Plastic Preperation Steps

Plastic Preperation Steps

Plastic parts are among the most common of paint failures in the industry. Due to the manucturering proces & combined with the surface tension of plastic, adhesion can be difficult in many instances. Here are some tips to getting your paint to stick:

Clean, Clean & Clean Some More

Plastic depends highly on chemical adhesion which also depends on you sucessfully removing the contaminants that remain on the plastic. Mold release agents are the most stubborn. Clean your plastics with soap & water & a good plastic cleaner.

Sanding Pastes

A good sanding paste will also help you acheive a new level of cleanliness. Use them in conjuction with a grey scuff pad. I've heard of some using comet or ajax powdered cleaner in place of them. I wouldn't advise it, but never using it I don't know exactly what I'm missing.

Remove bad primers

Run adhesion & solvent test on your plastics that come pre-primed, Don't just sand and paint! When you paint over garbage, your paint becomes garbage too!

Check your manufacturers directions

Any reputable paint manufacturer will provide clear instructions for painting plastic parts, follow them! They are key steps in achieving the results you are after.

Establishing good practices for plastic refinishing will prevent common failures such as peeling & excessive stone chipping.

Blending Tips & Techniques

Blending Tips & Techniques

With today's colors, blending is proving to be a more challenging job for painters. Color blending is a necessary part of the repair to ensure an undetectable match between panels on your customers vehicle. The only time I consider skipping this step acceptable is on bumpers that have a poor color match to begin with. If your painting a front cover and the back is already dark to the quarter, it can be acceptable to use a slightly darker tint on the front and not blend the fenders. It can depend on the job and what you think is best for your customer.

Give yourself enough room to make the blend

Always know your limits & your colors. If you don't think you have enough room to make the blend, go into the next panel, it will cost you twice as much when you have to redo the job.

Use an orientation coat

an orientation coat will fill in the smallsand scratches and give your base a flatter surface to be blended on. This can make your job much easier. Their are a few different options you can use for your orientation coat. An overreduced clearcoat works well,simply catalyze your clear & reduce it around 9:1. Another option is a transparent tint, usually just a mixing clear in your existing paint system. Some company's offer it as a seperate product only meant for being applied as an orientation coat, any one of these ways will work great.

Another great method for difficult colors is to lay down your orientation coat again before your final blend coat. Apply your blend coat while it is still flashing, this makes your basecoat land without dryspray which can help eliminate a halo.

Don't Crank the Pressure

Ok, this isn't always true, their are some situations where you can bump the pressure to make your blend easier...sometimes chasing away a silver halo this can help. For the most part, the reason I would avoid this is because more often then not you end up having the rest of your panel covered in a fine overspray. You will hear it when you run the tack cloth over it and it will appear as dirt when you apply your clear. If you want your base to go on dryer I'd advise increasing your gun distance.

Injection Method

This is pretty simple, just make your base more transparent on your blending coats. You can add some clear basecoat (binder) from your paint line to make it easier to blend out. You should try not to exceed a ratio of 1:1 & remember to reduce your binder accordingly. Avoid over-reducing your paint for transparency as it can lead to problems.

Reverse Blend

This technique is now for everybody but it is very effective when utilzed correctly. What you will do is spray your first coat as your blend, fan it out as you normally would. Bring each subsequent coat inside a little bit more until you've acheived hiding. The theory behind it is that your never painting over the previous coat's overspray, each coat lands on a perfectly smooth surface.

Drop Coat

Lowering your air pressure for your final coat is another way to combat difficult colors. The basic idea again is that your paint lands wet and you don't end up with a dry edge that reflects the metallics differently causing a visable blend. With polyester based paints you can drop your pressure even lower and get a really good drop coat on, just keep in mind the drop coat will darken your color, certain silvers and golds this isn't the best idea.

These are a few simple strategies used to make blending easier, other ideas that are sometimes overlooked is color match and equiptment settings. Always make sure your using recommended spray equiptment and ensure that the color your spraying is going to be a blendable match before you try it on your vehicle. Spray out cards only take a few minutes and can sometimes save a few hours!

