking out some areas to seem how hard it was going to be to remove the orange peel.



Less Orange Peel ...



Any and all feedback ... even humorous feedback ... is of course completely welcomed. The learning curve is steep for me and I need all the help I can get!

Impressions from using the 3M ACCUSPRAY Spray Gun System in another post ...