Budget paint job blemishes please help me correct them

[9646gt]

So I couldn't see spending a ton of money on my poor Mustang nor could I afford it due to personal things like a new baby on the way and pending medical seperation from the military. Any way, before hand the car had very bad clear coat delam and other various problems from years of sun abuse. I was able to find a "shop" (wish I could have went somewhere more legit) and I wasn't expecting perfection for $1400. The shop was obviously very busy and I didn't get th ebest work. Anyway, I am going to post some pictures of the flaws I have in the clear coat. I am going back and forth on wether or not I should try and correct them myself or trust the shop to fix them while not making the situation worse. The car is a daily driver so I am not looking for perfection but also like to do an occasional cruise in/ car show from time to time and not be utterly ashemd of the paint job. Not show in the pics I also have some solvent pop that I don't think can be fixed without a repaint on the bumper Anyway, here are the pics. Do you guys think sanding and buffing can fix this? Or should I post this in another forum to get the help I am looking for? The car was sprayed on the 25th or 26th and the temp here while it was sprayed ranged from 70 in the day to low 40's or so at night. I am not sre how the area it was painted was set up. It was painted in El Paso,tx at xpress autobody.

I am willign to learn if someone can explain these issues to me. Other than these issues the paint looks pretty good. I am assuming most of this is overspray from the painter rushing maybe?

 

[Dan]

Eeks, that looks like a $500 paint job. I think you can make it better with wetsanding, but there are parts like those fenders that you might just end up making worse.

 

[Richard Grasa]

Wow, sorry but they blatantly ripped you off. The Maaco shops around here do better paint jobs for $300. I would not try to fix that yourself and I would not trust the shop that did the work to do it. That is just completely unacceptable and I for one would be seeking the advice of an attorney. I could see getting a job like that for a couple hundred, but for $1400, no. There was a shop in Hartford, CT that was shut down recently by the DMV for turning out work like that, so there must be some way you can go after them.



This IMO, is something you need to go after legally. If you just let it go and try to fix it yourself, they are just going to keep doing this to people. Please don't let them just get away with it. Hell, the freshmen at the technical high schools around here spray paint better than that.

 

[RaskyR1]

Sorry to hear about this but honestly, that's exactly what $1400 gets you.



Some of the issues can probably be improved but then again I doubt they put on a whole lot of clear given the price.



A full repaint on a car should cost upwards of $6000 and probably more if you had delam issues.

 

[Dan]

A full repaint on a car should cost upwards of $6000 and probably more if you had delam issues.

Ehh, should vs does. No discredit to any painters out there but a full repaint, an ok quality one shouldn't be more than 2k, so the OP's price got him close. Body work is additional. Shops take advantage of paying customers and charge crazy prices. Insurance on the other hand gets the reasonable prices.

 

[Swanicyouth]

Anyone know what exactly causes those rough looking spots during the painting process?

 

[Richard Grasa]

Anyone know what exactly causes those rough looking spots during the painting process?

A few things can cause it. A paint gun that' not properly adjusted, causing dry spray, meaning not enough liquid in the mix going through the gun, not atomizing in the air like it should before it hits the car. Also can be caused by improper application methods such as the gun held too far away from the surface while painting. Using the wrong reducer for the ambient temperature can also cause it, as the mix starts to dry in the air before it hits the car. Probably a few other things can cause it too happen as well that I'm not thinking of right now.



These rough spots are not to be confused with the normal "orange peel" texture found on proper paint jobs. These rough spots were caused by someone who does not know or care what they are doing, or is being forced to try to work too quickly.



I would also bet that there's not enough clear in alot of those sections to be able to wet sand the roughness out. Hard to tell from the pics, but I would most likely turn this one away because of that.

 

[Swanicyouth]

A few things can cause it. Dry spray, meaning not enough liquid in the mix going through the gun. Also can be caused by improper application methods such as the gun held too far away from the surface while painting. Using the wrong reducer for the ambient temperature can also cause it, as the mix starts to dry in the air before it hits the car. Probably a few other things can cause it too happen as well that I'm not thinking of right now.



These rough spots are not to be confused with the normal "orange peel" texture found on proper paint jobs. These rough spots were caused by someone who does not know or care what they are doing, or is being forced to try to work too quickly.

