Sanding Before Painting question

[Rusty]

Last monday I dropped my car off at the shop to get painted. I paid $2200 in cash to have the entire car painted pretty much the stock color except adding a little extra flake. They were not going to paint the door jams but they said they would fix the visible blemishes on the body which were like 3 dents, 5 scratches and some spots on my hood where rocks had hit them. They were also going to painting over my fiberglass body kit with some bumpy areas.

So i pick the car up today and i notice that yet my dents are pulled out but slightly mis shappen you cant see it but you can feel it. The scratches and spots are just painted over, the bumpers are still very bumpy and there are two spots where i can see the original color showing through.... WTF

My main question is.... is it standard procedure to sand the clear coat or something before reshooting an entire car. And if someone with experince could explain the basic steps in prepping/ shooting a car i would greatly appreciate it.

I'm bringing the car back today after 1 to talk to the manager. I want to make sure I have an idea of what I'm talking about. Its bad enough i'm going to cry (its okay i'm a girl) becuase this paint job has cost me so much.

[quickangel93]

sheeesh. ill paint you that car better for half of the price.

usually you sand down with 400-600 to get the clear off. then get a dent remover to get the dents out. then for the scratches, sand down with 320 and use filler. once filler dries. sand down with 220, then 400. and spray with primer.

[Rusty]

Thanks for the quick response.

I should also mention that the car is a 2002 sentra so its not like the clear was peeling or anything like that. So would a profession shop still sand it down And would they use primer between coats because where i can see it coming through there doesn't seem to be any.

Also I did do some searching and sanding does seem to be the way all the DIY people do it but I wasn't sure if the same applied for professional shops.

[bruno8747]

Thanks for the quick response.

I should also mention that the car is a 2002 sentra so its not like the clear was peeling or anything like that. So would a profession shop still sand it down And would they use primer between coats because where i can see it coming through there doesn't seem to be any.

Also I did do some searching and sanding does seem to be the way all the DIY people do it but I wasn't sure if the same applied for professional shops.

They have to sand down the old clear, Its best to hit the old paint and then respray with primer. They should have primered over the old paint atleast, If you can see old paint then thats their fault.

[NAiL05]

sheeesh. ill paint you that car better for half of the price.

usually you sand down with 400-600 to get the clear off. then get a dent remover to get the dents out. then for the scratches, sand down with 320 and use filler. once filler dries. sand down with 220, then 400. and spray with primer.

I wouldnt trust you after saying you need bondo for paint to stick...Anyway what people do is they wet sand down the clear and the buff it (I would try this first and see if it helps.) IF you want to repaint you have to sand the clear off (dont sand off too much or your SOL)...Yes its a bitch we had to do it for body class. But if you just want to reclear it scuffing it up will do as I recall (correct me on this body people). Anyway if you want to reapply filler you have to sand to the bare metal...or it wont stick which basically = new paint job unless you have some of the remaining paint that you use left over. I hate matching its a bitch.

[Rusty]

Do realize I'm not doing a thing.... I paid $2200 not to have to worry about it. lol.


But i do thank every one for the input. The only thing i'm worried about now is going there and them being like "well when we filled out this work order we didn't say anything about sand, primer, shoot, clear coat and wet sand." To me, maybe because i'm a noob to this stuff i assumed that it was all included in fixing blemishes and repainting. plus the guy who wet sanded it sanded my tail lights.

I also called my insurance adjuster/neighbor who recommended the place because to put a little word out there that i was very upset. So hopefully that goes a long way.

Any other tips on how to handle the situation... what do i do if he's like yeah thats what you paid for. Bitching will only get me so far.

Edit: the scratches i had on there before weren't that deep.... just past the clear... I figured that if they had just sanded them and not even filled they wouldn't been as deep. Painted over they look just as deep if not deeper.

[quickangel93]

I wouldnt trust you after saying you need bondo for paint to stick...Anyway what people do is they wet sand down the clear and the buff it (I would try this first and see if it helps.) IF you want to repaint you have to sand the clear off (dont sand off too much or your SOL)...Yes its a bitch we had to do it for body class. But if you just want to reclear it scuffing it up will do as I recall (correct me on this body people). Anyway if you want to reapply filler you have to sand to the bare metal...or it wont stick which basically = new paint job unless you have some of the remaining paint that you use left over. I hate matching its a bitch.

where did i say you need bondo to stick?

[Rusty]

Thanks everyone who helped. I went to the place today and they are going to fix some of the major issues like the place where the original color is coming through, where the paint has since chipped since painted and where they didn't spray on the interior of the mirrors.

So i'm happy in a way but I'm still really pissed off because They tricked me in a way. When I went to make my appointment 3 weeks ago i talked to the manager and i discussed everything i wanted fixed. He said okay and I'm sure i'll see things you don't see and we'll go from there. We're not going to fix everylittle thing just the major things. We then wrote up the work order and he put on it "fix some dents." I read it quickly and took it to mean fix some of the blemishes. That is very much my fault and for that I will look over the scratches that weren't fixed.

Today while i was there to go over the other issues the manager says well we can't fix dents and blemishes on fiberglass. That was never mentioned when I first made the appointment. When he said he would fix dents i figured it would cover the fiberglass bumpers and side skirts as well. Then he says "well if i had seen this i would have fixed this" referring to some of the other blemishes. That pissed me off in a way.... if he would have fixed it then why wasn't it fixed. Granted the manager didn't paint my car his help should know enough to fix it.

Any way the car goes back sat to fix some of the major issues and then i'm going to be writing a letter to the owner explaining my concerns on how i feel i was mislead during the sales process.

Here are some pics of the damage. some are hard to see and i know they are small but for the price they should be fixed.


This is a white smudge he insists can be buffed out.


Here are the scratches I showed him and assumed would be taken care of.


Here is the spot where the original color is showing through. suposedly that happened because when he was sanding he burnt the paint. not sure how true that is.


This is one of the bumps/dents on the fiberglass that I thought were going to be covered under the phrase "fix some dents"

There were a few other pics but i didn't feel like uploading them these are some of the major issues that are getting fixed (except for the scratches)

[Gemini]

I hate bodyshops....I have chosen bad ones in the past and the good ones want to keep my car for 2-3 weeks an charge me close to 3 geez for a good job. It sucks that it only cost approximately $240 - $300 for enough bc/cc to paint and entire car. So they basically charged you $1900 for labor and still didnt even fixed the little dents As soon as I find somewhere to paint my car i'm gonna do it myself , more than positive it will come out better than any of my previous paint jobs.

[Rusty]

Thats the way to go.... I wish I had the time and space to paint it my self. Or even the experience to do the prep work myself. I really am/was a noob when it comes to painting.