Chuck,
What we do, puts our Dupont rep. into heart failure! He has stood right next to me over and over again, mumbeling to himself, "you can't do that!" Good thing no one told me we "couldn't do that" 25 years ago! I might not have learned how to do it the "wrong way"!
If your referring to the Base Coat / Clear coat system, yes we do wet sand between coats. Takes a lot of time, but you can see the results.
We have found out that this is an absolute, especially with stripes, or artwork involved. We put down two wet coats of clear on top of our basework and let it dry anywhere from 24 to 48 hours. It is at this point that we go back and inspect for any flaws in the paintwork. Fix if there are any, then wet sand the entire car down with 600 wet/dry...being very wet. (There goes my Dupont Rep. going into fib. again!) Once we are totally satisfied with the finish at this point we add two more coats of clear. The final coat is allowed to dry at least a week, more if the customer allows us the time. We then re-wet sand in 600 grit followed up with 800 and 1200 wet / dry. Then and only then do we pick up the buffer. Usually three days of buffing and the car is ready for final assembly.
Once assembeled, (we dismantle every car before painting) we then go over it one more time with a very fine coumpond and finally with a glaze to finish it off.
That's it...no big secret really, just a lot of time and effort.
DV
PS I'm bragging, but we did win one of Dupont's very prestigious "Top Gun" awards the first time we entered! And, my Dupont Rep. is still shaking his head. At least he leaves his nitro pills in the car now!
Pss, sorry I forgot to answer one of your questions. Adding more base color will normally not effect your final finish. But, using the right sealer/primers can. It all depends on the color. If you would like a more in-depth answer feel free to e-mail me and I will be glad to write volumes of "how we do it" stuff. The main thing to remember is, "thick paint-multiple layers" is not good paint!
