Need advice for painting speaker enclosure

[Nauty]

I have made a fiberglass speaker enclosure for my tower. I am at or near the painting stage and I have come across a few hurdles. The first being tiny pin holes on the surface of my enclosure. To fill in these holes I have completely covered the box with Evercoat Formula 27 fiberglass filler. I then sand it out to a smooth finish. However, no matter how many times I apply a new coat and sand it, I still end up with a few tiny pin holes here and there. Any ideas on how to fill these pin holes easily?

After 9 months of working on this box I am pretty close to not caring about the pin holes and moving on to paint...which brings me to my next set of questions. Actually, I did run out of patience with the pin holes and decided to move on to painting. Originally I thought I might take the box somewhere to be painted, but then I decided to go ahead and try to paint it myself with a spray can. After prepping the box for painting (sanding, clean w/acetone, etc), I applied 2 coats of primer, 3 base coats, and 2 clear coats. I allowed 10 minutes in-between coats starting with the 1st coat of primer all the way through the last coat of clear coat.

When I was done I had a few rough spots. Other than the rough spots the box looked great. I waited two days and then wet sanded the entire box with 1000 grit paper. The rough spots were removed and the box was smooth as glass. However, the finish was ruined. Wet sanding the box removed the finish and left it very blotchy looking. I was careful not to apply too much pressure when wet sanding, but something still went terribly wrong. Should I have waited 7 days after painting before wet sanding? Or, should I have used a higher grit paper? Could it be that I didn't apply enough coats?

Now that I am more or less back to square one, I think that I might as well try and fill in the pin holes before I paint it again. Any suggestions with that would be appreciated. Also, I am trying to decide if I should try painting it again myself or if I should take it somewhere? If I take it somewhere, how much would a paint shop typically charge to do such a small project?

If the cause of my failed paint job was due to me not waiting 7 days for the paint to cure before wet sanding, then I may try painting it again myself. With the exception of the rough spots the results were pretty good before I wet sanded it. Any advice will be welcomed!

[vette74]

The holes can be filled in with (I cannot remember the name) stuff you get at the body section of an auto parts store it comes in a tube and has the consistancy of toothpaste and it is usually red. Make sure your paint is sandable and start with 1000 grit sand paper and make your way to 1500. I also think you did not wait long enough for it to cure. Also let the primer cure overnight before you put paint on.

[bremsen]

You need to use a polyester finishing glaze/putty before priming. These are basically thin fillers that fill those little pinholes and heavy sanding marks, evercoat makes a couple different ones. Then use a high build primer and wet sand with 400 grit. Let dry and then prep for color.

Yeh, you have to wait to color sand....depends on the paint/clear, but I would wait at least a week with a rattle can, probably 2 just to be safe.

[Nauty]

Thanks very much for the tips.

I appreciate it!