Street Dreams Detail - Porsche 997 Turbo Meteor Gray

**Bluedog** · 11-12-2001, 10:58 PM

well quality is definitley an issue for me. i probably cant live with a less than 95% perfect match. as for longlivity, i gota check on guarantees...

well, can anyone give me a rough estimate on how much it might cost to just repaint my hood if there are no dents or anything on it at all if i go to a I-Car certified place? anyone with experience on this like bigboyhf?

**Bluedog** · 11-13-2001, 12:40 AM

ok i found a very close place thats I-Car certified. but i have a small question to ask... the place i found does work directly for a nearby toyota dealer. i think the dealer actually owns that shop since their number calls the dealer directly. My honda dealer takes all their body work to their preferred body shop but that shop is not I-Car certified. BUt they do all of that honda dealers work. so the toyota one i beleive can do a better job since they have I-Car, but then the honda one probably has more experience with OEM paint matching since they work directly for a honda dealer.

so should i go to the toyota shop thats I-Car certified or to the shop that isnt but does all of the Honda work for a honda dealer?

any input is appreciated

**Langley Interior Car Kare** · 11-13-2001, 09:27 AM

then IMHO go to the I-CAR...from what ive seen of people posting resulta they were happy with and not happy with....theses shops know there stuff dood....the place that does all the honda work...could be good.....but since you and i know your a perfectionist about your paint(as we all are0 then why take a chance that 6 mths from now....bamm!!it doesnt match anymore....

**msmcdon** · 11-13-2001, 10:40 AM

Not that I have an incredible amount of experience, but when my wife and I were in a wreck last month, we took her Camry to a local I-CAR specialist (CarStar) here in Kansas City, which was also recommended by our Insurance Company.

Well.... the car was totalled even though the damage didn`t appear to be that bad.... but I must admit that the few days we worked with the I-CAR people was very, very impressive.

I think that they would be paint experts across the board and have worked on Hondas before so they know that paint.

On another note.... I feel your pain. I bit off more than I could chew and wet sanded to the primer as well on her Camry before it was wrecked. The decision to repaint or not was obviously taken out of my hands after the wreck!

Good luck... I`d hate to see that beautiful Prelude marred! Love that color!

**imported_ONEFASTCL600** · 11-13-2001, 10:54 AM

Ng Luder, I hope I am not to late to the thread........

Personally, I would recommend an I-Car shop. However, I noticed you live in LA, where are you located? If you are in the Pasadena area, there is a shop called Marco`s Auto Body you should check out. They do amazing work and are extremely professional and do lots of work on BMW`s and Honda`s.....and no, I have absolutely no affiliation with them.

.....One final piece of advice, if you plan on keeping the car for awhile, please don`t skimp on a couple hundred dollars. Please trust me on that because I recently made that mistake and now I have to live with it for at least another couple years with a less than perfect paint job! ....as hard as it may be patience wise, you would be better off waiting and saving up your money to get it done right.

Good luck..

**YoSteve** · 11-13-2001, 10:56 AM

Ng, I wanted to ask you if you realized that you were cutting into the paint while you were doing it. Did you get overconfident and do a little to much?

I guess my question is, if you were to do it again would you have run into the same problem? and what would you have done differently. Just asking becuase I would like to know if I attempted this if I would be able to tell what`s going on or would be able to determine when to stop sanding. Thanks.

**BillNorth** · 11-13-2001, 12:54 PM

Ron,

Is I-Car certification applicable to autobody shops only in the United States, or is it a global standard?

Thank you.

**msmcdon** · 11-13-2001, 12:57 PM

I know you asked Ng this question, but I can give you my feedback from my experience. I repaired two areas on my wife`s ex-Camry: One was more of a chip and the second was a 7" long key-scratch to the metal.

The Chip repaired wonderfully by going slow and only swiping the wet sandpaper lightly in one direction. Although the silver paint didn`t match exactly, it repaired well.

