We were recently asked if we could correct the black paint on this 1992 Mercedes without swirling the paint. The entire surface had severe etching in the clear coat, most notably on the horizontal panels such as the hood and the trunk lid where the etching was much deeper. We knew that this would be a very time consuming challenge because there would be a large amount of wet sanding involved which always requires additional steps in the buffing process as well in addition to having black paint. Black paint is usually on of our specialties, but this was going to be a serious test. After thoroughly hand washing the car, we clayed and prepped the paint. This is how the hood looked after washing and claying. The etches are clearly visible on the paint.
We then measured the thickness of the paint to make sure that we would be able to wet sand without sanding through the clear coat and did a test run on a demo spot to determine the level of sanding that we felt was appropriate based on our findings. We then taped off the the areas that were not safe to sand or buff.
After the first level of sanding we retested the thickness of the paint to make sure that we had sanded enough to achieve the results we wanted without compromising the clear coat. We also noticed that a lot of the etching had already penetrated through the clear and into the paint. These places are impossible for us to correct without repainting the entire hood, but we were encouraged with how well the rest of the hood looked after wet sanding.
Following wet sanding, we begin a multi-stage buffing process. We began by using a heavier more aggressive compound with an aggressive pad to reduce the sanding marks significantly over the entire painted surface area of the car. We repeated this process three more times, each time using a finer compound and less aggressive pad. The purpose for repeating this so many times is to eliminating the sanding marks completely and prevent any "swirl marks" from forming during the process.
We do not use any "swirl remover" when we buff because we believe in achieving perfect results that are real rather than taking short cuts and hiding imperfections just to save time. This is also why we take most of our pictures of a completed project outdoors unless the weather does not permit it. Natural sunlight makes it very difficult to to hide imperfections. Although some of the etching on this car was too deep for us to completely correct without further damaging the paint, we were very satisfied with the results and more importantly, so was our client. We enjoy reading any questions or comments that you may have so please feel free to contact us. For additional pictures: Please visit our facebook page. www.facebook.com/eastridgecarwash.
