Wet sanding to remove scratches.....
I was recently quoted $800 for a full paint correction by one of the top 10 detailers in the country as voted by a leading car enthusiast publication. He gave me a break on the price because true paint correction takes HOURS of work and systematically removes a mm or 2 of clear coat to remove scratches. I am now content with adding wax to keep the micro scratches filled and obscure the scratches on my obsidian color...to avoid swirls ans scratches takes meticulous work and quite honestly I have learned to live with it..my car looks fine to me now. I look at new cars on the showroom floor that are fkd up because of the goons in the detail shop going ham with the buffer or sheeety techniques. Those cars never had a chance..you probably have to request the dealer not "prep for delivery" so you can take it to a real professional to get it looking great.
I have seen one or two cars in my day with zero swirls or scratches..they were both owned by retired custom car owners who have all day to meticulous wash their cars correctly. My next car will be white..never really noticed swirls on my pearl white Acura.. black looks awesome but it requires a lot to keep it looking great even for the casual observer
I have seen one or two cars in my day with zero swirls or scratches..they were both owned by retired custom car owners who have all day to meticulous wash their cars correctly. My next car will be white..never really noticed swirls on my pearl white Acura.. black looks awesome but it requires a lot to keep it looking great even for the casual observer
but yes, i have always told my customers. for daily driven cars that you drive through different conditions, rain or shine, day in day out? forget about perfections. it's not worth it. there is the say, it takes 90% of the time to finish the last 10% of the work, this would be one of them. removing majority of the swirls is "easy", but to get to absolute mirror finish? it takes a lot of time and iterations on each panel. on a large car like the ls460, not fun.
this is on top of the fact that lexus paint is very soft, which means swirls and scratches form extremely easily. you drive the car 1-2 days and that's it already.
i have done full details on my ls460l once before, which was also obsidian. it took me 4 days, 5 hours each day.
Lead Lap
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 4,785
Likes: 154
From: The South
Yes..you are correct..which is exactly why I don't do paint correction lol...this detailer showed me the paint depth guage he uses and his work is amazing..he did a black ls460l and it was 22 hour paint correction job! It looked like as if it was fresh out the factory paint booth...wonder how it looks now
Lexus Fanatic
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 22,608
Likes: 105
From: Waiting for next track day
I too would recommend just paying the $300-400 and having it done the right way by a pro. I have a detailer who asked me for $300 just to do the exterior of the car but he said he does 5 coats in 7 hours. Itys worth it. I ended up doing the work myself but in the end these pros are good and they know what they are doing. If the car is is bad shape leave it to the pros
Driver
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 113
Likes: 2
From: Fl
I plan on doing my car piece by piece in the future and I'll be using 2000 or maybe 3000 but I know what I'm doing , you have to know how too block it and how to use a high speed buffer and the right compound if you don't than your better off paying a professional thats truly a professional, to many guys out there claim to know what there doing and really don't .
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 14
Likes: 0
From: Ontario
The previous owner of my car was not so gentle with how often he used the top surfaces of the car as a shelf for boxes and everything. I went to a few body shops to have them look at how to address and one recommended wet sanding the entire car with 3000 grit paper which the guy said most of them (there are a few deeper ones) would disappear.
The price would only be $65 to do this, but I've never heard of wet sanding an entire vehicle to remove surface scratches (granted they're all over).
Have any of you done this? I'm eager to have the car looking 100%, but this idea caught me a bit off guard (though he seemed totally comfortable with it and acted like it was commonly done).
Please either talk me into or out of this.....
The price would only be $65 to do this, but I've never heard of wet sanding an entire vehicle to remove surface scratches (granted they're all over).
Have any of you done this? I'm eager to have the car looking 100%, but this idea caught me a bit off guard (though he seemed totally comfortable with it and acted like it was commonly done).
Please either talk me into or out of this.....
http://www.peachstatedetail.com/
Intermediate
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 251
Likes: 18
From: Florida
Just to chime in here and add another voice to the crowd!
As someone else said... run quickly in the opposite direction both from the buy and from the dealer that recommended the guy. 65 bucks wouldn't even pay for the proper materials needed to do a correct wet sand/buff job on a car even half the size of yours. Dealers in my experience know **** about true show quality paint. (Yes there are exceptions..I look forward to your angry letters).
Your best bet is to go with a detailer that knows what he's doing and will buff out most of the scratches using much more gentle methods than sandpaper, even though if you've ever used 3K grit, it almost feels like you're rubbing a sheet of loose leaf paper on the paint. But you're not... you're removing essential layes of what is already very thin and soft clear coat.
If you really want a show car shine, you have to get a show car paint job which would require adding some more clear to the whole car and then sanding the thicker coat down to a mirror finish. It looks amazing, but won't last log on a daily driver.
As someone else said... run quickly in the opposite direction both from the buy and from the dealer that recommended the guy. 65 bucks wouldn't even pay for the proper materials needed to do a correct wet sand/buff job on a car even half the size of yours. Dealers in my experience know **** about true show quality paint. (Yes there are exceptions..I look forward to your angry letters).
Your best bet is to go with a detailer that knows what he's doing and will buff out most of the scratches using much more gentle methods than sandpaper, even though if you've ever used 3K grit, it almost feels like you're rubbing a sheet of loose leaf paper on the paint. But you're not... you're removing essential layes of what is already very thin and soft clear coat.
If you really want a show car shine, you have to get a show car paint job which would require adding some more clear to the whole car and then sanding the thicker coat down to a mirror finish. It looks amazing, but won't last log on a daily driver.
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