I just started working on a 71' Hemi Cuda and I painted it yellow but did it outside and it bubbled up a little, When is the best time to start sanding it, meaning, how long should I wait before I do, also if I sand the hood (where the bubbling occured) should I apply another coat of paint to the shell?

Do you have ultrafine sandpaper? I'd use a wet or dry 1200 or finer. Sand the car wet, take a squeegee or piece of rubber and look for the paint to flatten out. High spots will be dull, low spots shiny. try to get a uniform dull without breaking through the color coats.
When is it ok to sand? what did you paint it with?
It's snowing and wet here in denver,so even a tamiya synthetic lacquer would take a day or so to dry.
You could speed up the drying..I use the oven set to low, shut off the oven and put the body in (have it on a stand or something be carefull not to let the heat of the oven be transmitted to the plastic.) check every few mins or so.
You might have to re paint. see how it does after the wet sand. you might just be able to clear coat it, but plan on a re- paint.
If this sounds too hard send me a PM and I'l talk you through it on the phone.

Steve

Steve

Thank you, it's pretty simple it seems, I am not worried about the paint being wet because its been drying for about a week now, I just wanted to be sure I didn't have to wait longer. I am using Tamiya spray paint and I guess I'll add just another coat because its not on there thick enough that it will chip, but if I do have any other questions I will PM you, thanks
-SoleSky

Alyssa, if you've let it dry for the week it should be just fine for a wet/dry-sanding. Advantage of wet sanding is that it cleans away the dirt of sanding. Although you have to be more careful of how you are doing. Dry sanding shows you the results right away. but you have to constantly move the sandpaper due to build up.

I use 3M wet/dry sand paper for beginning coats. Depending on how bad the bubble is either start with 1000/1500 or 2000. Clean and re-spray.
If you do this you will have to re-spray the car so you get matching paint throughout.

Final color coat gets no sanding, but I do clear coat every color I paint for final polishing. Metallic and pearls are much more harder to sand and is not recommended, but with that you had better do an excellent job of prep on the body prior to paint. It can be polished out with enough clear coats.

I am ambitious when it comes to primer and paint coats. I almost wet-sand everything, this includes the plastic body so that the primer adheres better. You don't want the primer to be so smooth that the paint can't bite, but with every prep you do on the body the paint finish will look that much better in the end.

IF you'd rather spray another coat over your hood, then try that, but once you have that bubble I can almost guarantee you'll have to sand or polish it out.
Definitely trial and error. You are correct in assuming that weather has a great deal to do with painting too. Too much humidity and your paint can blush, too dry and it's like sandpaper.

Looks like I touched upon a few things there.
If I can help let me know. I look forward to your 'cuda!
Chris

Thanks Chris, this is a pretty lame kit though, it doesn't have many pieces so its a bit harder to paint, althought it was only about 8 dollars. I really like it though for the fact that when I get impatient I can set it down and walk away knowing that I got a lot accomplished. The body is yellow, the shaker is flat black which also needed sanding because I got low on the Fl black so it became thick. It has flat black louvers on the back and I just did the engine/tranny. Unfortunately when I finished it looks like something somebody would drive on halloween. Its orange and black. Hopefully when I paint the valve covers black itll look a bit nicer. Anyway, Thanks for the advice! I learned a lot.

Here it is Soles http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee54/philo426/2007_0913Spock0098.jpg

Wow! Spectacular, except mine doesnt even have a chrome grille and how did you get the fender vents to be chrome? Also on the shaker how did you get the lettering so perfect?! I have more questions but I'll ask later because I'm not up to that step yet and I want to be sure I ask exactly what I need to. Thanks for the pic though, hope mine comes out that good. who makes the kit?

Well I used Bare Metal Foil on the chrome fender vents does a great job!As for the 'Cuda script on the shaker, I dry-brushed Model Master Chrome Silver,came out good!

Gosh, I have to get me some bare metal foil. Maybe the sell some at michaels. Also, dry brushing? It may seem obvious to you but Iam a little confused. And Yeah It turned out great.

Alyssa, Michael's doesn't sell bare metal foil. The closest thing would be silver metal leaf, which is an entirely different technique.
You'll have to hit the local hobby shop or online dealer for it like Mega Hobby a sponsor here at Hobbytalk.

Dry-brushing is a technique you'll have to work on, but when perfected it turns out very well.
I use a piece of paper, dip your brush in the paint and with fast stokes on the paper get rid of the paint. You want to leave just enough on the brush so that when you go over the raised emblems these will be the only ones that get the paint on them. Like I said take some time and practice. Also, this is hard on brushes, so if you have an old brush, use it over a new one.

Also found this on you-tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcIYkCz-Dco

Scale wiki is another place I like to check out for little details to help improve your work:
http://www.scalewiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

Hope my explanation helped.
Chris