Paint and Body Maintenance & Repair

dmaljunk

shops will buy parts from either the dealer (original) or aftermarket. That's usually part of their profit because they charge you a little extra on that part and never show you their own invoice. They always get a discounted price and if they are descent and don't make profit on the part then it's better when they order it. Just get two separate quotes with parts and without. Getting original parts from the dealer is better too because they are guaranteed to fit. Painting - yes, shops match the original factory color, any shop but a pro can always tell the diference. Tinting can be done in a separate place, it makes no difference, whatever is cheaper and/or better quality.

fintail

I have a question about detailing. I have an old Mercedes as a sunny day cruiser car. The finish is ancient non-clearcoat, and is starting to get a little dull. I would usually wax it yearly, although I skipped last year. About 10 years ago I used some chemical to strip the old wax off it, and started fresh. I forget what it was called.

Anyway, I would like to do some finish restoration on the car. I have had problems in the past where waxes would not apply evenly, leaving the paint kind of blotchy. Also, with almost every product I have used, rain would spot the wax, forcing me to put a new coat on (the car hasn't been in the rain in about 5 years because of this). What would anyone here suggest to use to alleviate some of these problems? I am open to stripping off the existing wax and putting something new on it, but it seems from my experiences that modern products made for modern clearcoat paint seem to get blotchy on this old car. Does anyone here use specific products on old cars?

Here's a pic of the old beast...although it looks quite good at some angles, the finish can look flat and uneven at others

I have and have owned a couple more modern MB, and I have used Meguiars cleaner and regular wax on these cars, with excellent results. Of course, these cars have had more modern paint.

kcuhc

DOES ANYONE HAVE SAME PROBLEM ON THEIR S10

traumadoc

My wife's 2006 Volvo XC90 was hit by a stone right where the windshield meets the leading edge of the roof. The windshield needs replacing and there is a 1/2 inch dent in the leading edge of the roof panel. We have widely differing estimates (about $1000) for the repair. The cheaper one (recommended by our insurance company) says he can pull the dent out and repaint only the front section of the roof, blending it in. The more expensive repair (a shop that we have had good result from before) includes removing the headliner and repainting the entire roof. 2 questions: 1. Should dent be pulled out, or hammered from inside? 2. Will painting only a section of the panel work? We want this to look good since it is a new car.

lgjava

that's easy traumadoc!

Just get her windshield repaired, get out your trusty digital, take some pics, and put them on the owner's forum! And then, like me, you'll drive up to stop lights and people will wave at you! It's true.

Last month this woman drove up to me in a white Highlander and rolled down her passenger window. She yelled, "that's the car!" I leaned over and yelled back, "what are you talking about?" She said, "that's the car!" So, I'm thinking to myself, "this
woman's been pedaling too much on her exercise bike!"

So anyway she finally blurts out, "that's the car on the internet!" All I could mumble out was, "oh, thankyou." While all the time her eyeballs are glued to my car.

Well thinking about it maybe you should get the whole fix. There's a very thin line between famous/infamous!

in any case good luck when you flip the coin, traumadoc.

Mr_Shiftright

no, you can't "blend" modern paints successfully. The paint has to wrap around an edge or go under a molding or trim piece.

You definitely do NOT want to screw up the roof paint on a new car like this. Way too risky. Please gently flay your insurance adjuster with a rubber chicken for that suggestion.

chevy14

Hi i just wanted to know i have a 199 chevy cavailer z 24 and i wanted to know i am in nj and i want ed to paint my whole car metallic blue do you know how much that would coast me
thank you
Kim

Mr_Shiftright

all depends on the quality of the paintjob you want. it could be $1,500, it could be $7,500.

dmaljunk

Hi,

I got all types of various dings, scratches, dents, chips on my car. Whenever paint is chipped or it is a deep scratch then I pretty much plan to use touch-up paint and then clean it up with something like langka but what do I do with very light scratches? I got some from other people openning their doors and hitting my car leaving a light scratch on the paint. Very often these are white or grey but they don't look like deep scratches. My vehicle color is metalic. How do I fix this type of scratches? Thanks

cbur0806

I see a silver Cadillac CTS with an excellent price and low millage. I like the cream white color. Should I purchase the car and have the car painted that color? Will changing the color bring down the value of the car if I try to trade it in the future?

qbrozen

yes, a repaint brings down the value.

