Got my car painted recently - 3 layers of PPG paint and 3 layers of clear. The paint's shine leaves alot to be desired ( to me at least). What would you guys suggest to fix this? And how much am I looking at paying a body shop to wetsand/buff the whole car?

 

Wetsanding can make a huge difference because the clear coat plays a huge part in the shine. Go ahead and try it yourself on the headlight door. Around my area a shop will charge about $150 to wetsand and buff the whole car if you dont wanna do it yourself. If you dont mind me asking why didnt the body shop do it for you after they painted the car?

 

This is what wetsanding my hood did for me:

<img src = "http://home.twcny.rr.com/gta88/GTAhood.jpg">

 

good lord Chet - that is nice. My hat's off to you!

Honestly - I paid 3500 for all the body work, all the body panels, the frame work, and the paint. So you get what you paid for.

But the good news is he told me it has 3 layers of clear, so I should be ok to wetsand the car (According to all the threads I looked up yesterday).

The day my paint can do what yours did in that picture - I'll be a real happy man.

 

Jon, I highly recommend wetsanding and buffing. Use lots of water and , depending on how rough the surface is, 1500 or 2000 grit paper with a sanding block. Take your time and only sand lightly enough to "level" the surface. Should look dull when dry with no bright spots. Key point don't try to sand to much off just enough to get even dull look, then buff with medium buffing-polishing compound on a foam pad at 1500 RPM and you will love the results. However , if you don't have the equipment, $150-$200 is a fair price for the job. I suggest you talk to the shop that did the repair and paint perhaps they will give you a deal. BTW, glad you saved the Bird. My 2 cents, Dave.

 

I'm a HUGE fan of wetsanding....it's the difference between a good and a bad paint job. I wetsanded my whole car when I painted it ( you can tell how slick it is in the picture).....but I'm going to have to repair the hood where a rock hit it...I'll have to sand down the bad spots, blend the spots with the rest of the paint, wetsand, then buff.

 

If you have never wet sanded or buffed before, I would suggest having the body shop do it. Even with the 3 layers of clear, you can easily burn through the crowns,edge of fenders and the dredded gas filler door.

 

i would suggest that you hit it with 1500,2000, and if you can get it, 4000. if it is ppg clear, than it will be hard as a rock. we use ppg at the body shop that i work at. when ever i do a black or very dark colored car, i always use 4000 grit sand paper. when you use 4000, you will be able to see a nice shine starting to come through the dullness. then hit it with 3m compound(medium) and 3m machine glaze. used a white foam pad with the compound and a black foam pad with the machine glaze. i normally buff at about 2200rpm. if you have never done this before i would recommend about 1500rpm. you should have no problem with 3 coats of clear. mine has 2 coats and i completely wet sanded it. good luck. if you don't feel comfortable doing this, then you should bring it to a body shop.

 

Dont wetsand, **** that timeconsuming noize. At my shop we use a special DA sander with a soft pad and 1200 grit paper specially designed for this. Run over the whole car in a matter of half an hour and then get to buffing and then glaze it, the whole process should take less then 2 hours. But for inexperienced people, this method is 50 times more risky then wetsanding. But if you know your ****, you cna do it, so much easier, and hell lot less of a mess too.

 

Mmm i was gonna go with a no since u dont know how much clear is on there and u def dont wanna sand through. But since u said 3 layers of clear i would def wet sand it. Ide use 1500 and just sand the whole car till its smooth and nothing is left shiny.Yeh ull want to dry it alot to make sure nothin is left shiny.Then maybe go over it a lil with 2000 if u want that extra touch. I painted my car and trust me wet sanding is easy just use a rubber block and go easy on the edges. Maybe since ur a beginner really try to stay away from the edges. Then when buffing its the same thing u can go through easy on the edges u might want some1 skilled to do the buffing. Just use the rubbing compund first the extra cut since its been over a week then of course ur Mahcine glaze at last with a foam pad.

 

heres a ok pic of my hood

Its really sets the car apart from a un wet sanded car. I put it next to my brand new blue mazda huge difference.

 

It's not that I don't have the effort - it's the time. I'm leaving for school sometime this week and won't be home until March...want to have the car looking better by then.

I got an estimate from Sonar_un's friend today for 100 bucks and I'm gonna call the shop that did the work tomorrow. Hopefully he'll say yeah he just cut the work short since he ran out of money...not something like "That's as shiny as it'll ever be". We'll see. I'll keep you guys posted with pics if possible.

Thanks!