I was just wondering if it had anything to do with the cost of the paint job - it doesn't seem like it does. So mostly, these imperfections are all painters errors, and if the painter was more skilled or experienced the paint job would have came out better with little or any additional labor or product cost.



Take it back to the body shop and get your money back.

 

[RaskyR1]

Ehh, should vs does. No discredit to any painters out there but a full repaint, an ok quality one shouldn't be more than 2k, so the OP's price got him close. Body work is additional. Shops take advantage of paying customers and charge crazy prices. Insurance on the other hand gets the reasonable prices.

Just the paint alone on the '70 Chevelle my father is painting was $2000! Granted it's a special color, but no reputable shop is painting a car for $2000 (total cost of everything, not just the spraying part). Those delam panels all needed to be stripped too.



Note: I've repainted 2 of my own cars with my father and it's a LOT more work and time than people think for it to be done properly.

This on was in Car Craft Dec '98

 

[Richard Grasa]

I was just wondering if it had anything to do with the cost of the paint job - it doesn't seem like it does. So mostly, these imperfections are all painters errors, and if the painter was more skilled or experienced the paint job would have came out better with little or any additional labor or product cost.



Take it back to the body shop and get your money back.

IMO, the cost of the job had some to do with it because they were most likely rushing. But that kind of defect should show through the paint, like they didn't take the time to remove sanding scratches or didn't do a great job on the dents, etc. The actual spraying of the paint and how it lays down, this should not be affected by the price as it's the painter's skill, gun properly adjusted etc, that should dictate how well this part of the job turns out. I'm only a hobby painter, but even my first paint job, self taught in my parents garage over 20 years ago when I was 16 only required a little wetsanding to smooth out the normal orange peel. IMO, there is no excuse for a paint job like that to come out of a shop that is in the BUSINESS of doing this kind of work, I don't care how cheap it was. I've done paintjobs with materials that cost over $1500 for a single color and also with materials that cost under $300 for everything including the primer and have achieved great results with either.

 

[Dan]

Just the paint alone on the '70 Chevelle my father is painting was $2000! Granted it's a special color, but no reputable shop is painting a car for $2000 (total cost of everything, not just the spraying part). Those delam panels all needed to be stripped too.

I'm not saying you should expect a full custom paint job for $2k. But a car in reasonable condition with no body work required doesn't need a $6k paint job. There is simple a huge gap in the market between Maaco and what a regular paint shop charges. The biggest problem to me is the mediocre shops think they can charge $5k for something marginally better than Maaco.



Does anyone have a ballpark estimate what the insurance rate is on a full repaint? I know I'd had family memebers get a car 1/2 sprayed for about $1200, and the work was top notch.

 

[IHA Mark]

Wow, sorry to hear you got such a rough paint job. Like has been said on this thread so far, I would not try and fix any of this yourself. Go back to the shop, document everything that happens, then seek the advice of an attorney.

 

[RaskyR1]

I'm not saying you should expect a full custom paint job for $2k. But a car in reasonable condition with no body work required doesn't need a $6k paint job. There is simple a huge gap in the market between Maaco and what a regular paint shop charges. The biggest problem to me is the mediocre shops think they can charge $5k for something marginally better than Maaco.



Does anyone have a ballpark estimate what the insurance rate is on a full repaint? I know I'd had family memebers get a car 1/2 sprayed for about $1200, and the work was top notch.

And I agreed with you which is why I had the

(total cost of everything, not just the spraying part)

included in my last post. However, the OP stated that the car had lots of delam all over the car which would require stripping of the panels.



Insurance would go by the book (though I don't really see them doing a full repainting without damage) and it would be the labor hours the job calls for times the shop's rate. Shops labor rates will very by region but the amount of labor hours should be very close between insurance companies and body shops. My fathers shop has a labor rate $58/hr for body body work and paint.



So it would be something like this:

• Parts
  
• Body Labor XX.X hrs @ $58.00hr
  
• Paint Labor XX.X hrs @ $58.00hr
  
• Paint Supplies XX.X hrs @ $43.00hr
  
• Misc
  

Total = XXXX