Fixing A Bad Paint Job

imported_Quenga

New member
I worked out a deal with the dealer when I bought this car to have the hood repainted. The PPI checked out and I took my own paint readings; despite the paint damage on the hood, the readings were in good condition. I was going to wait for KB to get in some more Bigfoots, but I got bored and had nothing to do today. I stumbled across a few threads on wool and paint correction, which lead to a few days of research. I've only used wool a handful of times while experimenting. I never tried to tackle full corrections until a few years into detailing, and by then the KBM, M105 and MF pads were coming into existence. I had no reason to really try out wool. I usually work on cars worth less than mine that want quick details, so I never get a chance to really try out anything more than a 1-step. Surprisingly, this was only 2-steps.



Correction:

Black Lambswool/M105



Polish:

Blue Buff and Shine Flat Polishing Pad/HD Polish (love this stuff)



That was it. I inspected it with my halogens and LED lights, I don't see it getting any better.



All shots below are pretty much 50/50's. I'm taking a break and eating a snack, so I thought I'd post before I finish just the hood today.





Left side polished, right side was what the body shop left me...



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You can clearly see the difference in the reflection of the tree. The passenger side is crisp, the drivers side is dull.



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More shots showing the difference:



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I think this one really shows the difference:



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Sorry the pictures are kinda small, I turned down the quality on my camera to make uploading easier when I was taking random shots of stuff. I forgot to turn it back up.



Thanks for looking!



(and thanks to Ron Ketchum, Barry Theal, David Fermani and everyone else for all the tips they've given over the time. I've never met another detailer and have no training or mentors. All was learned straight from Autopia, YouTube and practice. Oh, and to SVR for creating the thread that made me dig out my wool pads to take care of this sandpaper finish!)
 
Looks good to me, ship it!

"Ooppps, your car, not a dealer's-hold on there Mr.Salesman, don't put the iron over the curb, it's not ours!"

To explain, in the car business you "put them in the coffin and then over the curb after they sign."

What comes next is up to the Service Dept.

LOL!
 
The dealer was actually pretty legit. I've buy different cars every 2 years and this is the only guy I'll ever go back to. Not the typical dirtbag.



Yes, I used the rotary. I'm growing tired of the GG6 to be honest. It's too damn loud and my bones hurt after polishing, lol. I feel nothing after using a rotary, I don't get as tired as fast and I don't have to turn up my music to drown out the polisher as much. I think I'm gonna sell it once I get the Bigfoot. I still have a PC 7424 that's much quieter and easier to deal with.
 
David Fermani said:
You ever try using a wool pad with your DA??



No, but I'm assuming I should? I've never really used wool ever. Wool is one of those things I feel like I need someone watching me/teaching me how to work with it. I could be screwing it up, who knows. HD Polish takes care of my mistakes. Everything else is pretty easy to learn. I thought about taking a class just to learn wool technique. I want to find some of those pads Ron keeps talking about...



There aren't very many scratches or swirls in the paint, I'm just trying to get rid of the sandpaper/orange peel look to the finish, without wet sanding (I don't have paper, don't want to spend the money to do so). MF Pads weren't doing anything to it, so I left it alone.



Side note...I forgot about my towels in the washer and my roommate put them in the dryer at full blast. Just toasted $50-$100 worth of towels. So, no money for anything else, gotta place an order for some more towels!
 
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