Different Types of Paint

Different Paint Types

Singlestage - in this paint the color pigment is added to the urethane clearcoat and applied in one step. Singlestage paints do not provide as much protection from the suns UV light which can breakdown the paint pigments. Having clearcoat only on the top provides better protection and holdout. This is a common choice for fleet vehicles and economical jobs. Singlestages can come in both metallic and solid colors, however solid colors are a much more common choice as using a metallic singlestage can limit repair options such as polishibility.

Base / Clear - this the the most common choice of paint used in the industry today. It is a two step process where the bascoat is applied to the surface & followed by a urethane clearcoat on top of it. This how most vehicles are painted from the factory as well as being refinished. These can be solid colors or contain metallics & pearls.

Three Stage/Tri-coat - This process is similar to base/clear. This is only used with pearlescent colors. A solid basecoat is painted on first, then followed by a coat of a pearlescent. This gives the effect that the pearls are sitting on top of the color. It is followed by a clearcoat for shine and protection. This is used sometimes from the factory.

Candies - This is a unique paint jobs that pretty well only exists in custom painting. It is accomplished by spraying a metallic color first, then followed by a transparent solid color. The effect is the metallics reflect through the solid color on top and produce a high sparkle effect.

Metallics vs Pearls

Metallics - these are flakes of aluminum that reflect light. They will compliment the color they are added to and provide a sparkle appearance. They come in different shapes and sizes that will alter the way they appear.

Pearls - these are flakes from the mica mineral. Modern mica's are actually synthetic and not mined but still produce the same effect. They are also coated with another mineral that will give the mica a color. The mica flakes are able to provide a seperate color of the paint, the color depends on the mineral they are coated with. Mica flakes allow light to pass through them and a visible color is produced.

Waterborne vs Solvent

The only difference between the two is the delivery method. The pigment is transfered to the surface using either of the two. They each present different strenghts and weakness's for the refinisher but their is not much difference in the quality they produce. Their are a few waterborne clearcoats available, however it is mostly basecoat that utilizes water technology. Solvent paint lines utilizes various petroleum based products for paint delivery.

Basic Paint Technology

Automotive paint technology has made significant advancements over the years, more or less you could basically class the products into 2 categorized, Thermoset & Thermoplastics.

Thermosets - These are the products that cure irreversibly. They require a catalyst which causes a chemical reaction creating a cross linked product. This would typcially include your clearcoats,primers,sealers,panelbond,bumper repair materials & even plastic bumpers themselves.

Thermoplastics - These are products that remain soluble after drying. They are usually 1 component (no hardener) and do not cross link. They can be broken down by whatever solvent they are being reduced with. This would include your basecoats, 1 component primers/paints, 1 part repair materials (ie.. window urethane/seam sealers).

What is Crosslinking?

Crosslinking is a chemical reaction that causes a group of polymers (sythetic or naturaly existing materials) to bond together with a linkage. Crosslinking produces one large molecule of your paint film, it makes it very strong and durable. The linkage depends on the resin (ie epoxy, urethane, polyester) & each linkage has its advantages and disadvantages. Here's a look at a few different types of resins:

Epoxy - Epoxy forms the strongest bond because of the unique crosslinking network produced. Epoxy provides superior adhesion and corrosion resistance. The biggests advantage epoxy offers is its strength and durability, drying times are generally slower. Epoxy resins are also broken down easily by UV rays which does not make epoxy coatings ideal for topcoats.

Urethane - Urethanes are produced by the reaction of disocynates and di-alchols. They produce a strong cross linked urethane chain. Urethane has a great deal of flexibility in the types of products it can be created for. It is know for its quick dryinig times. Uses include primers, clearcoats, basecoats, structual adhesives, bumper repair adhesives.

Polyester - Polyester forms a strong bond utilizing the ester linkage and can be further reinforced with fibers to improve it. Polyester has the highest tendancy to shrink but is low in cost compared to the other resins. Uses include bodyfillers,fiberglass, primers & some basecoats.

Factory vs Refinishing Procedures

For the most part the same resins are use just in a different way. Epoxy can be applied through the electro-deposition rather then spraying. Urethane products are usually sprayed and then heat activated. The products are provided with the hardener in it and are designed not to activate until they reach a certain temperature, usually around 200 degrees. There is little difference in the durability between these types of applications. Factory paint is baked only for the purpose of activating the urethane clearcoat and producing more vehicles.

