# Paint job problems- fine orange peel??



## HeyYouGuys (Mar 9, 2014)

Hi all, new here and really need your expert eyes & guidance! This is a fairly long story so I will try and keep brief so you dont get too bored.

I have a small fibreglass car (VX220), some of these suffer from bubbling under paint work due to moisture in fibreglass. Mine had some areas of this over the car, mainly on seams (apparently these areas are thicker and when the fibreglass wasnt dried properly in manufacturing this left moisture in this area). With extreme of temp the water tries to get out and gives a bubble & can crack off some fibreglass.
Here are some areas of paintwork that needed rectifying..

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https://flic.kr/p/13040474905


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https://flic.kr/p/13040628243


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https://flic.kr/p/13040703225


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https://flic.kr/p/13040859873

Now I had had enough of this, got a few quotes, some local one not. I ended up going for the non-local one as he had experience of fibreglass cars (2 hours drive). 
I was told that it would be easier to respray certain areas fully as by the time had been taken to blend in a small bit it was quicker to just spray full panel. OK, thats fine I thought -whatevers easiest & gives best result.

Top and bottom of story is, I have left the car with him twice, first time on the rear of the car the finish was very frosty looking (or like looking at a reflection in frosted mirror). On the front end, there looked to be sanding marks on the paint finish. I went back and was told the rear end was materials/bad batch of laquer problem and the front - that these were marks from wet sanding. He would repaint ( - there were pin prick like indentations in the paint anyway on the front anyway).
So, I left it with him and after the first 4 weeks, and the way it turned out,I thought I wouldnt rush it, I dropped it off 2/12/13 and picked it up at end of Jan 14 (and was pissing down when I picked it up (big mistake as couldnt see the finish). Plenty of time to do it & do it right after the first time.
So, Ive been away on holiday etc and now have just washed and polished it (was filthy from drive up so not easy). Main issues, So, the paint finish. On this car the original paint is what I think you detailer experts would call organge peely but it gives a good mirror like reflection. 
Example of some areas which were not painted (bootlid - original 10 year old paint)

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https://flic.kr/p/13040782143

The newly painted areas are really hazy/ frosty in terms of reflection- like micro-orange peely. 

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https://flic.kr/p/13040528005


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https://flic.kr/p/13040771133


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https://flic.kr/p/13040538015


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https://flic.kr/p/13040923424


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https://flic.kr/p/13040587925
There are other issues which werent there first time round - bad masking etc.

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https://flic.kr/p/13040506465
I have little confidence in this being right a third time so am weighing up my options. I have used a rotary polisher before with some farecla products on this car and got a good mirror like, swirl free finish.
Do people think it would be possible to flatten out this finish with a rotary /DA(wet sand etc) to get even close to a standard orange peel sort of finish - anything is better than what is present now. Makes me sick to look at the car. From 4metres away its great, up close its sickening.
Looking back, I would rather have it with the bubbles than how it is now. Plus Im £1200 down. Any advice is much appreciated.:detailer:
Some other photos here http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/

A gutted newbie.


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## toddy23 (Jun 16, 2012)

That looks very poor work for £1200 it needs all the paint his put on stripped off and started again but I wouldn't be letting him loose a 3rd time,is it a proper bodyshop


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## stangalang (Nov 27, 2009)

You have a few issues in the paint there, bad peel, solvent pop, bits of dust, tape lines, all sorts going on. You shouldn't have to sort that level of issue yourself, and even if you could, would probably cost you the same again or more with a pro given the time required. 

It would be easier to get them to totally re do it, but i understand why you have little faith in them. I guess you could take legal advice on getting them to pay for the job to be done elsewhere, but i wouldn't hold my breath


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## Aaran (Sep 18, 2007)

where are you based?

offer here to pop the car up and i shall show you how to flat it down to a glass finish. (note as i did not lay the clear i wont take any responsibility if i strike through)

looking at the peel i would say its had a very fast hardener + thinner and not been shot "wet" enough on one of the earlier coats. its fixable though subject to there being a fair amount of clear to play with on it.

just hope once prepped for paint he went over it with a hot airgun to chase out any left over moisture/air trapped in the strands of fiber. bloody hate fiberglass


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## Andyb0127 (Jan 16, 2011)

I know its gutting mate. If I've read it correctly they had the car for nearly a year to achieve that. It looks like a very bad paint finish, you could flat and polish it but you would really need some ptg paint readings first to see how much material is actually on there and how much flatting you can do. As for the masking edge id be very doubtful if it would look any better as its been painted twice its alot of laquer build up to try and flat down to improve it. 

In all honesty I doubt it was a bad batch of laquer first time, looks more like bad prep and spraying just all round bad refinishing.


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## 4d_dc2 (Mar 28, 2008)

You actually paid for that?


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## suspal (Dec 29, 2011)

That's a p!ss take feel for you get them to do it again


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## HeyYouGuys (Mar 9, 2014)

Yes, proper bodyshop, says he does Ferrari's/TVRs etc..
He had it for about 4 weeks in August, then again from start of December to roughly end of jan. 3 months. I could have sorned it lol.

I dont know what to do, if it was rubbish first time round and this was his effort at rectifying that, I cant see it getting any better third time round. I mean, you would think after first time he would say " right this is going to be bang on!" unless he is actually phyisically incapable.

and now I find hes lost my flucking alloy wheel locking nut key! Arrrggghhhh (is he doing this on purpose!?).

Re the masking line, first time round he hadnt masked but painted up to an angle in the body and blended it in, God knows why he did this second time round (so its got worse).

Im in North Yorkshire and feel like poking my eyes out with ****tail sticks so I can no longer look at the thing. It the first time Ive felt like I want to get rid of it. How bad is that.


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## HeyYouGuys (Mar 9, 2014)

Andyb0127 said:


> In all honesty I doubt it was a bad batch of laquer first time, looks more like bad prep and spraying just all round bad refinishing.


Agree & thought that myself, but thought it best not to question if I wanted it resolving.

I dont know how, as a professional, he can see this as being an acceptable level of workmanship!?


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## Andyb0127 (Jan 16, 2011)

HeyYouGuys said:


> Agree & thought that myself, but thought it best not to question if I wanted it resolving.
> 
> I dont know how, as a professional, he can see this as being an acceptable level of workmanship!?


I understand what you mean as you wanted to resolve this matter, but it pays to stand your ground with things like this as your the paying customer if its not to your satisfaction then tell them so. 
I wish i knew how he thought it would be acceptable obviously there's no pride in there workmanship, if i turned out a job like that I'd hang my sprayguns up or sell them id be to embarrassed to put my name to it. I wish i could soften the blow trouble is it could be flatted and polished. But my fear is that as this now has alot of material on it that if polished, the gloss levels may drop back again. Which would result in it all needing to be done again.

And he reckons he has done tvr's, and Ferraris id hate to think what the end result was. As he has had a chance to put it right id now get an independant accessor to look at it to see what would need doing to put it right with a view to the bodyshop paying for it to be put right.

Id also name and shame them so members on dw know to steer clear of this bodyshop.


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## Gretsch-drummer (Sep 17, 2010)

Yep, name and shame them. He had a chance to rectify his poor workmanship and didn't manage to so make other people aware of him.

(I'm dreading the thought of when I decide to get my 306 rear end sprayed with so many disasters about)


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## HeyYouGuys (Mar 9, 2014)

Ive sent him some photos of the new vs old paint for him to comment on. Really anyone with any kind of eye for this should spot it a mile off (even my girlfriend who has zero eye for detail can see it,lol).


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