It looks so good now, should I let them wet sand?

T

T. Perinne

New member
Well 100% of my car has finally been covered with a new black paint job. The shop has intended all along to "wet sand and buff". There is currently a fair amount of orange peel and the shop told me that wet sand and buffing is how they get that "real flat surface and mirror finish". Trash in the clear coat is minimal, but I was told all of that as well will be removed in wet sanding and buffing. My issue is that the fresh new paint actually looks very good to me now, despite the orange peel. It makes me shudder like hearing nails on a chalk board to think of sandpaper being applied to the new paint. Of course the shop says they do this often and not to worry... but, its tough! How should I handle this? Just trust the shop? Take evasive action and don't have them wet sand? Its not like they'll give me a finished product that doesn't look good, I'm more concerned of premature clear coat failure down the line - it would be hard to take the car back to the shop and complain after I've had it for several months. I completely understand what's involved with wet sand and buffing, I'd just like to hear your opinions on how I should handle the situation. Thanks!
 
Ask the shop to provide you with a customer list that have had done to their rides what the body shop is proposing to do to your vehicle. Call several random customers to see if they are satisfied with the work done and if so, could you see the work done by the shop.



Here are the "run away fast flags"



(1) the shop won't give you a customer list



(2) the shop says "trust us"



(3) any of the other vehicles you look at have been "mangled"



(4) If all you saw was excellent work but you have any misgivings
 
Wet sanding will get rid of all the orange peel. The difference between a non wetsanded and wetsanded paint is night and day. With a good wetsand job and buff your paint will be show quality. :up
 
I understand your apprehension of having your car wet sanded, but as agentf and ON EDGE said all good body shops do it and it will make a big difference.



They shot the paint with the expectations of wet sanding and buffing so thickness should not be an issue. If you like it now you’ll absolutely love it after they finish it.
 
Sounds good to me! This is what I needed to hear...



ON EDGE: What you said is almost word for word what the shop told me.



I'll just have faith in the shop, show quality was the goal so I won't stop now. I just don't want to watch (or listen) when they take the sandpaper to it! :scared
 
T. Perinne

OK then - what shop are you using - I've got an '04 Accord Coupe with terrible OP. I was thinking of getting it buffed out, but that would reduce the total CC thickness. Maybe I should consider adding CC then WS and buff out. Will you share that with a fellow H-town guy?

Thanks
 
If you have seen any of those shows on Discovery Channel that build hot rods or motorcycles or whatever, they always show the painting process, and wet sanding is indeed a standard part of the mirror like finish.



I saw one where insdead of callin it "orange peel", they called it FLA, stand for Fat Ladies ***.
 
The shop name in Enviro Cleaning Services and was begun as a company specializing in media blasting. They still do the blasting but the owner has always been in the auto resto biz as well as doing collision insurance work. These days, the resto and collision work is about 80-90% of what they do. Billy Anderson is the name of the owner, his passion is the restoration of late 60's-early 70's muscle cars. His shop has a spray booth and a full time crew that now does the paint and body work for him - both for business and his personnal projects. The name of this shop probably won't come up in any formal inquiries but its one of those situations where "you know a guy" who can do a great job for a reasonable price.



Where in Houston are you? I'm in NW in Spring. Your welcome by the shop anytime, I actually use some of his space and tools to work on my car. BTW, if you've never seen a 700 HP show quality Mustang built from the ground up, you'd be in for a treat!
 
T. Perinne said:
........ his passion is the restoration of late 60's-early 70's muscle cars. His shop has a spray booth and a full time crew that now does the paint and body work for him - both for business and his personnal projects. .......
Click to expand...

Sounds like your car is in very good hands. Hang around when those guys finish your car and you may pick up some new tricks. I love watching someone who is talented work on a paint finish and try to soak up as much knowledge from them as I can.
 
T. Perinne

I'm on the west side (Hwy 6 N & West Little York) - shoot me a PM sometime with the address of the shop and I'll swing by to get a price on my Honda, if they are open Saturdays for that sort of thing.



I've also got a '62 TBird Sports Roadster that cold use a little paint as well........
 
It may depend on the paintjob...but wetsanding will almost always improve the look of the paint by far... it's just a matter of if your clearcoat is thick enough to safely wetsand, and if you can find a reliable shop. I wetsanded my new paint job and it was just an incredible transformation... my paint before felt like sandpaper, and was not reflective at all. Now it feels like glass and is much more reflective than I expected. Before I did this, someone came up to me and said my paintjob was crap and I better get it repainted, since his car was smooth and glass-like straight out of the paintbooth without being wetsanded. Now mine looks better than his!
 
A friend and I painted my 69 Chevy Camaro ourselves when we were in college. The prep work took us forever, but it really paid off....and we used Black!



The paint looked pretty darn good when we were done, with the exception of some orange peel. We waited several weeks for the paint to cure, then we wetsanded it, then buffed it out 2 days later (we ran out of time).



It was hilarious to get peoples reaction at college: "what happened, you painted your car now it's in primer again!?"



Anyway, after buffing the paint following the wetsanding revealed an absolutely incredible mirror like finish with almost no flaws. It really was an impressive difference before and after wetsanding.



Definitely go for it!



:up
 
Very seldom does a paint job out of the paint room look perfect, it almost always need wet sanding and buffing. The guy that does that were I work part time takes 3 days to do a car. When he done the paint looks like colored chrome.
 
Standard procedure for body shop work. Usually the paint job, when done at a production shop, will need more attention after it leaves the body shop.
 
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