Body Shop Blend Help

T

thomasd04

New member
Hello,



My car was backed into a few months ago so I just went through the whole, insurance/body shop routine. The passenger door was completely caved in and was replaced. Part of the repair process is to blend the fender and back door to match the new paint. Well they left me with nice swirl marks on both sides. I have a 02 Grand Prix with black blue metallic paint. I have a PC and was wondering what the best options for removing the swirls would be. I have the Menzerna twins and Yellow and White pads, but I am wondering if that is going to be strong enough for these marks.



My main questions are:

Does anyone have experience with doing this type of work after having body work done?

Should I look into getting a wool pad and stronger compound/polish?



Thanks for any advice.
 
I'm dealing with this right now as well. I started with Mequiar's #80, but that was barely touching the scratches, which came from a rotary with a wool pad at the body shop. I progressed to some polishes I picked up in a swap awhile back. Unfortunately they're not labeled other than a number to indicate their abrasiveness (they were thrown in as extras, but I kinda suspect they might be Poorboys). I started with the one marked 3 with a light cutting pad (Mequiar's 7000) and moved progressively stronger until I was using the 5-6. That took out all but a few of the worse scratches that I'll deal with later. I finished by going back to the 3, then topped with #80 on a polishing pad (Mequiar's 9000). Not perfect, but it'll do for now. I'm a complete noob with the PC so I'm not trying to accomplish everything on my first round. Not the quickest route, I'm sure, but it's rewarding to see results. I should mention that to keep track of my results I laid masking tape down the middle of the trunk lid and just worked on half to get me started. My time was limited so I quit there. When I go back I'll re-evalutate whether I want to do any more on that part, then work on the rest of the newly painted section. Once I'm satisfied with the work I'll maintain it with Mequiar's #5 New Car Glaze and their #34 detailer or my 425 (I finally got FK to confirm it's new paint safe).



I didn't expect to have to get this aggressive on new paint, so definitely try to milder route first, like #80 or even less.
 
Compare this to velobard's post. Different situation respond to different approaches. My case was Spies-Hecker paint, which is pretty hard even when it's a repaint. It had cured for about two months so it was pretty hard, had I done it sooner I would've used the same stuff but maybe without a cutting pad and for fewer passes (I'd guess).



I had this on the S8 from where they blended into the driver's door after the deer incident. Just for an experiment, I decided to fix it without using the rotary (well, I fixed *that one spot* before getting out the rotary ;) ).



4" pads made by Cyclo, used on the PC. First a cutting pad with 3M PI-III RC (05933) about three passes. Then a polishing pad with 05933 for a few more passes (inspecting after every one). Got it down to very light micromarring with that combo, then did two passes with the polishing pad and 3M PI-III MG 05937. Finished with Menxerna FP using a 6.5" polishing pad (either a LC or a Meg's 8006, I forget). I did more after that, but at that point most people would've been very happy with it.



The 05933 removed everything the shop did and left very light micromarring, the 05937 got rid of that.



When the paint's really fresh you can sometimes get by using the 05933 by hand, which sorta surprised me (did this on a few spots that I just couldn't live with and wetsanded w/3K shortly after the painting).
 
Gotta have a very in-depth conversation with paint/body shops before they do the work. Let 'em know what you expect, what you *don't* want happening. I go through the whole, very long, speach every time and the shop I use has heard it all before. But they'd rather we all be clear as opposed to my getting all teed off so they listen and we discuss everything they're gonna do from start to finish.
 
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