The final coats of the Auto-Air base are applied to the hardtop... | 
...as well as a few of the smaller items on our painting table. | 
You can see by the close-up of the front valance that the Auto-Air paint, at least the Pearlized line, has some texture to it. The heavier the flake, pearl, or other additive, the more texture in the paint. |
This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but you will have to apply more clearcoat to bury the texture. | 
With our final layer of base applied, we took a much-deserved lunch break and let the Auto-Air Pearlized Black completely dry in preparation for our clearcoat application. | 
Once the Auto-Air base color has dried, there are several options. You can take your project to a chain store (Econobake, Maaco, Earl Scheib), an independent body shop, or even apply the clear yourself. Because there's no time limit to applying the clear as with typical base/clear systems, you can have it applied months down the road if you like. Because the typical clearcoat has high levels of dangerous chemicals, if you decide to paint the clear yourself, you'll need a quality respirator, bodysuit, and air system. Follow the instructions for mixing the clear with regard to your spray equipment and temperature. We used PPG Concept 2021 clear for this project. |
Applying the heavy clear really fills up the paint-booth area. | 
Work quickly and make sure your ventilation system is working soundly. | 
This photo shows our finish after four coats of clear. Just like using the Auto-Air paint, the first coat was applied lightly with each successive coat applied heavier to help fill in the texture of the base paint. |
Once the clear had sufficiently dried, we trailered the '68 back to Russ' house for wet sanding and compounding the finish. Alan Colding, who works for a local bodyshop prepping and detailing cars after paint, lent us a hand with the wet sanding. Alan was also instrumental in much of the bodywork and prepaint prep on the car. | 
Notice how he's holding the sandpaper, which is wrapped around a rubber 3M sanding soft-block. Don't sand with just the bare paper as your fingers will leave sanding lines. Always use a flexible block. We're sanding the body down with 1200-grit wet/dry paper and a gentle stream of water. | 
After a round of wet sanding, we let the car dry so we could check the finish. In the first photo the quarter-panel is looking pretty good, but as the car dries and we look closer, it's apparent we haven't sanded deep enough to get a smooth surface. The dark spots are unsanded clear. You want to be careful you don't sand the clear completely off, but you want the clear to be sanded smooth and even for the best finish. |
Once you've wet sanded the clear, the car will need to be buffed out-a whole story in its own. The improper use of a buffing wheel will burn the paint and ruin all your hard work, so we suggest a pro apply a proper compound and buff to bring out the shine. | | |