Good luck man, DEF post pics when done. when I ripped mine apart (lol @ pic of me and wife), I just made sure to keep track of all the bolts and such…taped them to the respective parts. Also, make sure any parts you have are stored safely, you dont want to have to buy parts that were damaged in the storage process.
here is a quick reference guide.
Final grit used to spray base coat will be 800 grit wet
[D] DRY sand paper
[W] Wet sand paper
Plastic - no primer
primer - 400 wet
base - 800 wet
Plastic with primer
180 or 320 dry : depending on how many coats applied 3 preferably
after sanding move to
if you use 180[D] > 320[D] > 600[W] > 800[W]
As for metal parts
If you go down to bare metal
120[D] grit > 180[D] > 320[D] primer then > 320[D] > 600[W] > 800[W]
If you burn through don’t sweat it just re-prime
Most importantly DO NOT skip grits. Your scratches will show and you will be kicking yourself later for it, Especially when it goes from 180 > 600 without using 320 you will see huge scratches once the clear coat is applied.
Also watch out A lot of the time the stuff in the rattle can is lacquer based and it will hold moisture. When you use something like that it tends to end up bubbling or rust… after a days, couple weeks, months. Just avoid it and spend the extra money and get high build primer.
good luck!
Here it is. Going to pick it up in a hour or so, has a few blemishes, nothing from sanding. you can tell where the antenna was shaved, theres a little run on the spoiler and like a inch behind the side door trim is a little bumpy. most the spots i saw so far were just dust that wipes off, I wont be sure how clean it is untill I wash it. I’ll try to figure out a good way to polish out the run and stuff.
Use some 2000gritt wet sandpaper to get the run out… just be very careful so as not to sand through the area around the run.
Then polish.
Got it home for further inspection. They did fudge a few things.
Theres a elevated area along the edge of the hood, they said they would fix it tomorrow
Door handles appear to be pryed out with a screw driver that ate into them a bit. I may need to bondo them edges to get them smooth, they said if I bring them the handles they will respray them also
There is clues that windows got alot of over spray but they sanded it off clean for the most part. for some reason which I’m very ticked off they decided to sand inside the passenger front window… I have window tint installed by car toyz richmond VA and its all foggy a goood 5 inches down from the edges, its destroyed… My rear quarter windows you can tell had over spray sanded since its on the stickers (which they couldnt sand)
The roof has a small spot that looks like something about the size of a finger tip touched it while it was tacky, its kinda spikey and pulled up in the air.
All in all I think it was worth what I spent (835$) the few problems seem to be with the employees. I could seriously hurt some one over the tint but I can’t afford the assault charges. It wouldn’t be the first time, that was seriously uncalled for. The paint looks like it could use a little more polishing since its not a clear mirror reflection but, I can do that on my own time. I will give them the chance to replace my tint tomorrow in the quality it was.
What is a good polish to use? I usually use 2000 and polish with the green turtle polish or some stuff called chrome rim polish, they sell these at autozone and seem to be the only ones i’ve tried that are abrasive, not just oil or wax that is temporary
Getting a car ‘perfect’ can be a pain… there are always little things that you wish had been done differently etc… But considering the turnaround time vs quality, Maaco does a decent job.
But definitely don’t let them walk over you… door handles are simple to get out, provided the door panels are already out. Things like that shouldn’t be a problem.
The tint, however, is definitely something unacceptable. If they can’t mask something off correctly, they need to remedy the results of their actions.
Definitely don’t go in with an attitude, but be firm and let them know what is expected. Hopefully everything gets resolved for you bud.
edit
I use Meguires Diamond Cut Compound 2.0 to get 2000gritt scratches out… the only bad thing is I think its only sold by the gallon… I think its like $35-40.
I’m not really a huge fan of most TurtleWax stuff, they just don’t offer a full line of products I can use… most of what I use is either 3M or Meguires products.
2000gritt scratches are so fine that many polishes ‘should’ be able to work them out though.
The door panels were out, I’m thinking they just pried them out with a screw driver or something after unbolting them instead of actually removing them by detaching the lock/handle bars. Looks like the top got dragged across pavement it’s so ate up, which is gona take some bondo to fill. They better fix my tint, they don’t do tint there so i have a feeling they are going to give me some trouble. it’s gona be about 50$ to do that one window and I gota take it 30 miles away and drop it off for the day. pure BS
Ok, they said they would fix the tint too, the painter was cool and admitted to sanding it because over-spray, claiming its because I had the trim and seal out (which I also wouldn’t want over-sprayed) if that’s done right then they will completely redeem themselves and I will be happy, a little inconvenience but I have more time than money. I’m gona ask them if I can just take the windows out and bring them… I really dont want to leave my car there for anything else to happen. For the most part Chester VA macco’s cars look pretty good but they got a few problems with over spray as everyone says.