i just got my 66 out of the body shop last night. the guy did a total restoration for me. many patch's were needed and floor boards etc. the car is straight and looks great.every thing lines up nice and no signs of all the work that was needed to restore the car. however there are fine scratch's from wet sanding when you look at it. this is concerning to me. such a nice job he did then to end up with scuffed paint. what can be done from here? is there another step to take to get those out? i hope so. the car has 3 coats red paint and 2 coats of clear.is putting another coat of clear an option to cover the scratch's?
Thanks alot any help or opinions on his workmanship would be appreciated.

im not an expert on painting. but to me it sounds like it needs to be buffed out..

Sounds like he may have used a rougher grit paper than is called for. If the scratches are in the clear coat, it needs to be wet sanded with 1500, then 2000, then buffed out. Many shops just do the wet sanding with 1000 grit paper and buff. That's not good enough for a high caliber paint job.

i am sure that the scratch's are just in the clear coat, and it seams i remember him saying somthing along the lines of 1000 grit. so what you are saying is its not too late if i wet sand it with 1500 then 2000 grit they will go away? if thats the case ... awsome. any directions on how exactly this should be done. thanks for the reply's

I am in the process of wet sanding and buffing my 69 convertible after painting it 2 months ago. A knowledgeable friend is helping me and we wet sanded with 1500 - took me about 15 hours. Then we compounded the car to eliminate the sanding scratches - it took him 6 hours but he is a professional detailer and to him it did not seem excessive for a top quality job.

Our next step this weekend is to use a glaze to eliminate the swirl marks from compounding which is expected to take about 3 hours. After that we will apply a paint sealer which should only take about 1 hour. He insures me that the result will be fantastic and I expect that to be true.

About 2 years ago I painted a 72 Chevelle and wet sanded with 1200 (went much faster than 1500) then spent about 6 hours buffing. I have never been happy with the results and can see sanding scratches - it is a large effort to properly sand and buff a paint job. My friend assures me that the 72 can be fixed without paint so probably yours is in the same situation. Talk to him and find out what he did to get it to this point and go from there - I don't think less than 1500 is a good choice.

By the way another comment. As my car was being compounded, there were times when he would stop and have me use the 1500 to eliminate sanding scratches that he could not buff out. They may have been caused by grit getting into the sandpaper from somewhere, don't know. Regardless, it was easy to eliminate and then buff again. My car has 3 coats of clear but you shouldn't have any trouble because the 1500 will hardly remove any material at all - but it will remove sanding scratches of 1000.

eduardo69,
any more detail on what brand name or type of compound, glaze and what type of paint sealer? great detail by the way thank you very much. i am feeling better already talking to you guys. i must say i was pretty bummed before, but it sounds like it can be resolved with some more elbow grease huh! thanks again

one other thing whats the best method to apply the compounds, glaze etc. by hand or buffing wheel? :confused:

You can start sanding with 1500 but, don't you want to encourage the guy who did the work to finish the job right? Asking won't hurt. Even he dosn't want to, or you don't trust him to wet sand the car again, you can do it yourself, but you have to be careful not to sand through. Then you have to have and know how to use a buffer.
Do a search on color sanding and buffing in this section. There's plenty of knowledge to be found in searching and reading.

I cut in stages sometimes starting with 800! but usually 1000 then 1500, 2000, and sometimes finishing with 3000 or 4000. The finer grit greatly reduces the buffing time and chance scratches showing. Also I usually apply 3 coats of clear for the added insurance. I think you will do fine sanding it with 2000 and rebuffing the entire car.

I would second using 2000 grit. When I did my car I used 1500 and then cut it the opposite way using 2000. You will be surprised at the scratchs that the 1500 leaves. Buffing several stages will get you a glass like result. Good luck and don't get discouraged, this process is hard work and seems to take forever. I felt like I had 100's of hours in :rolleyes: (probably well over a hundred anyway).

3M makes a product called a Trizact PAD - when used with the 3M backing Plate on DA it works awesome and leaves the surface very very smooth.

The Trizact Pad is about 3000 grit - and you use it wet - keep the pad and the surface wet and kep the DA moving, this wil leave a smooth dullish finish that then needs to be buffed or wheeled to a nice shine - then you can glaze and seal as you normally would. Super time saver and the results are fantastic.

I want to check out this Trizact PAD because it sounds like a great idea. The sanding is so much more work than the buffing itself and very tedious.

I didn't want to admit it but it feels like I have 100's of hours in this also. I think it is more like 50, but the glazing is not done yet.

yeah thats good advice. ive learned alot already. thanks again for the input guys.

they also come in 1000, 2000 grit I believe.

There is a backing plate for the DA sander and a "sponge with velcro" deal the fits betweetn the backing plate and the Trizact pad - makes it safer to use on the clear coat.