Thunderbird Conundrum

[Erwincm]

Hi guys. I need some advice concerning Thunderbird adhesion. I'm working on a new bow that I've dyed the riser and limb edges with a dark green Transfast wood dye and then finished with sprayed Thunderbird gloss epoxy. Unfortunately, I ended up with a fair amount of dust and lint in the clear epoxy finish and it's really bugging me. I'd like to lightly sand out the dust and lint and then apply a few more fresh coats of epoxy but I'm finding that 800 grit wet/dry paper is as aggressive as I can be without getting into the wood and removing some of the dyed under color. Once the dyed green under color has been disturbed, it's nearly impossible to re-dye in the affected areas without getting splotches.

So my question is simply - What's the smoothest possible surface (sandpaper grit) that Thunderbird gloss finish will adhere to? Is 800 grit ok?

Thanks,
Charles Erwin
Madison, AL

[Bowjunkie]

The finest paper I ever use is 400 wet/dry. If it goes through into the dye too easily, I'm either sanding too much or didn't lay down enough thickness of finish before sanding.

Try this, just knock off the highest spots of the acual specks of dust with your sandpaper, address one at a time if you must. Then rub it lightly with 0000 steel wool, wipe it off good and spray again. You'll eithrr be happy with it, or continue to build more depth so sanding can be done until you are.

I don't know how many coats you had on here before you tried sanding, but I won't try to sand it until I have at least several coats applied... even if it picked up a dust particle on the first coat.... especially with a nice dye job under there :^)

You're right, it's almost impossible to redye a spot to match if you sanded through. I've been there a couple times. That's why I try to build sufficient depth to sand, but keep dust out of it while it dries so perhaps I don't have to :^)

[Crooked Stic]

When I used t bird I put on 5 coats And let it fully cure.Then started with 600 and WET sanded to get any oreange peel or fine dust out. Then finished with 1500 grit WET sanding. Keeping your paper wet it will not cut as fast and. You have to be really careful on limb corners and riser edges not to sand thru the finish.

[BigJim]

as long as you sand before it cures, any grit will be fine as no sanding at all will work. This time frame is typically 24 hours...maybe more as full cure is 7 days. I have never tried though.

I find that all I need for good adhesion is a light scuffing from a scotchbrite grey pad.

bigjim

[Erwincm]

I sprayed 4 coats Tuesday of this week so hopefully I still have a little time to scuff up before full cure. Since you guys have seen good adhesion with 0000 steel wool and scotchbrite prepped surfaces, wouldn't 800 grit provide as good or better surface adhesion since it is presumably a bit rougher? That would allow me to remove the dust and prep for next epoxy spray in the same step.

On a related note, I worked a sample Thunderbird sprayed limb down starting at 800 grit and moving all the way to 2000 grit (all wet sanded) and found the final surface to be very smooth but with a sheen virtually unchanged from the initial 800 grit sanding. I was hoping the progressively finer sanding would have brought back some glossiness but it didn't work out that way. Wish there was a way to only slightly reduce the thunderbird gloss :-( Perhaps I'm doing something wrong.

[LittleBen]

I think if you want to maintain all the gloss you need to not sand at all after spraying, or maybe 800 grit to get any dust out, then one final coat, then no more sanding.

Maybe you just wanna try buffing it with something ... i don't know what exactly, btu I know on some finishes even just like paper towels can buff it decently.

[Bivyhunter]

Add a small amount of satin to the gloss and it'll lower the sheen level