Basic Dent Repair Steps

Preparing for filler

• The first thing you want to do is start with a clean surface, soap/water & wax remover before you begin.
• Bring the metal back to shape as best as you can with the least amount of damage possible to the metal. If you can access the backside of the panel push the dent out and use a hammer and dolly to straighten out the metal. If you cannot access it you can use a uni spotter to weld on pegs to the metal that you can use with a slide hammer to pull out the dent.
• Once you have your metal as straight as possible, remove the paint down to the metal. Use a grinder or coarse sandpaper on a sanding machine.

Applying your filler

• Mix you bodyfiller according to the data sheet of the product your using. Typically you will need to add 2-3% creme hardener to your bodyfill before its ready to be applied. Mix using downward pressure to squeeze out any possible air pockets that can lead to pinholes.
• Using a spreader, apply your filler to the metal you exposed in the preparation. It is better to gradually apply your filler rather then to blob it all on at once.
• Your filler has a period of time around 7-10 minutes after applying where it isn't fully dry but not too wet. On larger dents you can take advantage of this by shaping your filler using either a cheese grater or some 40 grit sandpaper on a block. When using a block the 40 grit will cause your filler just to flake off and not actually gauge the filler with the scratch. If your 40 grit causes sandscratches then you've waited to long and you should not continue doing this.
• Block sand your filler with some 80-120 grit until the edges have leveled out
• If you filler is not straight at this point, reapply and repeat this process.

Apply a Finishing Putty

• These are the same as a regular bodyfiller but are thinner and designed to sand easier. Mix and apply the same way as your bodyfiller.
• You can catch this filler in a semi-dry stage too, but at this point you should only use 80 to quickly smooth out the area.
• Once dry, switch to a 120 and sand until your filler is almost perfect. At that point you can switch to 180 and sand until perfectly straight.
• Inspect your filler for pinholes and other imperfections. If you find anything you should repeat this process or reapply a very tight skim to the affected area.

You can also apply an epoxy primer to the metal at the beginning for maximum corrosion protection. This is a debatable topic, the bodyfiller manufactures don't advise it but the paint manufacturers do.

After this is complete you can begin your preparation steps

Painter Excuses

Painters Excuse's

here's a collection of some excuses many have heard (or used) in the bodyshop.

I thought the molding would cover it

The rep told me to do it that way

It won't look so bad outside

It was painted before

It's just a blend panel

It probably had overspray before it came in

It's as good as the bodywork

The scale needs calibrating

It's too cold in here

It's too hot in here

Their not stonechips, their fisheyes

And the number one excuse:

It looked good.......until I cleared it!

The Value of a Good Cleanup

The Value of a Good Cleanup

It's amazing how many times we have customers pick up their vehicles after a collision repair and the first thing they notice is how shiny & clean the car is. Often they don't even look at the repair!

One of the best things you can do for your business is take an extra bit of time on each vehicle and make sure they leave looking flawless! Who knows, 5 minutes spent polishing out a scratch may lead to a $5000 referral.

Make sure your shop is stocked with products that can make a good cleanup effortless. A quick acid wash on some wheels can make the worst looking wheels look like brand new. A quick run over some headlights can make a huge difference.Here's an example of what less then 5 minutes can do:

Before Polishing	After Polishing

(I know they're different sides, I wasn't thinking right today! but you get the idea)

Interior cleanups will blow some people away. Customers are constantly amazed that we’ve taken the time to wipe down every piece of trim and vacuumed out the entire vehicle, even on a simple bumper job. The impressions this leaves with them generates a ton of referral work, never overlook the value of a good cleanup!

And one last thing, Always clean off overspray!!! Even if you claim it was on it before it came in. It’s your’s now!

Why not to spray your car with an Aerosol

A very popular choice among the unknowing amateur painter is pondering the option of picking up some spray paint from there local hardware / jobber store to give there ride a custom look. I don't want to discourage people from choosing an economical job suited to the budget, but you should be aware of what level of quality to expect. This is directed at the 1k cans for the most part, the 2 part cans can deliver descent results but it is more work as the can will not atomize the paint as well as a gun.

