Please Advise... New Paint

[Imatk]

So I just got my car painted. There are a lot of swirl marks where the bodyshop buffed it and I want to get the car buffed to get rid of those marks.



I got a quote for $250 which I`m perfectly willing to pay. But my question is would I be better to get a polisher and do this myself?



I`m a little worried about doing this on new paint... especially having never done it before. But I HAVE been waxing / detailing cars for many years... just never buffed a car before.



So what do you guys think? Leave it to a pro or try to do it myself?



Thanks for any input.

[Dan]

So I just got my car painted. There are a lot of swirl marks where the bodyshop buffed it and I want to get the car buffed to get rid of those marks.



I got a quote for $250 which I`m perfectly willing to pay. But my question is would I be better to get a polisher and do this myself?





I`m a little worried about doing this on new paint... especially having never done it before. But I HAVE been waxing / detailing cars for many years... just never buffed a car before.



So what do you guys think? Leave it to a pro or try to do it myself?



Thanks for any input.





Well, if you trust the person to do a good job, then $250 is much cheaper than ruining a new paint job. If you aren`t sure, have the detailer do a sample section and leave it be for a week or so (wash it or let rain hit it for a while) to see if they are using something with fillers or actually doing a good job. I`d pratice on something else before I tried myself.

[Accumulator]

Note that new paint is often very soft, it`ll harden up over the next few weeks/months. This can be good or bad depending on what you want and how hard/soft the paint is/becomes.



Note also that there are a lot of lousy "pros" out there who will make things worse instead of better.



Finally, note that, as yakki said, there are risks involved with using a new repaint as a learning experience. But just *how* risky it is will depend a lot on you- some people can take a new rotary out of the box and use it with no problems, other people need a lot of experience with a PC before they`re ready to use it on their car..and most people are somewhere between those two extremes.



No easy answer...I`d find out exactly what products and process the pros are planning to use for that $250 job. I sure wouldn`t just turn the car over to them without knowing exactly what they plan to do.

[Imatk]

Thanks for the replies. He said he was going to tape off all the moldings and look at the finish under the halogen lights and use foam pads and polish.



I actually enjoy detailing so I think I would enjoy this as well... I just don`t want to mess it up. The paint is a little over a month old now so it should be hardened up I would think.



I`m on the fence. In one respect I`d like to do it myself, but realistically I`m probably not going to use the rotary again since I do all my polishing by hand. That and the lack of experience on my part.