Advice for paint repairs

[devinlamothe]

So as some of you know I am dealing with some rust from sloppy repair after a collision (in both cases from the same dealership body shop).

Any ways, they are in very inconspicuous locations on the quarter panels where it meets the bumper covers.

My plan is to sand the edges down, prime, paint and then clear-coat and polish.

Can anyone who has done this before give me some advice?

I will post some pics up later with a couple of the spots I am talking about.

[devinlamothe]

Pics:

http://i.imgur.com/ZxqA9l.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/t6Zuxl.jpg

[Betrivent]

NOTE THIS IS NOT A WARRANTY'ABLE REPAIR AT ANY BODY SHOP, BUT IT IS A METHOD TO ACHIEVE WHAT YOU REQUIRE. Also, follow the picture for instructions, I made some changes that are different than what I have written below

You'd have to reclear the entire quarterpanel for a good repair. Or, if you can stomach it, sand the rust down to steel (180 grit) , and the repair area back (but not to steel, just scuff the clearcoat, with maybe 400-600) about 6-7 inches - then etch primer it (JUST where the rust was). After that, paint over it. Now, at the very edge of where you scuff sanded, take some high grit like 800 and sand it back further another 2-4 inches. THEN clear but not to the edge of where you used 800, just to the edge of where you used 400-600. (You still want some of that clearcoat to the scuffed and not cleared over, I'll explain why ahead) After everything hardens, take some 2000 grit wet sand paper and sand over both the new clear (just the outter edge of it) and the still dull clear, AND some clear beyond that. Then take some polish, and bring it ALL back up to gloss.

EDIT: I drew you a picture. It better explains what I mean:

http://i.imgur.com/DERQK.jpg

[devinlamothe]

Sweet thats perfect.

I'm not looking for a body shop job, just enough to make it look better plus stop the rust from spreading.

After I do this I'm going to shave the plastic bumper cover down a bit in that area to prevent it from rubbing in the future.

[Betrivent]

It doesn't rub, actually. My bumper cover is rubbing up against the quarter because of previous damage I repaired, but the bumper cover doesn't ever move, unless touched.

And again, this method I suggested is what some shops do "unofficially" on some non insurance claims. It isn't warranty'able because it goes against manufacturer recommendations for paint, but it SHOULD work by all means.

[Betrivent]

Lol, I just realised I wrote "clearboat"

[devinlamothe]

It doesn't rub, actually. My bumper cover is rubbing up against the quarter because of previous damage I repaired, but the bumper cover doesn't ever move, unless touched.

And again, this method I suggested is what some shops do "unofficially" on some non insurance claims. It isn't warranty'able because it goes against manufacturer recommendations for paint, but it SHOULD work by all means.

I get'cha. I know the body shop wanted to paint the whole panel (ya right, $$$$) and then blend in the rest of the paint.

I know they do this because it's considered a "metallic" paint and they don't really blend well, but I'm not looking to be super pro here, just enough to rid the surface rust and touch up the bare metal.

This is happening on the front as well, but it's my fault as when I take off the bumper to change light bulbs, etc, I must scratch the metal when clipping the bumper cover back in place. :tongue:

[Betrivent]

The reason for doing the whole panel is for, again, warranty reasons. A small spot repair like this isn't guaranteed to be good forever in the same way a super small patch over a hole in your jeans that JUST fits, isn't as good as a patch that is a little bigger than the hole, is.

So by extending the repair to the edges of thequarterpanel, the new clearcoat has more surface area in which it is one solid piece, and thus has a lot better adhesion to itself. Whereas a small spot repair like this may not adhere completely to the old finish, hence why they would have preferred to do the whole thing - and also why I said, as a disclaimer, that it is not a guarantee job :)

[devinlamothe]

The reason for doing the whole panel is for, again, warranty reasons. A small spot repair like this isn't guaranteed to be good forever in the same way a super small patch over a hole in your jeans that JUST fits, isn't as good as a patch that is a little bigger than the hole, is.

So by extending the repair to the edges of thequarterpanel, the new clearcoat has more surface area in which it is one solid piece, and thus has a lot better adhesion to itself. Whereas a small spot repair like this may not adhere completely to the old finish, hence why they would have preferred to do the whole thing - and also why I said, as a disclaimer, that it is not a guarantee job :)

True that.

I actually just got a quote from my preferred body shop to strip, repaint etc both my rocker panels (rust forming underneath) for $850. Not bad considering that is both sides and underneath with rock guard, primer and paint.

I will do the quarter panel spots myself. I've sealed them from air for now until I get my paint.

The guy at the body shop said he will show me how to do it in person so hopefully my lesson will help me out, haha.

[Hamster]

It doesn't rub, actually. My bumper cover is rubbing up against the quarter because of previous damage I repaired, but the bumper cover doesn't ever move, unless touched.

And again, this method I suggested is what some shops do "unofficially" on some non insurance claims. It isn't warranty'able because it goes against manufacturer recommendations for paint, but it SHOULD work by all means.

I wish I knew this two years ago. I took my car to a body shop to fix a scratch, who this type of spot painting hack job. The greedy a-hole never told me that it's not a recommended fix, and for an ideal fix, the whole panel needs to be re-clearcoated. It came out horrible....The orange peel/appearance of the clearcoat looked really off, and the blending job on my metorite metallic looked bad. And I think it was done outside, because there was an amazing amount of dust mixed in with the paint. And mind you, at the time, my car was just over a year old, and had about 5,000 on the odometer. I simply didn't know what I know now, in that you cannot spot-paint a panel. You need to refinish the whole thing. I later found out that the scratch would have been covered under my comprehensive insurance. I think the jerk owner of the body shop wanted to make a quick buck without having to deal with any insurance companies. So he lied to me and was probably hoping I'd be too dumb to notice the problem. I wound up having to shell out almost $800 out of my own pocket at a different body shop to fix the crap. I've since learned a lot about what is covered by insurance, and to be extremely careful when choosing a body shop. So, to the OP, as Betrivent pointed out, be very careful about using the method described above, even if you're doing it yourself. The result may not come out as quite as you expect.