Well I was asked to put up a couple of C&B's finally of my work. So since I ahven't done anything yet this season (gotta love Michigan weather) I went back through a few things I did last season. Now mind you I'm not a photographer I just bought a new DSLR camera and TH0001 is helping me learn how to use the thing (Thanks Todd!) But these were all shot with my cheap POS P&S Kodak so bear with me on it.
The story on this one goes alady came in looking to trade her SUV in.I went out and did the inspection and saw this scratch..... Good friggin lord! it was all the way down to the metal and rather wide. She informed me that she already had a body shop look at it and they were saying it was a total repaint on the door and would be about $1500. She told me not to worry about it and just do what I could. Well first off I took that as a challenge to really see what I could do. and secondly $1500 for just a door??!! Knowing the area I'm from that sounded like highway robbery. So I snapped the before pic.
As you can see it's long and deep. And since she was considering just getting it repainted I figured what the hell... No harm no foul if I can't get it all out right?
So I start the fill in process.Layer after layer of paint because I didn't have any body filler available (which would've made this one a lot easier)
I took my heat gun to speed up the drying time on it between layers and once I got the layers thick enough I started the wetsanding process. I started my rough sanding with 1000 grit then moved on 1200, 1500 and feathered it out with 2500.
I was going to go all the way to 3000 grit but after inspection from the 2500 I realized I just didn't need that extra step.
After the sanding was done I got out the compound and polish. I started out with Sythetic cut with a finish wool cut. ( I don't use the compound wool unless I have severe oxidation or I'm working on a boat) Did a couple passes with that until it was leveled like I wanted it. Then i switched over to my Megs 85 with the same type of pad. Once I took it as far as I could with the wool I switched over to my foam. Another pass with 85 with the foam leveled it out even more. I'm not postive if I used some XMT at this stage or not but I know I finished up with Ultrafina SE.
When the lady came back to pick up the truck she couldn't believe the results of me "doing what I can" LOL It was much cheaper than the $1500 she got quoted.. About 10 times cheaper... But it was fun for me. I like pushing the limits of what I've done before. I've fixed scratches but nothing this deep or long. Considering I do mostly interiors I thought this was a fun time on the paint that I never seem to get to work with on this type of level. Needless to say I made a repeat client out of her and her family because of this. They bought a new Jeep Commander that I've done twice now.
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