Dear Abby

[Big Sugar]

Dear Abby

The Body shop that recently re finished my Charger after a Door Collision, Used a D/A sander to prep the body for paint, as well as a scuff pad, They laid down 3 coats of base and 3 coats of a Premium$$  clear.
   Before cutting and polishing I asked if it would be better to Wet sand (or color sand) by hand to get out the slight orange peel and straighten out the finish. he said he was going to use  the D/A sander with a 3m 1200 grit pad then up to a 3m 1500 grit pad before polishing.  about 12 hours work ?
  My 66 Charger was a straight car to begin with but now I've got it home and had a better look in the sunlight, it's really ripply down the side , sure the paint is smooth and has mirror finish but looking down the car along the side it's not as nice as it was before it went into the shop.
Am I looking too hard ? The Charger is White and now it is without any trim or chrome so it's basically very white.
Is it too late to block the finish lightly with 1200 again ?
I did wondered  why they  couldn't block sand the Chargers old finish before we resprayed.


R N
(Somewhat pissed)

[FLG]

Might be able to get away with it, but its hard to say not knowing how much he machined off. He should have just done it right the first time, at most he would be adding an extra hour to the job 

[hemi-hampton]

Info's a little vague, You say door collision. So is only the door painted or was the whole side wasted & painted. Was it a scratch or did they have to bump & bondo etire side from being caved in? Could be wavy because they never blocked the bondo but just DA'ed it, Typical of quicky hack crank them out new car places, same with the DA & 1200 & 1500, Typical of quicky new car jobs. If just a door it would not take 12 hrs to DA & Rub, Not even entire side unless doing it by hand with many different grits & compounds. Either your describing wavy body work or what some call the cottage chesse effect, meaning clear looks smooth but upon closer further inspection is lumpy or wavy. This can be re sanded out but you dont know how much clear they used, how much they allready sanded off, how much is left & did they use a High Solid clear or No? You can only sand so much before you start sanding through the clear. LEON.

[eddytheb]

That's the difference between a body shop and a restoration shop there is nothing better than a hand sanded job. jobbers have tried to sell me on that da system but there's no way I will use it even on our collision side of the shop. Make them do it right or find some one that can or you will get pissed every time you look at the side of your car. If it was an insurance pay call them and tell them how un happy you are they will have to make it right don't let them tell you otherwise.

[Charger-Bodie]

That's the difference between a body shop and a restoration shop there is nothing better than a hand sanded job. jobbers have tried to sell me on that da system but there's no way I will use it even on our collision side of the shop. Make them do it right or find some one that can or you will get pissed every time you look at the side of your car. If it was an insurance pay call them and tell them how un happy you are they will have to make it right don't let them tell you otherwise.

Thats exactly the same way I feel about it! 

[MichaelRW]

From your description it sounds like poor bodywork. No amount of cutting and buffing is going to fix that. It has to be redone.

[Big Sugar]

Sorry I wasn't specific enough, The Door was replaced with another rust free door. It was prepped and sprayed with Standox sprayable filler and blocked out, at the point we decided to spray the entire car because we were worried about a color match, and the original paint on the cart was
single stage Acrylic Enamel and were were refinishing the door in base clear. We stripped the car down to it's body shell and went for a full respray.



Ron

[eddytheb]

If the work on the door or car was done with D A  they may have heated the metal up to much or maybe the blocking was done with something soft not hard. No mater what you posted this so that shows your not happy and its understandable, thing now is not what happened its how to get it fixed so its your pride and joy again. How much did you pay and will they stand behind there work?

[hemi-hampton]

What it sounds like to me is whole car is wavy due to the use of sanding whole car with DA. I've seen inexperiance people screw up a car with a DA. You'll see them hold the DA up on one edge, or stop in one spot to long  & while DA on sharp angle, Doing this will dig half moon shapes into the car & the more old material on the car the bigger/deeper more obvious these become. From what you describe this is the Impression I get, Seen it happen many times. Most people that see this dont even know what they are seeing or how it got there, Another problem. Good luck. LEON.