With modern basecoat / clear coat finishes the basecoat is applied first and topped with a high quality 2 component clear coat that provides shine, but more importantly protection for the basecoat. Do not let yourself think for a second that the stuff they call clear coat sitting on the shelf at your local jobber compares to proper clear coat in any way, shape or form. Why do you ask?

It does not cross link for starters! cross linking allows the clear coat to react with an isocynate that causes the clear coat to bond together forming one big molecule. This creates the durability of the clear, resistance to stone chipping...etc. Cross linking also gives the clear coat the ability to resist it's original solvent making it chemically resistant. Non cross linked clears will re-dissolve in the thinner that was used for its delivery.

Second, the UV protection is next to nothing! This will cause your basecoat to fade quickly and break down, not to mention the shine you will get from this clear coat does not compare to good urethane gloss.

So we've covered the clear, what about the rest eh?

The primers share a similar tale as the clear coats. They don't cross link and don't offer the same level of durability. They are also more prone to wrinkling/lifting during the paint stages. As for the basecoat, you can get comparable basecoats but without the primer & clear you will not turn out a good job. The basecoats will be more difficult to blend & control compared to using a gun.

So now that you know to avoid the rattle can, what can you do?

Pick up a gun, read, watch some video's and learn the proper procedure. There is economically priced products out that compare with the high end products. Look for cross-linking 2k primers & clear coats. Companies such as southern polyurethanes cater to the hobbiest and offers great products at affordable prices. You can turn out a descent job that is meant to last!

One more thing..........stay away from the rattle cans!!!

Basic Cross linking Explained

Cross Linking is used in many different parts of the auto body process. From the bumpers being manufacturer to the clear being applied, cross linking exists in some form or another to provide superior durability.

Cross linking in a basic sense is mixing A + B together to make a finished chain A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B....repeating to make one great big molecule. These products fall into what is know as thermosetting plastic materials. By mixing A & B together you end up with a completely different product with independent characteristics.

Bumpers are a great example of a cross linked product. Think of your typical plastic, you can heat it, melt it like a wax & shape it to your hearts content. With a thermosetting plastic there is another substance added to the plastic which creates a new product. The new product no longer has the same properties, you can no longer melt & shape it. Tires are the same way which is what makes these types of plastics difficult to recycle. Tires can be shredded to create something new, but never broken down to recreate a tire.

In the case on epoxies, it takes the cross link a step further. It produces more contact points for your cross links. So you could think of it as you mix A + B and end up with :

ABABABABAB

\ /
BABABABABA

/ \

ABABABABAB

This is a very, very simple explanation of it but that's the concept in it's simplest form. The unique cross link produced by an epoxy gives it the strength and performance making it a top shelf product.

Compressorless Aerosol Spray Job

Compressor-less all aerosol repair job review.

Before I say anything about my findings in the all aerosol repair I have to make something clear. This is not the “best” way to do a repair, but I feel it could be the “bestest” for some people. Buying a compressor and using a real spray gun is going to be easier, faster, and cheaper in a long run if you are restoring a car. However, I found these new generation REAL 2K products in an aerosol can to provide remarkable performance and very close to spraying with a gun.

If you wanted to “dabble” in auto paint and get your feet wet, if you have a small project it could be the answer. Even if you are having a shop paint your car but you are prepping it, you could get it ready with some spot repairs or even a whole panel using these real 2K primers and have a quality job when done.

These are a BIG difference from 1K junk “rattle cans” boys and girls, these are REAL automotive paint products in these cans.

I started the project with a 08 Honda fender that was being thrown away (your local body shop should have piles of fenders like this that they would be happy to give you!). I repaired a dented area in the front just as I would any other repair. The filler was left in 180 grit as was the feathering of the OEM Honda paint. As you may know, I like to abuse products in my tests to see how far I can push them. In this case I took a brand new piece of 40 grit paper and sanded a portion of the filler to see how the primer would fill it.

Here are the products used: Rubber-seal RS-586 non iso 2K primer aerosol , S-W waterborne AWX basecoat and a “Pre-val” to spray it, and Rubber-seal RS-588 Urethane 2K clearcoat aerosol.

