Please Advise... New Paint

[Imatk]

So I just got my car painted. There are a lot of swirl marks where the bodyshop buffed it and I want to get the car buffed to get rid of those marks.



I got a quote for $250 which I'm perfectly willing to pay. But my question is would I be better to get a polisher and do this myself?



I'm a little worried about doing this on new paint... especially having never done it before. But I HAVE been waxing / detailing cars for many years... just never buffed a car before.



So what do you guys think? Leave it to a pro or try to do it myself?



Thanks for any input.

 

[Dan]

So I just got my car painted. There are a lot of swirl marks where the bodyshop buffed it and I want to get the car buffed to get rid of those marks.



I got a quote for $250 which I'm perfectly willing to pay. But my question is would I be better to get a polisher and do this myself?





I'm a little worried about doing this on new paint... especially having never done it before. But I HAVE been waxing / detailing cars for many years... just never buffed a car before.



So what do you guys think? Leave it to a pro or try to do it myself?



Thanks for any input.

Well, if you trust the person to do a good job, then $250 is much cheaper than ruining a new paint job. If you aren't sure, have the detailer do a sample section and leave it be for a week or so (wash it or let rain hit it for a while) to see if they are using something with fillers or actually doing a good job. I'd pratice on something else before I tried myself.

 

[Accumulator]

Note that new paint is often very soft, it'll harden up over the next few weeks/months. This can be good or bad depending on what you want and how hard/soft the paint is/becomes.



Note also that there are a lot of lousy "pros" out there who will make things worse instead of better.



Finally, note that, as yakki said, there are risks involved with using a new repaint as a learning experience. But just *how* risky it is will depend a lot on you- some people can take a new rotary out of the box and use it with no problems, other people need a lot of experience with a PC before they're ready to use it on their car..and most people are somewhere between those two extremes.



No easy answer...I'd find out exactly what products and process the pros are planning to use for that $250 job. I sure wouldn't just turn the car over to them without knowing exactly what they plan to do.

 

[Imatk]

Thanks for the replies. He said he was going to tape off all the moldings and look at the finish under the halogen lights and use foam pads and polish.



I actually enjoy detailing so I think I would enjoy this as well... I just don't want to mess it up. The paint is a little over a month old now so it should be hardened up I would think.



I'm on the fence. In one respect I'd like to do it myself, but realistically I'm probably not going to use the rotary again since I do all my polishing by hand. That and the lack of experience on my part.