I just got my car back from the body shop, and I can't say that I'm very pleased with the results. I had the whole car re-sprayed while it was in for some minor front-end collision repair, and the paint now looks "wavy" all over. The original factory paint only looked that way in a couple of places, where I had had Dent Wizard remove some dings.

The body shop claims it's due to "urethane wobble," and that "it's a gift from God when it comes out looking that good." Having had other cars repaired for collision damage in the past with paints similar to Sikkens, I don't buy that.

The "waviness" in the paint is not orange peel, at least not in the surface, because that was "cut" flat. And they were supposed to have sanded the entire car and sealed it prior to re-spraying it. Is there anything that the original body shop, or, perhaps, a better shop, could do to eliminate this "waviness" in the paint and salvage the paint job?

 

you're going to have to take a picture, are you talking about drips?

 

I'll try to see if I can capture what I mean on pictures, once the weather improves.

No, there aren't any paint drips, and I only noticed a couple of lint flaws on the whole car. Basically, the paint doesn't reflect evenly, as if the surface were wavy, but there's no orange peel, at least on the surface of the clear coat.

 

Here's a pic of the so-called "urethane wobble":



While the surface of the clear coat seems fairly flat and even, when you sight down the car, the reflections are distorted, as if the coats below were rippled.

 

could be from not keeping the da flat and using the edge to sand and not feathering it out.......i have painted a lot of cars that came out like that.......the clears that are out now lay out so slick that is minimizes orange peel and gives that wavy look.....also it could be the air pressure was up to high......i would take it back to them and have the wet sand and buff the car........if you go back and complain they should if there a good job they will fix the problem and if it comes down to it they might have to reclear the car........hope that helps you some but i would take it back to them and demand that they fix it

 

heres my beater, i have no idea what that is but on the otherside the door had that because it was repainted but i got a new one

 

make sure they layed down a decent amount of clear coat, and take it to another shop and have them color sand and polish/buff it

 

looks like it just needs to be cut and buffed.. that will help it out alot..
seems like they just layed down alot of texture... your doors are not urethane why would they say that?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tHE oNE &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">looks like it just needs to be cut and buffed.. that will help it out alot..
seems like they just layed down alot of texture... your doors are not urethane why would they say that?</TD></TR></TABLE>


urethane paint

 

Before the respray, the reflection was distorted only in one or two spots on the doors, where Dent Wizard had removed some dings; the rest of the car reflected evenly. I decided to go with a respray mainly because the factory paint was fairly rough on top from tree sap, etc., due to neglect by the original owner, and so that the paint would look even all over after the collision repair. Now the car just looks like it had dings all over from how badly it distorts reflections everywhere.

 

The waviness looks like improper sanding imo

 

If it is improper sanding, does that mean that the only way to fix it is to start over? When I first tried to look into the so-called "urethane wobble" online, the only real reason for wavy paint that I could find was improper surface preparation, but since that certainly did not sound salvageable, I was hoping that the problem might lie in the clear coat.

 

That is because the body work was not done properly. Here is my car, just painted on sunday. 3 coats of filler primer, glass blocked and wetsanded the whole car on the last coat. Came out looking perfect. Here is a before and after pic.

 

that last pic is a mad good paint job!.....I always wondered why the paint looks wavy like in the first pic....my old car had that when i got it repainted.....anyone else got any suggestions for this guy (I know how you feel bro...my car was stolen so now i dont have to worry about it anymore)

 

I did find out from the body shop that after sanding the car and repairing the low areas and high spots, they then sealed it, but did not block sand the sealant, supposedly so that the basecoat would better adhere to it. After the sealant had dried, they then applied the basecoat and let it dry. They finally applied the clearcoat, but did not sand in between any of the coats.

They offered to wet sand and buff the whole car in a couple weeks, once the paint has cured, and to respray it, if I'm still not satisfied at that point. But since the end result is likely to be the same, they also offered the option of simply refunding me the money at that point.

 

sounds like a good deal to me

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by legendboy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">That is because the body work was not done properly. Here is my car, just painted on sunday. 3 coats of filler primer, glass blocked and wetsanded the whole car on the last coat. Came out looking perfect. Here is a before and after pic.
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Glass blocked? Can you please explain this because i've never heard of this term. I would like to know the process of glass blocking.
I'm repainting my car thats why I want to know. thanks.


As for the waves in the paint, its not uncommon to see this on repaints. I believe that it's cause by sanding with the soft sanding pads. I always see this when I was a student in autobody. I've heard of hotrodding guys using balsa wood to block sand their finishes for the glasslike smoothness.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by legendboy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">That is because the body work was not done properly. Here is my car, just painted on sunday. 3 coats of filler primer, glass blocked and wetsanded the whole car on the last coat. Came out looking perfect. Here is a before and after pic.


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damn that turned out nicely!

 

While I was at the body shop, they showed me some orange rubber sanding block that they use. Is this somewhat soft sanding block what causes waves in the paint, or is it something else that they would have used in sanding?

If I do end up having to have the car re-sprayed, is there a checklist of things that any body shop would need to do to at each stage in the process to ensure a proper finish? I'd like to know, so I can make sure that they get done the next time around.

 

The soft orange sanding block is A O K to use

 

a glass block is kind of a bodymans secret. Its a normal block with a peice of plexyglass glued to the bottom. Something like 800 paper goes on top and you sand the flat areas of the primer with that. I did all the bodywork on my car too by the way

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by legendboy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">a glass block is kind of a bodymans secret. Its a normal block with a peice of plexyglass glued to the bottom. Something like 800 paper goes on top and you sand the flat areas of the primer with that. I did all the bodywork on my car too by the way </TD></TR></TABLE>

oh yeah that's right. I remember hearing about that on paintucation.com

I've also heard of using balsa wood to get your panels smooth and flat.


My experience: most body/paint shops use soft-hard foam sanding pads to sand a car's finish to prep it for painting. The softer one's in my opinion are the ones that creates the waves.

Salvaging your paint finish is possible in my opinion, well atleast you can make it better than it is right now. I wouldn't attempt this if the car has already been cut and buffed, and leave it to a pro to do this:

Wetsand your panels with 1200 grit using one of the "secret blocks(glass or balsa)" but be careful not to over sand. once you get the panels as flat as you can, finish it over with 1500-2000 grit paper.

Then buff and polish.