How to proceed: etching in audi clear

[lurchalicious]

Been trying to tackle these odd spots in the clear of my second hand 2006 a6. Night blue pearl effect paint. Upon close inspection I believe them to be some sort of chemical etching that occurred.

Here are the culprits







I have a PC 7424xp



I tried menzerna intensive polish on white hex logic pad, pc on 6

Tried the ip on an orange hex logic, pc on 6

Tried a yellow ccs pad, with ip, pc on 5

Attemted a small nail sized spot with wet 3000# paper. No noticeable improvement.



I have heard a rotary may help.. but its out of my level. These look deep in the clear. Water test is good and tells me it`s just the clear.



Wool pad and m105?



I have a dr color chip kit. Could it help?



Anyone had spots like these?



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[Accumulator]

lurchalicious- Welcome to Autopia! Fellow Audi-nut here :wavey



That looks *awfully* deep and I wouldn`t expect to be able to effect all that much improvement (as you found when you tried the 3K sandpaper). My honest opinion is to just get the panel(s) in question repainted, but M105 (or better yet M100) on a Meguiar`s MF Cutting Disk would maybe help just a tiny little bit.



Some issues can only be fixed with a paintgun.

[Ron Ketcham]

Have experience with several hundreds of that model, right from the POE, there is no "buff it fix". . It is toast, on those spots, time to throw in the towel and have refinish done. All the buffing and "ya-ha-this worked for me,etc", are just very short term fixes and a waste of time and effort.

[Accumulator]

Too bad there are so many of them...I`ve been living with a few spots of cc failure on the oldest Audi since I got it from the original owner, but the damage to that hood is a far cry from "a few spots".

[lurchalicious]

Well, I had a feeling that would be the consensus . Thank you for the feedback.



I also took those pictures at the angle they looked the worst. Head on its not too terribly bad... but they will always be there taunting me.



Anyone here in autobody that could tell me what I should expect for a decent scuff n shoot of a hood using deltron (ppg) paint?



I always feel like im getting ripped off by body shops

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[Accumulator]

Anyone here in autobody that could tell me what I should expect for a decent scuff n shoot of a hood using deltron (ppg) paint?

I pay through the nose to have paintwork done on my Audis because the better shops I know charge a lot and I`m all about the finial result.



FWIW, I prefer to have my Audis reshot with Spies-Hecker, with Glasurit being a distant second-best.



And note that it won`t be a "simple scuff and shoot" as the hood needs to come off and have its grille out and then be reinstalled/realigned.



But hey, that`s a nice car and if the reshoot is done right you`ll probably be glad you had it done.

[lurchalicious]

I pay through the nose to have paintwork done on my Audis because the better shops I know charge a lot and I`m all about the finial result.



FWIW, I prefer to have my Audis reshot with Spies-Hecker, with Glasurit being a distant second-best.



And note that it won`t be a "simple scuff and shoot" as the hood needs to come off and have its grille out and then be reinstalled/realigned.



But hey, that`s a nice car and if the reshoot is done right you`ll probably be glad you had it done.

Yeah took it to a place that came recommended locally and he told me they would strip the hood to metal and feather the front section of the fenders back to the doors. Never thought to request paint but they mix their own and use a dupont system. Bumper needs to be color matched as well.



Out the door for the hood, fender sections (not the whole fenders) and match the bumper he told me 1200-1300. Sounds pretty reasonable.



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[Accumulator]

lurchalicious- Give some thought to whether you really want it blended into the tops of the fenders. I`ve gone both ways and it`s hard to say what`s best. The more paintwork that`s "post-production" the more long-term issues you might have. IMO you just can`t beat factory paint so it`s best to not reshoot anything that doesn`t really need done.



The bumpercovers basically never match anyhow, I`d only repaint that if it`s chipped/etc. (which I do have done every now and then as kinda a regular maintenance thing). It would need to come off anyhow if they`re redoing the fenders though, so I cand see that being the time to paint it.



I dunno....if it were mine I`d probably lean towards just having the hood redone. That`s what I`ve had them do on mine the last few times and the minor diffs in the paint don`t bug me (note that I`m pretty particular ). IME today`s water-based paints make the whole color-matching thing a bit easier to get OK for some reason, no idea why but I`m talking dark blue pearl (on a 20-year old car no less!) and silver turning out perfectly fine with no blending into the adjacent panels.

[lurchalicious]

lurchalicious- Give some thought to whether you really want it blended into the tops of the fenders. I`ve gone both ways and it`s hard to say what`s best. The more paintwork that`s "post-production" the more long-term issues you might have. IMO you just can`t beat factory paint so it`s best to not reshoot anything that doesn`t really need done.



The bumpercovers basically never match anyhow, I`d only repaint that if it`s chipped/etc. (which I do have done every now and then as kinda a regular maintenance thing). It would need to come off anyhow if they`re redoing the fenders though, so I cand see that being the time to paint it.

This is the bumper...



Its like an itch I cant satisfy :thumbdown:







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[Accumulator]

lurchalicious- Oh man...I bet removing/reinstalling that is a *big* job. Honestly, if that were mine I`d try to talk myself into only having the hood reshot.

[dyjdtjjian]

I have a dr color chip kit. Could it help?