rcnotes

I have a 98 black honda accord where the clear coat is peeling in different areas, I have seen other black accords with this same problem and was wondering does anyone have information on this or maybe a recall

bigfur

Most cases itd be cheaper to buy a car in the color you like. a complete repaint done right will be alot of money.

bigfur

Shifty i hate to say your totally wrong cuz your not, but you are kinda wrong. A good painter can blend color and clear to the point it is VERY hard to see the blend. Most vehical manufactures recommend ending at the end of a panel. Most insurance companies want it done cheap. And blending is still widely used all over as far as i know, atleast in every body shop i worked in including a few dealerships.

hawaii101

I have a 2003 dark blue Honda Element and noticed tiny pits all over the exterior paint. I tried a medium deoxidizer to no avail. Any suggestions?

Mr_Shiftright

Oh you can DO it and it can LOOK good but it won't last was my opinion....like you said, you have to go to the end of a panel. The paint has to wrap.

bottgers

....I just thought I'd pass along my recent experience. Do you ever get sick and tired of spending all the time it takes to dry your vehicle by wiping it down after washing it? I use my electric leaf blower to dry my vehicle and works great! I'll wash a section, then blow it dry. Then I'll wash the next section, then blow dry all washed sections. The leaf blower has so much pressure it completely dries large sections in literally seconds. It works so well, you can wash the vehicle in direct sunlight without any adverse effects and best of all, no water spots! I'll never go back to drying my vehicles with towels and/or chamos'!

bigfur

And it will also blow every lil speck or dirt into your paint...sounds like a great idea to me.

bottgers

...the dirt off before you dry? I do.

bigfur

usually yes...but i was more refering to dust and dirt in the air around your car.

joecarnut

Hi.
We were looking at 07 camrys and I usually don't believe what sales people tell me. But I really don't know much about paint.
But he made the claim that the new camrys paint doesn't oxidize.
Is this true?
Also I've heard and read that the new paints are somehow water based and can chip easier.

Thanks for any info.
Ken

bottgers

...the leaf blower method only works well when the vehicle has a good coat of wax and is beading water well.

tomziegler

I bought an Acura 2006 3 months ago. The exterior color is black.

The problem is that I had some bird droppings on the hood of the car. I washed it like a day or two later and I got this haze of the bird dropping that looks like it is under the clear coat. I tried bug/tar remover. I tried a scratchy sponge (bad idea), polishing compound. I can still see a faint outline of the bug droppings now I have scratches.

I tried scratch remover and I can still see scratchs...very frustrating.

I purchased Zaino Z5 for the scratches...but haven't used it yet.

Does anyone have any ideas to get the faint (looks cloudy remains) of the bird dropping stain and to remove the scratches?

Thank you so much. I am very frustrated!

smokey75

Depends on if it's actually into the clearcoat but clay bars do amazing things.

lmacmil

I've got 2 or 3 stone chips on the hood of my black Camry that are through to the basecoat (and thus very obvious because the basecoat is white). Is there an easy and inexpensive way to repair these myself without making the fix look worse than the flaw?

hawaii101

Has anyone had any experience with warrantee claims on factory paint jobs? I have a 2003 Honda Element that has orange peel on most of the exterior paint. I took it to the dealership today and the sales manager immediately went on the offensive telling me that they all look like because that's how they paint them. After the look on my face told him I wasn't buying that one he told me it was overspray. I informed him I had tried everything including a clay bar and that the problem in definately in the paint not on the paint he started talking about industrial fall out and how he is not an expert, blah blah blah. He told me that he would not start a claim for me and I would have to wait to talk to a representative from Honda. Can anyone give me any advise to prepare for talking to this representative? Shouldn't the factory paint be covered under the bumper to bumper warrantee? Any help would be much appreciated.

doxon

What does the warranty say about the paint? Today I washed bird droppings off of my 2006 Toyota Avalon and now there is an orange peel ripple where the droppings were. Shouldn't the warranty cover something that the paint should hold up too?

tallman1

Bird droppings can be very hard on paint. You really can't wait very long before you get them off. I wash them off as soon as I see them.

bigfur

ACTUALLY...orange peel from the factory is quite common and normal. Only way to get rid of it is to strip all the paint off and repaint it. This is NOT a good idea though. The factory metal is better rust proofed and preped for paint at the factory. After working in body shops as long as i have it is totally normal.

sheilahoff

We just bought a 2003 VW Jetta TDI (using biodiesel). It's silver which we hate. We love bright yellow cars for their visability and have $5K to burn on a good quality paint job. I've already located a few shops that come highly recommended and viewed their work. We're planning on adding a clear 3-M sports bra a few weeks after the paint has cured to help protect from rock chips.

