Using DYKEM Tooling Dye to make a sanding Guide Coat

How to make your own Guide Coat

If you are doing a painting project and you want and absolute perfect finish, the only way to accomplish this is to use a Guide Coat.  Guide Coats are used to highlight low spots on your working piece so that you can focus your sanding in that area or use it to highlight areas that require more filler or high build primer. 

You can make your own guide coat using a 50/50 mix of Dykem Steel Blue Layout Fluid and acetone.  After mixing the two parts together use a clean dry cloth to wipe the surface of the area you are working on.  The acetone will evaporate quickly leaving behind the blue dye that you can no sand off easily with out clogging up your sand paper.  

The blue dye till fall into the low spot of your work.  Simply keep sanding or filling until all of the blue dye is no longer visible.  The key here is to use a sanding pad that is long enough to not fall into the low spots.  If you are sanding a large area you need to get a block sander that is long enough to span the width of the filled area.  If you try to use this method with a small DA sander then you won't be creating a flat surface rather you will continue to dig low spots.  

When using guide coat on a finish sanding project, sanding by hand with a larger/longer block is ideal.