Scared that I may have burnt through clear coat compounding by hand

[TheRealBFKR]

That seems like it could easily be the better part of 1000 USD. Oh boy

This was probably the worst panel I could have damaged... Look at how massive it is:
YouTube

 

[WRAPT C5Z06]

I see some comments here about burning thru while hand polishing being “hard to do”. I feel the complete opposite. When hand polishing, you can exert a lot of force on a very small area.

Jim, I thought the same thing.

 

[TheRealBFKR]

Just a little update for anyone who is interested:

I went to 4 or 5 body shops in the area. Quotes were somewhat comparable, from 600 to 1000.

One shop wanted to blend into the trunk, the rest thought it would be fine without blending (although it is a tri-coat blue).

The area is getting re-colored, the rest of the panel (rear quarter + rocker panel + sail panel) are getting sanded and recleared. Rear quarter glass, roof molding, and door window weather strip are all being removed. New clear coat will stop at the door jamb (hopefully they do a good job masking).

This ended up being a body shop affiliated with a Subaru dealership (although Subaru is not paying). Chose them because they were patient in terms of answering me in terms of what trims were to be removed. They did a good job matching the eternal blue mica on my friend's Mazda 3 (although I noticed a few dust nibs in my friend's paint job as well as one uneven spot in the paint on a brand new door panel that they completely finished). They know that I am very particular on the details so here is to hoping that they will do a good job!

 

[PaulMys]

Thanks for the update.

Good luck with the repaint!

 

[Rsurfer]

Id be really surprised if UC by hand you could burn through your clear coat. I cant tell very well from the pics though.

Give me a mf towel and UC wrapped around two fingers and I guarantee you that I can burn through your clear. Remember UC is a non diminishing abrasive.

 

[Farmallluvr]

a few nibs isn't really much to worry about,,brand new Vettes have dirt in the paint here and there.

as long as it doesn't look like it was painted at the beach on a windy day that is,,one of my pet peeves when I see body shop cars is dry spray in one area and runs in another on the same car,,I mean really???

the others is tons of dirt and hairs and other stuff in the clear,,, or worse the color.

 

[TheRealBFKR]

Thanks for the update.

Good luck with the repaint!

a few nibs isn't really much to worry about,,brand new Vettes have dirt in the paint here and there.

as long as it doesn't look like it was painted at the beach on a windy day that is,,one of my pet peeves when I see body shop cars is dry spray in one area and runs in another on the same car,,I mean really???

the others is tons of dirt and hairs and other stuff in the clear,,, or worse the color.

Thanks! It's fairly common for body shops to have to denib after the clear is applied and hardened somewhat, yes?

The other side of my friend's Mazda 3 was also not in that great of a condition (unrelated to the accident and hence not covered by insurance.) Hopefully seeing how new the rest of my car is and how many annoying questions I threw at them they would take the effort to denib as much as possible.

This is a fairly large outfit and they do have a proper paint booth as far I could tel..

 

[Farmallluvr]

Thanks! It's fairly common for body shops to have to denib after the clear is applied and hardened somewhat, yes?
..

yea,,that was my job for a couple of years,I had a little 3m nibbing tool that these little sticks with 1500,2000 or 2500 on the end and it worked great,I nib a car down a lot less time that with paper by hand ,,usually somewhere between 12 and 24 hours after it was baked in the booth.

I can't remember what clear he used but it sanded and buffed very nicely ,,not like what we use where I work now,,that stuff sands and buffs like granite,,I hate it but I only occasionally have to deal with it now

 

[TheRealBFKR]

Thanks! Just wondering, for a $800 job. Is it reasonable for the orange peel to be somewhat matched to the factory amount of orange peel? I am not looking for 100% restoration, but it would be nice if the difference in texture at least doesn't jump out.

 

[Farmallluvr]

Factory peel is hard to match,way to much difference in the 2 systems but some painters can get it close.

A painter once told me he can vary his orange peel appearance on mixture of paint and speed and distance of application.
Not sure if he really blowing smoke but his paint jobs were always spot on,,and clean

 

[WRAPT C5Z06]

Good luck with the color match. I had my whole front end repainted. Car is white. They could not match it to the doors after 2 times, so I vinyl wrapped the car. 99.5% of people did not notice until I pointed it out the mismatch to them.


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[TheRealBFKR]

Good luck with the color match. I had my whole front end repainted. Car is white. They could not match it to the doors after 2 times, so I vinyl wrapped the car. 99.5% of people did not notice until I pointed it out the mismatch to them.


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Thanks, I have heard the blue is a lot easier than white (mine is a pearl though, so I am hoping it turns out well.)

Why didn't you opt to get the doors blended?

 

[ShinyRex]

Thanks, you all are being really nice. This is my dream car and I can't believe I made such a dumb mistake one month into ownership.

Will the entire quarter panel have to be redone? (that extends from the A Pillar all the way to the trunk/bumper)

This may not make you feel any better but I did the same thing within 2 months of owning my WRX with UC and a MF towel trying to clean up a scratch. I didn't quite know what I was doing and I tried out a section on the spoiler first. As it turns out the paint on my plastic spoiler was a lot harder than the roof so I have a similar spot right by the drivers door. My car is white so you can only see it in certain lights and 8 years later it has never gotten worse but every time i see it, it is a nasty reminder.

 

[Koogs]

Thanks, I have heard the blue is a lot easier than white (mine is a pearl though, so I am hoping it turns out well.)

Why didn't you opt to get the doors blended?

I had a WRX STi in that blue, 2016, It was in a front end accident and we replaced the fender hood and bumper. I had a really good shop do the work and they were able to paint match it great, and did blend. I had lots of compliments on the work done, by people who know the difference.

It isn't the easiest to do, from what I hear, but you can certainly get it done right if you get a good shop. There are harder ones out there, the Mazda Soul Red, some of the tricoats

 

[TheRealBFKR]

One more update for anyone who is interested:

Got my BRZ back from the shop
Post repaint - Album on Imgur

Happy with the match!

They were able to get rid of a couple of conspicuous dust specks. The line where the the new clear ends is visible in the door jamb though. They did some work to smooth it out but I am not sure if it will ever be invisible. Inclined to call it good.

 

[Calendyr]

Im shocked you went through that clear with a MF pad and UC. Were your freaking fingers hot while doing it? Geesh. Sucks man, we have all done it dont beat yourself up too much about it.

I am not surprised. Doing this by hand is far riskier than by machine. When you do it by hand and apply a lot of pressure on a very small area (using your fingers) you can remove a lot of paint on that specific spot in a very short time.

Think of it like this, when you are using a machine, you are applying say 10 to 15 pounds of pressure over a 5.5 inch diameter area, or about 95 inch2. That's about .16 pound of pressure per square inch.

Doing it by hand, it's easy to apply the same 15 pounds of pressure over a 1 square inch area, that is 94 times more pressure. Also if you are using a microfiber towel to do the work, it's more abrasive than most pads.

So it's very easy to strike through doing that if you are a not careful.

 

[n7plus1]

After reading through this thread...all i could say is yikes. Thats tough to go through...literally and figuratively. I love the BRZ...and maybe if I didn't live in the north and have 2 kids...I opted with this:


Shared album - Nate Laird - Google Photos

I just recently had my front bumper replaced and resprayed due to dealer-induced damage.