Here are my questions:
* will yellow over silver be OK?
* will the yellow fade a lot over time (how much time)?
* can anyone recommend a yellow that is very bright but pure yellow (not pale lemony), but wih no orangey tone? (don't want to look like a schoolbus or taxi)
* If you're in the Seattle area, anyone you'd recommend?
* anything I should know before moving ahead?

Thanks,
Sheila

hawaii101

Thanks for the reply bigfur. Will the problem get worse? I'm worried that the sun here in Hawaii will destroy the paint. I wax it regularly. Is there anything else I can do?

qbrozen

Fly Yellow.

Its the yellow you usually see on sportscars. If you want something a little more modern and easy to pin down (since the factory paint code should be easy to obtain), check out the yellow Nissan uses for the 350Z.

For $5k, you should not have any problems with the paint job. It probably still won't be as durable as the factory paint, but should last you at least 5 years, I would think. Ask the shops you are comparing questions like how many coats of clear, how many coats of paint, how many of primer, etc. Maybe they don't do primer when just repainting a car, I'm not sure. But the other questions certainly apply.

Good luck. I hope you got a great deal on the car since you are investing $5k in repaint right off the bat.

edit: oops. i just went to nissan's website, and it seems they did away with the yellow this year. so check out Porsche's website. They call theirs Speed Yellow.

Mr_Shiftright

What are they going to do about the engine compartment? How will they paint in there?

Personally, I don't think this is a good idea...you're going to hurt the value of the car and every chip is going to show up. Also I don't know how this could be done really well for only $5,000.

Pardon my skepticism but generally to repaint a car with a color change that will really look good over time, you need to strip it down to bare metal, pull the engine, and remove all chrome, trim, glass and interior.

jbates99

Hi,

I have a clean 99 Pathfinder SE Ltd.

It looks really sharp except for the scratches on both bumpers. The dealers paint shop wants $300 to repaint each bumber - ouch!

I'm just wondering what products I may be able to use that will at least disguise the blemishes for awhile. Again, these are the glossy plastic-covered bumpers.

Thanks for any ideas. John

qbrozen

oh, well now you are just being picky when you want it done properly.

For $5k, you could get a decent job, but that does NOT include the door jambs, trunk, engine compartment, etc. But it does not sound to me like this person cares.

Mr_Shiftright

Well my concern is that they care enough to believe the job will come out looking like factory paint, and I am not trying to discourage them entirely, but just to think this out a bit more, and ask more questions. What are you getting exactly for $5K in terms of a) what's being painted and b) how the car is being prepped for paint.

bigfur

Nope not to worry...there is still a clear coat over the paint to protect it.

jbates99

Hi,

I have a clean 99 Pathfinder SE Ltd.

It looks really sharp except for the scratches on both bumpers. The dealers paint shop wants $300 to repaint each bumber - ouch!

I'm just wondering what products I may be able to use that will at least disguise the blemishes for awhile. These are the glossy plastic-covered bumpers.

Thanks for any ideas. John

kgirl33

Hi!

I have a 2004 Toyota 4Runner and unfortunately this morning hit a parking garage wall getting into work this morning. I now yellow paint covering a good portion of my rear passenger door. It looks like it would come off pretty easy, but I know nothing about cars. What is the best way to approach getting this paint off myself?

Any thoughts/ideas would be great!

Thanks

sheilahoff

Thank you both for your responses. This is such an oddly setup forum. I subscribed and got notified of other non-related answers but hadn't been notified of your relevant ones!

The place we've picked will be taking everything off and doing door jams, etc. They will NOT be doing inside the engine compartment (except around the edges. I'm OK with that. I know dings will be more visible. We keep it in a garage and are going to get the 3M clear bra to help protect it. They don't sand down to the bare metal but they do sand it to prep it. I know it won't be as good as a factory job. It isn't so much taht we got a great deal on the car. We sold our house for a large profit and we were going to buy a new car. We decided to buy this used one so we could paint it the color we wanted. We still come out ahead of having bought a new one.

I think we've picked the yellow: Chevy's Cobalt SS RALLY Yellow. It's bright and pure. We almost went with the Ferrari yellow but it has just a tiny bit of orange in it I think.

