I had my GTA painted about 6 months ago and ever since then I notice wavy paint, especially on the doors. The car was very dull when I bought it, so I don't know if the waves were there before or not. I thought maybe it was just urethane wave, so I wet blocked the clear with 600, then up to 2000. I still see the waves at an angle so I'm thinking of having the doors repainted once again. I can almost see lines that go straight up and down, like creases in the metal or something. It's either a defect in the metal, or maybe the primer wasn't blocked down good enough before paint.

Anybody have wavy doors, or is it just my car?

 

It's the door skins. My 91 was dull when I got it and after I repainted it the first time I noticed the same thing. The last time I painted it I skimmed the doors with filler and spent quite a while with a long board getting them perfect.

 

The reason you see this is because a previous owner thought nothing of leaning up against the door. Body lines strengthen the sheet metal. I'm sure you've noticed that the body line on the Camaros and Firebirds is very minimal which does not provide much strength, so the metal flexes a lot. The waves are large shallow dents that are created by being leaned up against or being pushed on. The cars with the straightest doors are the ones that have multiple sharp body lines and/or curves.

 

I guess the only fix is to sand them back down, then use a high build primer and block them really good. Im afraid to wetsand anymore, or i'll end up going through the clear. I may at least get the upper half of the doors redone, since that's the most noticeable area. I really had high hopes for my new paint job.

 

I think that unless you are willing to spend countless hours blocking these cars and skim-coating them with filler, you are going to have waves. These cars have massive doors with huge, featureless sheets of metal that are prone to warpage. My car is the same way to an extent. I just deal with it. I still would like to wet sand mine to make it less noticeable, but I don't think it detracts much from the beauty of the car.

 

Wet sanding won't help these waves much, trust me. It's a whole lot of work for nothing.

 

To my understanding, it could also be due to too many layers of paint.

 

Wet sanding will make the orange peel and imperfections a lot less noticable, thus reducing the appearance of waves. It is worth it, IMHO. A wavy wet-sanded car will look 10x's better than a wavy orange-peeled car because the surface will reflect the light more smoothly.

Yes, I've heard the same thing. As the paint builds up, every miniscule defect becomes amplified. Knocking down the clearcoat by wet-sanding will help minimalize it.

 

My car never had orange peel to begin with. The paint is smooth, just wavy.