Rubber-seal link http://www.rubber-seal.com/catview.asp?catid=79
Sherwin Williams Waterborne link http://www.sherwin-automotive.com/ProductHighlights/PaintSystems/~/media/Files/AWX/8%20page.ashx

Pre-val link http://autobodystore.net/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=P2



One thing I don’t like about the aerosols is that you are limited to that little mystery amount in the can. I don’t know what is in them but I know that in a regular aerosol can there is barely four to six ounces of product as I remember. That isn’t much, and again, in the grand scheme of things these aerosols are a looser at about $20 a pop. But again, they aren’t for a guy to leave his gun and compressor collect dust. It is way more convenient to use a gun, you have so much more control. That is one thing that really bugs me about the aerosol. But then again, if you have a particular project that is worth twenty bucks to you to get primed, so what if you throw away a half empty can?

When I primed up this fender I wanted to see just how far this can would go. I primed the fender and then went out and sprayed a small Toyota Corolla hood. I was barely able to get two coats on about half of it, along with my four or so coats on the fenders filler work. I figure I probably could have gotten the whole hood “primed” with the can. One problem, it was very thin, no more than a mil and a half or so. I was going so fast to try to cover the whole thing it was just too thin. But that kinda gives you an idea of what you can cover. On the fender, you can get as much as any other primer in build, I filled those 40 grit scratches without a problem and blocked the primer just as I would any other 2K urethane or iso free filler primer.



By the way, the fan on the can is about 5 inches.



The fender was prepared just as any other blend in the shop would be prepared. It was washed with wax and grease remover, primer blocked with 180 then 240 then 320 and then finished off with 600. The rest of the OEM Honda paint was sanded with 800 on an orbital sander with a foam interface pad. http://www.newfound.com/images/InterfaceSanderPad-376f.jpg These pads fit between the sanding pad where you normally put stick your paper and your paper. It gives the pad and paper a “cush” so it goes over the shapes of the fender better without cutting thru on edges.
After this the fender was washed again and blown and tacked like any other repair.

The next part is where I again, pushed the envelope and grabbed the waterborne basecoat. I could have done this in solvent borne regular old base coat. But being we are all going to be using waterborne I figured I would give that a go with this “preval” sprayer. The whole idea of this was to see what the average home hobbiest could do with this stuff right? I figure if I can shoot waterborne with this system it would demystify the water borne a little for the home hobbiest.

The only thing I did different with the water borne over solvent borne was to use a “Rapid air” drier to blow air on the paint after spraying.



The problem with water borne is that the solvents don’t like to flash off, and nothing messes up paint work more than trapped solvents. This stuff will take forever to “dry” if you don’t help it. Blowing air over the surface does next to nothing because of the low pressure area on the surface. Like a bug can sit on your hood as you drive down the road, the solvent in the paint just sits there when you blow air over it. This “Rapid air” device makes the air “tumble” for lack of a better term over the surface “pulling” out the solvents in the paint film. Anyway, with it the waterborne base flashes off very fast, worked like a charm.
We are spraying water borne at the shop, but I am not. I am not painting these days so the water borne was experience was brand spanking new to me.
So, here I am spraying my first coat of paint and it looks like CRAP. Oh my God, that PreVal was working like CRAP with that water borne. It just couldn’t handle the thick water borne paint very well at all. I have seen these things work well, I know they do, but with this water borne it wasn’t working at all. It’s vent hole would get clogged up and after a short spray it would stop all together. So I had to hold the bottle containing the paint with my left hand and the sprayer in my right with the pick up hose going down into the paint! You can imagine how difficult this was to spray this fender two handed, but it would work. The first coat looked horrible, like I had sprayed over wax or something. It looked absolutely horrible. I have since learned that it sort of looks like this out of a gun as well on the first coat. Well, the Preval doesn’t have a nice fan like a gun, and with the thick water borne sort of “falling” out of the sprayer onto the panel, it REALLY looked bad. I was so disappointed that I forgot to take photos, I figured the whole project was a waste of time at that point. But I just kept on going figuring that I had learned something, that waterborne was hopeless and I would go on to testing the 2k clear and hope that turns out better.