Thanks for your input. We're getting it done for $4100 including tax and will pay additional for high end detailing to get the inside cleaned out well.

Sheila

aallred

If the paint is in good shape I would have the spot repairs done. There are guy's that do this and you can find them by checking with your local car lots or paint stores. Ask about car lot repair painters. Before you have the car repaired have it buffed not waxed.

I've been in auto paint for 20 + years

aallred

The first thing you should do is find out what paint is going to be used. Get spacfict not just Dupont or PPG ect. We all make high end paint and low end paint. A good way to protect your self is get the name of the brand of the paint and numbers for the primer,paint (color),clear coat then go to GM 4901 and see if the products are listed there. The primer and clear is the most important. I would also have the seal the car in white before thie apply the yellow color. If the yellow is put over a dark color or gray primer the yellow will not be as bright.

I work for the largest paint company in the world and have 20+ years in paint.

aallred

All new cars have orange peel except high $ cars like Vipers, BMW (high end) you get the idea. I've been in the paint world for most of my life (50) I would look at cars like your's and compare the peal if it's close your out of luck. As a painter one of the things we have to do is match the orange peal when we spot repair a car. I would say your chance of getting something done is about 2%. I have never seen a new car painted for orange peal.

Good luck

fear_hope

I had intitially taken my brand new 2006 Poitiac Vibe to the dealer, for a small area of the liftgate to be polished, due to minor paint damage that was present when I took delivery of the car. After the dealer's detail shop removed some of the clear coat (ruining the factory paint) from a 2"x4" area while polishing the liftgate, they said it would have to be sent to the body shop to be painted! I was very concerned about color match and de-valueing of my auto and told the advisor so. I was assured that the paint would match, job would be done right etc, etc.

Well when picked up my car I was shocked, disgusted and angry when I examined the paint job. It was horribly sloppy and unprofessional. First the new paint was visibly darker than the original paint on the vehicle. Then there was a small spot of damage on the driver's side of the liftgate that looked like the paint was touched with something before it dried. There was pooled and dripped paint at the bottom of the door, caked-cracked paint above the liftgate handle (that was not even removed before painting the door!), pooled and dripped paint on the bottom of both sides of the liftgate handle, some yellowish clear paint on the passenger side top edge of the liftgate, and dust particles all in the paint! And they left the handle on the door and painted around it?! This was by far the worst paint job I have ever witnessed on any vehicle I have ever owned! Now my brand new $21,000 vehicle had been de-valued and is visibly flawed due to a sub-standard $200 paint repair. I was very upset!

So I contacted the body shop owner (dealer is
in partnership with an independent shop) the dealer's service manager, the dealer's body shop manager, and a representative at Pontiac. The body shop owner called me and was very upset also, said he had not inspected my car himself. He personally guaranteed me that they would pick it up and make it perfect. He sounded sincere and I took his word.

My car was returned to me 5 days later. On first examination it looked great. The drips and pooling was gone, the paint was smooth, etc. I was pretty busy right then, but over the next few days I looked at it again and noticed that the color is off. It is noticeably darker and is more bluish than the original paint.

I have emailed the owner and expect to hear from him on Monday. I know that blending is no longer done with most auto paints, and understand that the paint has to wrap. (Even if this had been blended I'm sure this area would be noticeable though.) However, since blending is not done doesn't the paint have to match virtually perfectly? What is required for a shop to do that? Since this shop uses a computer to match paint, why would the color be off? I know they spent $ redoing it and will resist, and I'm not so sure painting it again is a good idea anyway. But I am NOT enjoying my new car with it this way, and I am concerned about its value. Can someone who knows a lot about paint jobs offer me some insight? What should/can be done to correct it? Also isn't it the dealers responsibility to restore my car to its original condition since they caused the damage that required the painting anyway?

Thanks in advance!

solaraman2003

Hello,

I have a 2003 Toyota Solara and the lease is up in 2 months. I have over-maintained the vehicle and so it is probably in my best interests to purchase it. On the other hand, I'm itching a little to buy a brand spanking new one !

As a compromise, I was thinking that maybe I should just paint it a different color, and then it might feel like a new vehicle (again).

The color now is Lunar Mist, which is a gray or silver color. I would like to know:

a) What colors are best (if any) colors to choose from that go over my present color?

b) Any estimate as to what it might cost?

