Any other options but a respray?

My beloved car was damaged today at, of all places, Irvine Cars and Coffee. Someone obviously opened their door onto my passenger side. Shockingly, they didn't leave a note.:shakehead:

Didn't see it until later while I was parked somewhere else walking away from the car. Several parallel scratches, some smooth to the touch....but unfortunately some are deep enough I can catch a fingernail. I know the latter has always been the tell-tale sign that the panel needs to be resprayed. I REALLY don't want to do that for $$ and resale reasons. Are there any other options?

Only pic I have. It rained this morning, thus all the water spots. Hard to center the pic due to backlighting.

So, what say ye?

 

I have seen some use touchup paint followed by wetsanding with pretty good results.

 

I was doored by a Ferrari once. No paint damage though. Good luck.

One last word: Karma

 

Maybe have Jimmy @ Lucci Elite check it out..........he is in your area. I hope it doesn't need a respray, what is wrong with people these days.

 

What about the clearcoat?

Hope it's true. What would be super awesome is if I could actually see this jerkwad get his due in the form of some hideously deforming, painful, chronic, but nonfatal disease.

Know someone that owns a performance shop near by. Said he has a guy that may be able to polish some/most of it out. Hasn't seen it in person, yet, so I'm wary. I may even settle for a small, barely noticeable scratch rather than a respray. My big concern then would be rust.....dammit.

 

http://www.automotivetouchup.com/


I recommend touch up paint. I've repaired a couple cars (mine and family members) using it and it turned out great. They also sell clear coat bottles. Though it isn't necessary, I do recommend it. At least when I did it, I ended up putting a little bit too much on, and it lumped up. I let it dry for a couple days, then took 1500 grit to it to slowly sand it down to the panel. Once it got close enough, I switched over to 2000 grit, and once it is perfect height, I finished it up with scratch x 2.0 by hand, then went over it with d300 +mf pad, super finish and put a layer of wax over it.

Though the scratches on my car were only about 2/3 to 3/4 the size of yours, I can't even see mine anymore, despite knowing exactly where they are.

 

If it was my door, I would try first to polish out as much as possible and then look at what was left. If there is a little dent there, do you want to remove it first, with a paintless dent repair job, and then see how it looks?
Have removed some really bad looking paint transfers, scrapes, etc., with just a compound like Meguiars 105, or the over the counter version - Meguiars Ultimate Compound, and often times, there was nothing left or just a small scratch that could be filled and left alone (Dr Colorchip.com), or taken down completely as mentioned above..

Good luck with this !
Dan F

 

While that certainly sounds like the more 'economical' way to do it, I just don't have the patience or time for it. But thanks for the suggestion!

I took it by a couple of shops yesterday to assess and get an estimate. The first shop was really cool. He actually tried to see if he could get some/most of it out with some compound. It did take away some of the most superficial scratches, but it unfortunately revealed that most of them are fairly deep. He said he saw a slight dent, but from all angles, I couldn't discern one.

So, now it comes down to my repainting options:
1) first shop recommends sanding/repainting/clear of entire door, 2-3 days labor
2) second shop recommends just sanding immediate area, repaint sanded area, reclear entire door. One day labor, almost $100 less expensive than shop #1.

Both shops obviously guarantee their work.

Which would you opt for?

 

you would be surprised how well they can blend a spot, honestly I would have them do the door.........not the spot.That way the finish is uniform.

 

Sorry Karl. Bit confusing. You say they can blend a spot really well but you recommend a respray of the whole door?

 

Sorry, I ment too say...

Some places can do a really good job on a blend, I would ask to see the shops work. (I have seen some blends on cars you would never know it was ever hit)


If not, have them respray the whole door, and make sure you don't accept it until its perfect.

When I had my IS350 fender resprayed I made them re do it 3 times. In direct sunlight with polarized sunglasses you could tell it was off.

What shop did you go too?

 

Gotcha. So, that brings me to another question. Under what conditions should I examine the repaint? Is sunlight better than fluorescent? I don't own polarized sunglasses, so that's out I think I may have a bit of color blindness, so unless something is very off, I'm afraid I may miss it.

 

Honestly I can see mis matched paint under florescent or day light.....

Most sunglasses are polarized, atleast the quality ones are. It is really hard to see the difference without the glasses unless its a real crappy job. Id refer you to someone in Fresno, but your not up here yet.....

