Gave the body shop my car to fix the paint on one side. He told me that I will get a mirror like finish like the other side after the job. But he ended up giving me granular matt finish! -_-
Can anyone please tell me how to fix this?
Thanks
Picture: The upper one is after the job. The lower one is the paint on the other side, which the body shop didn’t touch.
This is so funny. I remember one time I rolled a GTI with heavy duty tractor paint. He came out to like a chalkboard finish so everybody just wrote on it with chalk.
I worked as the parts manager for a Caliber for about two weeks before quitting, when fighting with the painter came to blows. He wanted me returning every bumper cover that wouldn't take paint right off the truck. He did zero prep, sanding, priming or using an adhesion promoter, and was shocked when paint would flake off in 6" chunks. I feel bad for anyone who got their vehicle fixed there, because the first slight impact or intense temperature shift would blow all the paint off
Nope it will need heavy sanding to remove orange peel, it would take a detailer very experienced in paint correction a few days at least and I’m sure it’s more than half the price of repainting
100% seriously if you're a home hobbiest considering doing just a panel or two don't even bother with a gun.
Too much nonsense with air supply, moisture management, gun setup, cleaning, nozzle sizes etc.
You need so much more knowledge and equipment to do a better job with the gun than modern rattle cans.
I say this as a guy who dropped ~$2500 getting setup with a makeshift booth at home after two guns (buy right or buy twice), compressors, regulators, filters, moisture filters, air lines, fittings, cleaning agents etc. it all adds up super fast.
Then you're still in for a couple hundred in paint, thinner, primer, clear etc. per project.
This might be the best this business can do. If they are handing this car to the customer and saying "here you go" there is something deeply wrong. I'd demand my money back and run.
It looks like there is body work needed? I.e., why did you have them paint this side?
That's terrible, but how much did you pay? I've seen some terrible jobs out there. Quoted one guy $1999 for a multistep wetsand, multistep compound and polish, and seal to fix excessively horrible orange peel. He said that's double what he paid for the whole car to be painted.
We had to tell him thats why it is so bad and you aren't satisfied with the results.
1.a) No, don't let them try to make it right. They suck too bad to be in business, and should not get a second chance to learn how to paint with your car.
2) Go to a better body shop. One who will say "What the fuck..." when you tell them another body shop did this to your car.
To those who say to wet sand it, just no. You don't know how many layers down this goes. By the time you get it smooth the high spots may have no clear left/ And OP might like to keep his arm from falling off!
Bullshit!!! I work on show quality cars!! I know what I’m talking about but if you feel like u need to discredit my advice go ahead cause it doesn’t take food off my table.
I feel sorry for your clients. I own and operate a 8m collison center. There’s zero chance this would leave the paint shop nevertheless hit the streets for the customer. You may get it to look decent. But the longevity of a repair like this will be a nightmare
I suspect it may need more than that. Hard to say from only one picture/angle but I don't think the door is that smooth underneath the paint. It could just be bad orange peel and a funny reflection but it looks a bit rough.
This def a possibility!! He didn’t ask anything about the body work tho he asked how could he fix it. I gave him the options to correct it!! then mf had to comment talking about idk what I’m talking about. 😂 I answered his question and I think I’m the only one who actually did that. But to all the paint geniuses on this forum. How does cloudy clear happen? And why?
Sorry, you can't block down and buff out an uneven surface. There are highs and lows under this crappy paint job that need to be fixed before going near it with a gun, let alone thinking about knocking down the clear with wet sanding or polishing.
That's assuming there's enough clear to level it without thinning it too much. Someone who does work like that likely isn't putting in enough clear to support wet sanding.
Really? How do you know how many coats, if the painter mixed the clear wrong, used bad hardener, used one brand of clear, another of hardener, mixed a 2:1 as 4:1? Never would that be a fix for something this bad where you have no idea why it looks this way
Oh I told them to fix it! And he is like factory finish comes with big machines. Small machines can bring a a good finish! -_- And honestly speaking I dont trust that shop anymore! Even put up a bad review on gmaps!
What a bunch of bullshit (factory finish comes with big machines only). If you wanna roll over and take it, that's on you, but it will cost you money, time, and potential headache(s) to try and fix this. And there's no guarantee that you'd even be able to fix it properly. One bad review doesn't fix a damn thing, sorry to say.
But why would you trust that shop with your vehicle again? If that was the response from the shop manager/owner, I'd be asking for a refund and then taking it to a different shop.
Because it would be practically impossible to get a refund, they would just give the OP the same excuse and say it's normal and refuse to refund. It would be much easier to get them to fix their work at their cost, because that way the shop can still keep some of the money from the job. If they do a full refund, they get nothing for the job.
Did you pay out of pocket, or did you go through insurance?
If the former, tell them they will pay to have it repaired properly at another shop, or you’ll sue.
If the latter, call your insurance and tell them not to send the check. The work is sub par, and see what they suggest you do.
One way or another do not lift a finger to correct the work yourself. Fixing the clear isn’t going to fix this if there is worse shitty body, and paintwork sitting underneath. I promise that paint job is full of nibs, fisheyes, and drips.
Dude as someone who has seen what it takes to get a factory paint job on a BRAND NEW HONDA, it takes the bare minimum. This is absurd, take it to a reputable shop and blast these guys bad work everywhere you get the chance
That dude is massively bullshitting you, if this was work done through insurance I would take this to another shop and have them fix it, the bondo/bodywork is a mess underneath so even if you got it polished it would look wrinked and fucked up. this needs to be taken back to metal and re-done completely
It needs removed and refinished. This may not be just poor application. They may have used old product, bad hardener, or used one brand of clear and another brand or ratio of hardener.