Thanks,

Mr_Shiftright

I would think $5,000--$8,000 for a really professional paint job to look good on a new-ish car. You'd want to remove all the trim and glass of course, and probably pull the engine out.

fear_hope

When I went outside today I noticed hairline scratches back and forth on both outside mirrors (the glass). It looks like whoever detailed it, after it was painted, hand dried the mirrors while they still had fine grit on them! I'm so sick of all the trouble. I hope that I can stay far away from the dealer for a long time after all of this is settled!

clyde1983

Hi, does anyone know how much i should be paying to repaint the side of a 2005 civic lx-g 4 door?

Here is why I ask, as in my previous post:

Hi, I'm a new user and this is my first post. I hope this is in the right place and that you can help, or direct me to help.

About 9 or 10 months ago someone keyed my brand new 2005 silver 4 door honda civic. It was on the driver side of the car, and the scratch was from front to back crossing all panels.

Thinking that this would be a cheap repair, because it was just a scratch I took it to the dealership, and was shocked after there estimate of $1800. (I'm in canada by the way, so thats canadian dollars). They told me that it was a deep scratch, could not be touched up and that all panels needed to be sanded down and re painted.

Because I was expecting a $50 repair that turned out to be $1800 I was very turned off and said to myself it's not worth it.

But, I decided to look around, I went to body shop A, and got the same thing - deep scratch, sand and repaint the entire driver side of the car. ($1800 quote from these guys)

Turned off again, I decided to live with the scratch, as the technician at body shop A also suggested. he said that the scratch didn't affect the performance in anyway and it doesn't make sense to pay so much to repair it.

Fast forward to present. I went to another shop, Body Shop B. Got the same quote, roughly $2000. But the technician at Body Shop B scared me, telling me that the scratched has exposed the metal and it would begin to rust, which it has.

So I decided that if I'm paying for insurance, why not utilize it and deal with the increase in premium after making a claim. After talking to insurance they told me that as it's the first claim, it wouldn't affect my premium.

Question 1:
Seeing as how this is 9 or 10 months after the scratch occurred, will insurance give me a hard time and ask why I waited so long to make a claim?

There was another shop, Body Shop C, I went there to get one more estimate, and to my astonishment, he would repair the scratch and repaint the side of the car for $400 flat.

It turns out that Shop C was right next to Shop A so I returned to shop a, some 9 months later, for another quote and unlike last time when they quoted $1800 there quote was now $850.

My Predicament

I'm confused as hell and don't know what to do!

The shop quoting me $400 said that it is less than the dealership because the dealer ship charges $100 per hour labour, but that the quality of work is the same. He looked at my paint code, said he would get the exact paint. He said he would sand down the scratches, lightly sand the area's around it and then repaint and coat it. He said i could drop it off in the morning and pick it up in the evening, and would give me 1 year written warranty against it chipping and that sort of thing.

He said I could go through insurance and that he would get more money but my premium would go up. When I told him that they told me it would not go up he said that they said that same thing to a "guy" he knew and then when it was time to renew it went up and was on his record. Do you know if that sort of thing is common or does it sound like a lie to you?

I'm so confused because I don't know where to go and think that this much variance $400 - $850 - $1800 - $2000 is very suspicious.

Also body shop C ($400) said it could be done in a day, and bodyshop A ($850) said it would be at least two days.
Does this difference in time and price give me a clue as to the difference in quality and work these shops are planning to put into my repair or is body shop A over charging me?

Perhaps you can help, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Clyde

PS. Do you know what is a ball park figure to repaint the side of a 05 4 door civic?

The guy that quoted me $400 said that my paint was of medium quality, which he said after looking at my paint code. my paintcode on my car began with the letter "n"
He said if it begain with "a" it's low quality paint, and if it began with "r" it's the best quality paint, and that mine was "n" in the middle.

Thanks again

qbrozen

since its rusting, then, yes, metal is exposed and its a problem.

$400 is ridiculously cheap to repaint the whole side of a car. Just repainting a bumper costs that much. I don't trust the $400 quote.

It may not effect your insurance ... yet. The problem is when you get into accident #2 a year from now or get a speeding ticket. Its at that time your "one claim" comes back to haunt you.

What is your deductible? $500?

Since you've lived with the scratch this long, maybe you would not have a problem with a shoddy job. So you may want to consider the cheap fix and pay for it yourself.

fear_hope

The last 2 posts were not replies to my message! Can someone knowledgable please respond. I will likely talk to the body shop owner, and the dealer body shop manager tomorrow and would appreciate some advise and support.

THANKS SO MUCH IN ADVANCE!