However, the long scratch was me being too overconfident from the chip and bad materials. My main problem was that I had a piece of sandpaper wrapped around a slightly trimmed block-pencil eraser and it was too large. I began sanding down the bumpy touch-up paint, but the eraser was too wide. I also pushed too hard (so the eraser also touched the surrounding area) and I rushed, wanting to see faster results. Ugh

I sanded into the primer about 1" long on either side of the scratch. I gave up there and just left the bumpy touch-up paint to protect.

What I didn`t do and should have, was hole-punch a few circles of sandpaper and glue them to the eraser end of pencils. The eraser gives just a little bit, but not so much to cause additional damage, as well as provides a very small sanding area... which is easy to control.

Just go slow and don`t get impatient like I did. You`ll easily be able to see your progress and decide where to go.

Good luck.:up

**Mikescustomdetail** · 11-13-2001, 01:25 PM

Hi, I understand the sanding through the paint problem. At this moment my car is in the body shop getting my scratch repair repaired. While it is there I am having a couple of other things fixed. I finally get the bumper that had been painted elsewhere painted to match better the rest of my car. I warned them when I came in that I am REALLY picky. They made me feel confident in my choice of them. After reading this thread I went and checked for the I-Car certified shops in my area and they were on the list. I will never try and fix a scratch again.

**mx5** · 11-13-2001, 01:36 PM

Do not let a body shop wax and buff out your car. There are too many horror stories here from people who let them.

**Bluedog** · 11-13-2001, 04:16 PM

ok ill try to make the my experience short and to the point.

i did a total of 10 areas with wet sanding, 7 of them turned out absoultey awesome, 2 of them was ok but didint hide the imperfection as well as others, and 1 (my last one) was the one that i sanded too far into the primer.

i did the exact same steps as David B explained in that old thread of his. same sand paper cut to a circle, sanded in soft back and forth motions only, used water and soap, and the same stuff used afterwards except i used 3M rubbing compound instead of the eagle one one.

when i was sanding that area i messed up on, like graeme, i was just too eager to finish the job and get it over with. it was the last spot and i was getting great results form previous 9 spots plus i was just about to dawn and zaino for the first time right afterwards. so u can see that i was pretty ancious.

what i did wrong was that i sanded too long and maybe pressed a bit harder than i needed to. but the main cntributer to my mistake was the amount of time i kept sanding. i kept sanding because it looked like that area i was sanding actually got a tiny bit worse. worse as in not smooth and blended. so naturally i tried a bit longer and harder.

i think those few moments right there when i noticed that it actually got "worse" was when i started going through the base color layer. but i just didnt think about it at the time

so after awhile, i wiped and met face to face with my very expensive and heart wrenching mistake... a light grey/white hole about the size of... i say, half of a tip of the eraser on a pencil. very small, very smooth (obviously).

another thing to mention was that i didnt notice any color on my sand paper or wiping towel which was a white MF towel from neatitems.

so there u have it... the most regretful mistake ive done probably in my life

**vettefan67** · 11-13-2001, 04:30 PM

Quick question: what grit sandpaper were you using at the time of the crime?

**Bluedog** · 11-13-2001, 04:32 PM

<blockquote class=`ipsBlockquote` >

<em class=`bbc`>Originally posted by puterbum [/i]
<strong class=`bbc`>Quick question: what grit sandpaper were you using at the time of the crime? [/b]</blockquote>
david used 1500. i only found 1000 and 2000. i was using 1000.

**nerdhunters** · 11-13-2001, 05:15 PM

Ron, Is it possible build up a clear coat and wet sand it down to get a smooth finish. I have noticed a lot of orange on my M5 and wondered if the clear could be built up and wet sanded to give a smooth finish. I saw somthing on Dream Car Garage where they restored a Dodge Challanger and when it was painted I think they said it had 6 layers of clear that were sanded to give the desired finish.

**Ron Ketcham** · 11-13-2001, 05:38 PM

It looks good but will not stand up to the elements as no matter how many coats, only the last coat has the density in the top .5 mil and the majority of the UV blockers.

I-Car is US, Canada, New Zealand. They are working to take it to Europe, but things are different over there.

Don`t worry about "OEM" paint from a Honda or any other shop.

All the paint is bought from local PBE suppliers, not from Honda, etc.

Just be sure they use one of the major brands and current clears.

Ketch

:up