I did my best blending the color out and went on to clear it with the Rubberseal 2K aerosol clear. Again, I had a hard time. It sprayed on nice, but I put it on a little heavy being I was trying to apply it as wet as you would with a gun. The fan is quite a bit narrower so to keep it wet I was pounding it on. I did get a couple of sags but overall it looked pretty much like any other urethane clear coat.

The big mistake was going for a third coat, being you have no idea how much you have left in the can I ran out after a few passes and left the fender looking horrible with a large dry spot thru the middle. Of course if I sprayed the stuff a few times I would get the hang of it and I feel it could look much better than it did with a little practice.

“Out of the gun-done”. or should I say “out of the can-ran”




I have to tell you, I was blown away at how good the thing looked! The clear, it looked like crap as I said, but the blend, holy cow it was absolutely, without a doubt, invisible! The Preval sprayed sort of like a “drop coat” where you drop pressure in your gun to distribute metallic. The blend as FLAWLESS, not one bit of mottling, nothing, it was absolutely invisible!

Way out at the rear of the fender there are some strange dark spots of color but even those take a close examination to see them. But in the blend area over the wheel well it is perfect. I was amazed at how good it looked after how bad it looked before I applied the clear.

The next morning I couldn’t wait to get out there and do a lacquer thinner on a rag rub test. It passed with flying colors! This my friends is REAL 2K urethane clear in an aerosol can!

At the end of the day after I shot it I sanded it with 1500 then 2000 and buffed it just as I would any urethane clear. It performed exactly as a urethane clear would and buffed to a beautiful shine with a pass of the buffer. I sanded out the sags, some dirt, and it performed flawlessly. I mil checked it and found 2.5-3 mils of clear on it!

After buffing.



Right at the blend.





I am telling you, these 2K epoxy, filler primer and clears can provide you with a heck of a tool for painting small items.

Get a hold of Rubberseal thru their web site to find a dealer near you. There are many other brands available check with your favorite paint and body supply store to see what they have available.

Here are the other reviews I did on the epoxy primer (amazing stuff) and the filler primer.
http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/solvent-resistant-real-2k-epoxy-aerosol-can-143345.html

http://autobodystore.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11006

Hope this info can help you take some chances and get out there and play a little. Remember, you must use a proper respirator and have good ventilation using these products. Protect you AND your family in the house if you are shooting in the garage.

Have fun!

By Brian Martin

Chevy Malibu Rust Repair

Chevy Malibu Quarter Rust Repair

This is a documention I put together of a Chevrolet Malibu rust repair. It is a very common spot for them to rot out, right below the fuel door. More often then not it's at the point where new metal needs to be welded in because of a hole in it. This job luckly did not require that, it was well taken care of. There is a little bit of rust bubbling out that needs to be handled before it grows into a hole.

Here's the Car:

After we remove the fuel door and plastic sheild we can see a bit more of the damage:

So before I get carried away with the outside I had a quick look on the inside and seen the extent of the rust:

It isn't too bad, so the game plan is to take care it this first. I'll remove it with a die grinder with a 3M stripping disc attatched like so:

So the the rust is removed as best as possible. I removed the wheel but still didn't have enough clearence to get my sandblaster in there.

so what I'l do next is apply some POR-15 metal ready. If it were clean metal I'd have chosen just straight epoxy, but since I know I didn't get 100% into the pitting I've decided to use this chemical:

you can see by the dust on it I don't use this product that often. (we don't do much rust at our shop). next I'm going to apply some epoxy, then after some drying time I followed it with some gravel guard. Watch the sequence:

Alright so now that the inside is take care of we'll move on to the outside. Using the Stripping Wheel again I'll remove the rust from the surface and it will look something like this:

As you can see there is still some rust, most remaining in the pits where the wheel can't access. So I'll use the sandblaster to remove the rest of the rust:

It will look like this when done:

Too see the rest of the repair click here

How Polishing a Scratch Out Works

How Polishing A Scratch Out Works

One of my favorite sayings "it will just buff out....right?". It's often spoken in prayer form as the customer knows if it doesn't the price has likely tripled. So to know if it will buff you need to know how deep it is. Generally if your fingernail can catch it, it will not buff out.

