[Accumulator]

Originally Posted by MichaelSpoots

Well, I attempted this fix on my '09 Civic, and somehow screwed it up royally. I got to this phase, where the paint looks like an absolute mess...

Oh jeeze, sorry that happened.

It appears this is what went wrong:

You ended up sanding the surrounding paint too much. Somehow your sanding media was contacting that paint at least as much as it was the "higher" touchup paint. That's one of the things that makes wetsanding technique so critical and also one of the things that's not always intuitively obvious.

Using the proper "swipe and lift" motions with the soft sanding block w/ 2500 & 3000 Unigrit sandpaper, it took about 15-20 minutes to level the 5-days-cured OEM touch-up blobs.
However, about 12 minutes in, the clearcoat or basecoat started changing color...getting lighter. Very strange.

I never spend nearly that much time sanding an area that small; When leveling touchups, I can often count the individual strokes (they're that few in number). You really did mean "minutes" instead of "seconds"?!? Even if you meant seconds that sounds like a lot of nonstop sanding. I'd do a few strokes, check the blob, a few more, check the blob, etc. Never more than one-two excess strokes possible that way; the whole thing in the forefront of my mind is "don't overthin the paint".

I think that in general, you just really overdid it. That "clearcoat getting lighter" is almost always the sign that you've gone too far. At that point all you can do is minimize further damage. Been there, done that. The trick is to never get to that point in the first place

..[having a pro fix it]... The personal guy would work a 2'-diameter circle and claims he can blend very well. The body shops will dismantle the door and everything, and respray/reclear the entire panel...because they claim the CC will just peel after a few years, and that's why they prefer to work all the way to the hidden edges of panels, instead of affected areas...hence, less chance of peeling or w/e.

I've done OK with spot-ins, but a LOT of knowledgeable people are surprised to hear that and they think it's because I take such good car of my vehicles.

Having the whole door redone would probable be the "right" thing to do.

Anyway, I guess my question all along has been this: I find it incredibly hard to believe that your paint can look so hacked up like it is in that picture, and yet it polishes out so beautifully in your finished pics. How did the paint go from looking like there wasn't even color...to full gloss black?

The real lesson here is that you can't pay much attention to what you see on the internet. It's a *mighty* fine line between OK and too-far and the just-sanded look that you get from very gentle sanding can look the same as totally hacked paint.

Depending on how you photograph it, very light wetsanding will make black paint look white, but that's just because the person has (only) knocked the shine off the paint by removing *only* a very minute amount of the topmost layer of paint.

Do you suggest that I step it up to M105, and somehow my paint (color) will magically reappear as it seems to have done in your writeup? I'm just terribly confused and (aside from having to spend hundreds to fix), I am doubtful that the body shops can truly match the paint. I mean, my paint is otherwise in great condition, and has seen many chemicals (products) since I've had it. I don't see how any body shop could replicate the aging and wear/tear/all the polishing and products I've used process...and have it match up in the end.

Hope this doesn't sound overly critical, but the fact that you're even considering further abrasion of the area makes me wonder. You've already cut through the clear, or at least that's what it looks/sounds like to me. You seem to have an...uhm...imperfect understanding of the situation and IMO you shouldn't ever do anything irrevocable when that's the case.

Have it repainted. Period. There's nothing else you can do once you've overthinned the clear. No, the repair might not turn out 100% (sometimes they do, sometimes they don't), but there's no other solution; you simply *must* fix the current damage with a paintgun, no way around it. Sorry, but that's where you are at this point and IMO you oughta just bite the bullet and move on (by getting the paintwork done).

..[any other]..Thoughts?

This is a good example of how *SO* much of what you see experts here do is stuff you should think twice about DIYing. "Don't try this at home, kids!" and all that. I don't mean that as some and no it's not rocket science, but when you're doing aggressive stuff it's pretty easy to have an "oops!" even when you completely understand what's going on and you do everything just right. People just don't *post* about every little "oops" that they ever experience, but don't think that they don't ever happen, even to the best people.

Every time I wetsand something (or even just get really aggressive about compounding), I've already decided that yeah, there's a chance I'll mess this up, and if I do I'll have to have paintwork done. It's a risk I accept going in, or else I don't do the work in question.