I would ask around who does the best work, regardless of price....

 

I would see what Jimmy@Lucci Elite would say. I have several buddies that can help you out for where to go in the area.
Too bad you're not in the bay area. I know the guy that can blend and match like nobodies business.

 

I'm not solely concerned with price, but if equivalent work can be done with less disruption of the OEM paint, then I'd prefer that route. I just don't know if the same job can be done this way.

While I'm sure Jimmy is of the best of the best, these scratches are definitely beyond the capabilities of compound and a polisher, so I'm not sure what he can add to my predicament.

 

Good point. Maybe he knows someone that can do that type of repair though

 

bonehead -

If you are really interested in not disturbing as much of the OEM paint as possible, then perhaps my 1st suggestion - get something like DrColorchip.com product, a good Detailer (who has the tool to measure the paint thickness on the damage and around the door) and the skillset to apply the product, perhaps sand lightly the area, and then compound with the appropriate product/s to smooth out if necessary, and make that door (minus the dent) look like new is what you need.
A lot of good Detailers do this kind of work all the time, because Clients dont want to go through the body shop experience which is way more costly, dusty, and their Detailer is usually not able to do the perfect work we do, because of time/money constraints..
You might want to consider the great advice you have been given regarding Detailers in SoCal, perhaps there is one even very close to you already.

Good luck with this !
Dan F

 

Interim update. Determined by myself and two shops that the damage was most certainly beyond sanding/polish. Definitely needed a respray. One shop recommended repaint of the entire door, the other just the damaged section and immediate surrounding area followed by clear coat of the entire door. I opted for #2.

Took them one day to do the work. Color matching was great, but.......immediately noticed several 'fisheyes' in the paint from airborne particles settling into the paint/clear coat. Was told these could be easily color sanded out. I had to bring my car back to get the protective clear bra strip placed along the door edge, so I opted to take the car home and bring it back for the sanding.

Brought the car back today. After multiple attempts at removing the imperfections, I could clearly still see them. Instead of waiting an hour for the work, I had to leave the car the entire day. They attempted to correct it one more time before deciding the paint would be in jeopardy. Still didn't do the trick. So, they resprayed the door a second time.....Came back before they had a chance to sand and polish the fresh paint but now new fisheyes have appeared.

They are 'confident' this time that these will come out without a third respray. Frankly, I don't know. These imperfections look the same as the last ones, just in different locations.

My question is are these little particle 'fisheyes' that difficult to prevent? Granted I have a black car where you can see EVERYTHING, but 2 resprays and the same result? Is this unavoidable or is this blatant technical error? I appreciate the fact that these guys are willing to do everything to make this perfect before I pay a cent, but there may have to be a time when I have to put on the brakes and stop wasting my time going back and forth to the shop.

What do you all think is reasonable here?

 

Fisheyes can be prevented and especially when painting in a paint booth. But with Improper prep, ventilation and climate control they can appear. Most of the time can be sanded out. If you see them again on the 3rd respray then i would go somewhere else.

 

Bonehead --

Wow, l am sorry to hear this happened to you.

I am not sure how stuff falling onto the paint especially on a vertical panel like a door, could cause a fisheye, as much as something on the surface itself, that was not cleaned off properly before painting.
When I painted and even way before that, we thoroughly cleaned the surface many times, and especially just before the actual paint process, I would wipe the surface down one more time, tack it down with a tackcloth, make sure that everything I was using was not leaking any air, etc., that could possibly blow on the surface while I was painting it, other than the gun itself.
It is possible that their water filter in the air line is not working anymore and something got into the air supply and is blowing on the paint.
Usually anything with oil, even the the oils from your fingertips can cause fisheyes on newly painted surfaces really fast.
I am surprised they thought they could sand them off because if they are coming from the bottom of the paint layers, the primer, etc., then they would have to go that far down to remove the oils/etc., or they will never go away.

Chances are, if this was just a door respray/partial respray, they didnt use the booth anyway, so who knows what got on the door, but something was on there and didnt get cleaned off or got sprayed on there and it normally is oil from say a DA sander that is leaking out and being used close by, or something like that. All airtools need airtool oil to function and not lock up, so there has to be a way to clean and check them all the time, so you dont accidently spray oil all over your work, and then cant get it off easily or dont even know its there and didnt do a really good wipedown of the panel.
Good luck with this - hope you can get it all resolved.
Dan F