To remove a scratch 100% the scratch must not penetrate all the way through the clearcoat. Here is an example of a scratch that is removable:

Since the scratch does not go all the way through the clearcoat it is possible to level out that area and polish it to a shine. The whole area would be sanded with some fine paper until you are left with this:

Now, it's great to know that your scratch is gone, but now your missing a good portion of your clear. If too much is removed then you run the risk of paint failures such as fading and chipping. So having said that, it's not always the best route if the scratch is fairly deep anyhow. A great idea for deep scratches is to touch it up with some catalized 2K clearcoat prior to sanding. If the scratch is through the clear it will not provide a 100% fix but it can defenitely take some of the eye sore away. Here is an example of a non-polishable scratch:

Since the scratch has altered the basecoat it can no longer be removed 100%. On some colors you can get a pretty good partial fix by first touching up the scratch like this:

Then sanding and polishing as normal. Depending on the color it can yeild different results. Solid colors you can typically get looking near perfect while some metallics can leave something to the imagination. The scratches depth plays a part in what results you can get with a partial fix but can be a great alternative for keeping the costs low and ideal on a used car touchup.

Removing Swirl Marks

You see it all the time, that brand new car pulled off the lot reflecting holograms back at you. These swirl marks are the result of poor polishing efforts and create an eye sore for anyone looking at it on a sunny day.

So whats the cause of them?

I already told you, Poor polishing efforts! The unfortunate thing about the art of polishing is that so many bodyshops, dealerships & even detailers don't know the proper procedure. Often what happens is they try to create short cuts by skipping steps or creating there own system that they are unaware of the results.

Usually the car looks great to them inside there bay & even when its pulled into the shade out front of the building. Sometimes it will even look good in the sun for a few day's,weeks or months before seeing them. This is because the polisher has used a wax to temporarily hide them, once the wax wears off the swirl marks re-appear.

The solution!

You could wax it every few weeks or you can remove the swirl marks themselves from the paint. To do this you will need a polisher and a fine compound, usually called a swirl mark remover. You will also need a fine pad that is designed for light compounds. Go over the area with the polisher and compound at a medium speed. 3M has come out with a product called ultra-fina that is very effect on dark finishes, you can follow up the swirl mark remover with the ultra-fina for top notch results.

I am not sure what so many shops skip these steps, it may be because few people complain but that doesn't mean there happy with the job.

Collision Repair

Collision Repair

Collision repair in today's world is becoming more & more reliant on the technology advancements and the collision repair technicians ability to restore a vehicle to pre-accident shape. With the loose guidelines in allowing any uneducated technician to repair your vehicle there is a greater need for customers to properly interview there choice of shop prior to allowing any repairs on your vehicle.

A properly trained collision repair professional should definitely have a technician holding a current collision repair license. Next, they should have technicians continually attending collision repair training. Courses by training centers through I-car are usually a reassuring thought.

A modern collision repair technician needs to be aware of the changes in technology of the years. Different safety systems, specific metal classes and precise specifications are among the things needed to return your vehicle to original. Some independent studies have shown that more then 75% of collision repair technicians do not know the difference in various metal classifications. Certain high strength steel parts should not be repair or should not be repaired with heat, this is a very common error in collision repair. When certain high strength metals are heated they loose a great portion of there structural strength, resulting in the inability to take another collision the way the manufacturer intended.

Structural errors are always the biggest concern in collision repair, but cosmetic problems can also lead to corrosion (rust) which can weaken structural parts also. A good painting and refinishing system needs to be in place to give a structurally sound vehicle the durability necessary to withstand the test of time.

Inquiring about a measurement system can also help you get a feel for a shop. If they say they don't have one or seem to know little about what you are asking, the odds are they don't bring your vehicle back to specifications. Certain metal parts once damaged should always be replaces such as doors if the intrusion bar (heavy bar in the middle of your door) has been contacted, the entire door should be replaced and not just skinned. Re-enforcement bars behind your bumper should be replaced and never repaired. Pretty well any structural metal part should always be replaced! The non-structural parts would basically just be the sheet metal that constructs your outer body, most other parts are structural.

The manufacturers provide repair procedures in the event of a collision, it is imperative that your repair shop follows the procedures 100%. Do not assume your vehicle is going to be repaired the way it should be, the business is money and many shops will do whats best for them. Do a bit of homework and make sure your using a trustworthy shop.

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