i've had my paint job now for almost 3 months now.. I notice now that their is little air pockets on sections of my car, most noticably the trunk. is their any way to remove these without messing up the paint? thanks!

 

clik on search and look for WETSANDING you get 1500 sand paper and go over the entire car with it, this will get rid of the bubbles and blurry peel looking paint making it flat and very shinny. Look for the thred on wetsanding to make sure

 

Sorry Momo you beat me to it..... woops..... but since I typed it all I guess I'll leave it.......

I think what you are refering to is called "orange peel", where the paint takes on a slightly rough texture instead of being smooth. If you look at yourself in the reflection you will be blurry. The ideal paint job would be like looking in a mirror.

The only way I know of to get rid of it is by wetsanding, but if you've never done paintwork I'd have a pro do it, or at least help you. I believe there was a recent post on this and how to do it, try searching for orange peel, or wetsanding.

Hope this helps.

 

its all good man
What do you mean by having a pro do it? Who would do something like that? I don't think maaco would, not even the dealership. I wonder who would do that. Im taking a car paint course at college though so i might be able to be that "pro" when im done haha but in the mean time who do you have in mind?

 

im also curious, because i have no skill in this and i dont want to screw it up and void my warrenty against cracks fading and wrinking..

 

I dont think you can screw up that bad because 1500 paper is really really, one more time...REALLY smooth and I don't think it would scratch the paint. Besides, since you are doing it by hand it should be easier but I would still have someone do it.

 

so lemme run this down so i understand better, i get 1500-2000 grit sand paper, i get it wet, get the paint wet, and i sand the bubbles away? and it will still come out clean? maybe i will try on a less noticable spot first.

 

I figured a body/paint shop would probably do it as a side job, although they would probably charge a crazy amount for it. I'm in the same boat myself, I got a "hold me over" paint job a little while back, sure it looked better than it did before the paint but now that I'm learning about bodywork and paint I'm seeing just how bad my paintjob really is. I was gonna do the wetsanding myself, but lately I can't find the time for such a project with college, and I didn't want to risk screwing it up either. I talked to some people at work that are into cars and they said wetsanding really isn't that hard so I'm thinking of trying it over winter break or spring break. Hey when you learn how to do all that stuff feel free to demonstrate your knowledge on my car...........

TraviZ- I'd be carefull as far as warranties go. They will use anything to void your warranty, trust me. If you were going to try wetsanding I definetly wouldn't tell them about it.....

 

Make sure you keep the water running over the area you're working on at all times, and when you're done you should use rubbing compound to polish it back up.

Momo- do most colleges offer an auto paint class? I never thought about that- that'd be awesome. Are you at a tech school or a regular college?

 

its a community college so it does offer some tech courses on the side, mechanics is not my major but i thought i would take some courses since this is sort of a hobby for me.

 

what is a good rubbing compound you recommend?

 

Most people say good things about 3M, I'm sure you can get it at any auto parts store or Wal/Kmart. I haven't tried it myself yet- trying to find the spare time due to full college and work schedules........ I already bought 3M for when I wetsand my car since that's what most people use.

 

is it jsut called rubbing compound?

this is starting to intrest me and may perhaps become this weekends project

 

Yep. It's in the section with the bondo and paints at most stores. Let me know how your project goes, I'm once again fired up about wetsanding my car, I'll probably do it over winter break. Good luck

 

thanks ill do it this weekend (saturday most likely) and ill post back here how it went. i have no camera though

 

Hi all.....I just want to say when people are saying "rubbing compound" that is a very very generic term. What you would want to make this a "pro" job would be 3m perfectit. I would recomend talking to someone at a paint store or visiting the 3m website and research it a little further and get the right product.
Good luck let us all know how it turns out.
ripn

 

If you haven't had any experience wetsanding and buffing, I would not recommend trying it without a knowledgable person around to help...I work in a body shop and can tell you its very easy to mess up wetsanding and buffing. 1500 grit even 2000 grit WILL scratch the paint, thats what its meant to do its sandpaper. Its just finer scratches than rougher paper. The sanding smooths the paint, andthe rubbing compound takes the scratches from the sand paper out. However, after lightly wetsanding, its VERY easy to burn the paint buffing it out. If you burn the paint, you will have to repaint the panel. Just wanted to state the facts b4 someone goes out and starting doing this to there car and ruins their paint. Thank You.

And yes, 3M perfect-it is a ver good product.

 

Since you work in a body shop do you know if a wetsanding service is generally offered? I really like the color and paint used on my car, but it's got some orange peel and I'd rather wetsand it than have the whole car repainted. If so, how much does that generally run? For what it's worth, only the sides need it. Hood/roof/hatch are perfect.

Thanks!!

ps- thanks for the advice, I was going to try wetsanding it myself but now I think I'll leave the paintwork to the pros and just do the mechanicals myself.......