quality/durable paint job
Thread Starter
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 1,933
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From: Central Texas
quality/durable paint job history: a few years back (broke college student) I had a mustang repainted a color very similar to the factory color - so I wouldnt have to do jams and under the hood/trunk. I did all the prep work myself - filled small dings, primed, etc. The bumper and hood had the normal spider-web cracks in the clear so I sanded down to the factory gel coat, primed, and sanded smooth. The shop that did the painting allowed me to bring the car there at night and I spent the entire night doing the final wet sand, taping the car off, and they painted it for me the following morning. 2 coats of BC and 3 of CC - I believe the brand used was DuPont. The car sat in the booth the rest of the day and two days out in the hot sun before I picked it up.
I drove from the shop to a gas station ~8 miles and the SOB had a half dozen DEEEP rock chips all the way to the fiberglass on the hood and the urethane of the bumper. Less than 6 mos later, the front end looked like someone did a Mexican hat dance on my hood with golf shoes on and the panels behind every wheel were chewed all to hell
my question is, did I miss some important step in the prep work?
The hood was a Cervini's with the white gel coat - I sanded it smooth, filled one little low spot, and primed, sanded, primed, etc. The bumper was primed and sanded until completely smooth. Every other panel was just wet sanded with a block twice with 400 grit. The shop sprayed BC/CC directly onto the sanded factory paint
Should there have been a primer or sealer coat over the factory paint before being sprayed again?
Should I have used a different brand of BC/CC?
I work with cars every day and have seen daily drivers with over 100k miles on the original paint with little to no cracking or chipping of the paint on the front. I know the factory paint is garbage but basically I'd like something just as durable, if not better than factory
FYI I'm about to start prepping my DD for repaint and dont want the same thing to happen again
TIA
I drove from the shop to a gas station ~8 miles and the SOB had a half dozen DEEEP rock chips all the way to the fiberglass on the hood and the urethane of the bumper. Less than 6 mos later, the front end looked like someone did a Mexican hat dance on my hood with golf shoes on and the panels behind every wheel were chewed all to hell
my question is, did I miss some important step in the prep work?
The hood was a Cervini's with the white gel coat - I sanded it smooth, filled one little low spot, and primed, sanded, primed, etc. The bumper was primed and sanded until completely smooth. Every other panel was just wet sanded with a block twice with 400 grit. The shop sprayed BC/CC directly onto the sanded factory paint
Should there have been a primer or sealer coat over the factory paint before being sprayed again?
Should I have used a different brand of BC/CC?
I work with cars every day and have seen daily drivers with over 100k miles on the original paint with little to no cracking or chipping of the paint on the front. I know the factory paint is garbage but basically I'd like something just as durable, if not better than factory
FYI I'm about to start prepping my DD for repaint and dont want the same thing to happen again
TIA
you should use sealer over the primer before the base coat. as far as the rock chips go, the shop that painted it probably didn't use a flex additive in the clear on the plastic/fiberglass parts when they should have.