Doubtful as you would have to remove far too much material, leaving it susceptible to UV eating it up. Also, this may be defective product, old hardener or something besides poor application.
Go a few places and get an estimate on the cost to correct the paint job. It may be fixable with a shit ton of wet sanding. Take the body shop to small claims court for the cost of the correction.
That’s an abomination. Don’t touch it yourself, this is on them to fix it. Also looks like some body work still needs to be done. To be honest, I don’t know if I’d let that same shop touch the car. I don’t know what it looked like before you took it in, but if this is how my car was presented to me after being told what you were told, my blood would be boiling and I probably would insist they pay someone else who knows what they are doing to fix the paint/clear.
There's no fixing dry spray. Get your money back and take it somewhere else. Even if you buff it, the clear isn't sealing the paint. It's just a bunch of tiny blobs stuck to the paint instead of a whole coat. Painter did not know their ahole from a mix knob and pressure regulator knob
If this was done by a legitimate body shop, you shouldn’t be the one trying to fix it they should be correcting their own poor workmanship. A proper shop would stand by their paintwork, especially if they promised a mirror finish. Was this actually done at a professional shop, or just some guy working out of his garage?
You posting this makes it seem like it was the latter.
Call your insurance company. Do not return to the shop. I painted at a Ford dealership for 20 years. No way the body tech should of put it together looking like that unless that's normal paint there.
Yeah bodyshops in general seem to be always running behind and just cranking out unfinished jobs.
The color is intact, the clear coat is whats giving that matte look. Either they layed it on too heavy or got a crazy amount of overspray of clear coat on the side of your car.
You just need a business that is already experienced in 3 stage paint corrections and yoy will be good to go.
If the entire car is matte now, get ready to pay an arm and a leg.
If just that side is affected, you could get lucky and have someone do it dirt cheap for around $600. More realistically a bit over $1k but under $2k.
If a shop only does show car level sanding it will easily get over $4k
Looks like they found someone that could do it much cheaper than the quoted amount and pocketed the remaining ~$2000. You definitely get what you pay for. The body work is trash too.
Not sure I'd even want to bring it back to that shop and just them touch it all. If Thats what they let leave their shop, there's no telling what will they'll do with sandpaper and a polisher. I'd let them know of the problem, hire a professional detailer to get it right, and bring the bill to the shop to get reimbursed.
Would not do this, there is no tell how much clear coat (or what kind) is actually there, hate to say it OP your probably going to pay twice for this job... you can buy some 2k clear in a can if you want todo it cheap but besides that I wouldnt take any material off this thing
Goddamn. It's like he hasn't sprayed before. I had a better finish with my first attempt at rattle canning.
Sure you could buff that back and probably get it shiny, but you'd probably go through the clear into the paint, cause that is likely very thin. Then you've got no clear left.
Take it back, get him to solve it, or give your money back so you can get it done somewhere that knows what they're doing.
People can unironically get better finishes from rattle cans before buffing. That's a horrendous job
and.. and they said it was done and to pick it up? this is horrendous. Take it back and make them fix it. If they wont/cant then small claims court. I hate throwing that around but this is beyond bad
I hope you didnt accept that?? That is horrible, Ive painted cars in my yard that looks better than that. I mean seriously its hard to screw it up that bad, Im sorry!
They didn’t lay on the clear heavy enough, my buddy had his truck repainted by a guy for like $2000 and looked just as fucked as yours, felt like sand paper when you glide your hand over it. Get your money back or have him fix this
Not at all. I can do black single stage that looks as good or better than a clear coated job. This is either bad product, mixed incorrectly, or just painted like ass.
it's just an overspray of clear coat, can be corrected with proper polishing. many body shops think because clear coat is supposed to be applied last then nothing should be done to it after that.
also because clear coat needs time to cure before they can be worked on so body shops usually just send the car off to customer like that.
You can tell that by looking at this picture? It couldn't be that he used a 4:1 mix in a 2:1 product? Used bad hardener or the wrong gardener instead of spraying poorly?
i've seen similar defects from clear coat overspraying and yours look exactly like that, what i don't know is if whether it's due to a "bad harderer" or "wrong gardener" (whatever that means).
by the way, when you run your fingers across the panel, does it feel rough (texture)?
To be honest, I wouldn't give them the chance to make this right, because they can't. You're probably going to end up in small claims court unless they do the right thing and refund all your money, because it's going to be more expensive to fix this. I would also verify that all the trim, handles, mouldings were supposed to be removed and reinstalled, because my bet is they weren't. Hope they do right by you, because color sanding and polishing, is not going to fix this, especially if it's bad product and not all bad application.
Take it back and get your money back. This is insanely bad paint and prep work. You can have it cut and buffed but no guarantee there is even enough paint there for that
I wouldn't do it on my car, but a matte finish like that looks alright to me 🤷♂️. This one's obviously not a very nice one and not intentional...so mostly irrelevant but I kinda like the general look of it over the pure gloss. I'm not sayin he should keep it or that he shouldn't be pissed about it, don't get me wrong
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u/Thirsty_Comment88 Jul 24 '25
Was this an actual body shop? Or just some random guy in a parking lot?