More clear coat

The next step was to mix up some clear and apply a few coats to each side of the trucks and trailers. I pre-cleaned, tacked, and then gave everything a coat of intercoat clear using the same process as when spraying the basecoat - starting from bottom to top on one panel and then top to bottom on the next panel - going down the trailers a panel at a time. I overlapped a little with my strokes on the edges of each panel to help prevent dry areas and make sure the whole design blends together nice and evenly.

Due to the amount of clear on the trucks, I patiently applied the coats, making sure each was dry to prevent smearing and runs. If you do get a run in your clear, you will just have to color sand a little more before buffing.

Color sanding

Color sanding these big trucks was a huge job. Fortunately I had a lot of helpers. Since it is very easy to burn a fresh finish, especially when graphics were applied, I had to stay involved with the process and keep an eye on everyone as they sanded. Luckily we made it through the whole thing without any burns.

Once the clear was completely dry, color sanding and buffing came next. I first gave it a quick cut with 600 grit, coming back with 800, 1000, 1200, and 1500. With the buffer, I used a Meguiar's heavy compound with a #1 pad, then polished it off with Meguiar's polish and a gray waffle pad. The compound and the #1 pad will buff the finish to a nice shine, but leave behind a bunch of swirls - which the waffle pad and the polish remove. Needless to say, for the Meguiar's trucks, I used all Meguiar's compounds, polishes and pads.

And voilà.

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Believe it or not, I've done a few jobs even more involved than the Meguiar's project, but this was probably the largest job I've ever done as far as just a paint job goes. It was an extremely daunting task and I, as well as everyone in the shop, could not help but be overwhelmed at certain points of the project. There were a lot of late nights mostly because we had never done anything this big and there wasn't really anywhere to go to research how to go about completing a project of this magnitude. Hopefully reading this will be helpful if you happen to have a project this size, like an RV or something. These steps will help you out.

Rich Evans, owner of Huntington Beach Bodyworks in Southern California, is an award winning painter and fabricator. Currently he is offering workshops at his facility so he can share his special techniques to other industry professionals. For more information about Evans, visit www.huntingtonbeachbodyworks.com.

To prepare for spraying graphics, a white base is applied to those specific areas as an initial step.