hey i recently got my car painted for the second time. the first time i got it painted the a** really messed it up. He got overspray everywhere, painted the exhuast tips, painted the moldings around the windows, and painterd the chrome lining. after using thinner to get most of the excess spray off the places it shouldent be i drove around a while until i got it painted a second time. this paint job was pretty costly although i did not pay for the whole thing. i still have the paint on the moldings and on the chrome linning (from the first time). the paint job is good, but i didnet exactly get that windex shine i was looking for i was thinking if i should wet sand it or just polish it or honestly im not sure. any ideas on how to get the paint of the moldings and chrome without replacing them (which gets costly). and also to get the shine im looking for.

 

You can try claybar on the over spray, and if that doesn't get it, enamel reducer should, IF you get it soon. Once urethane enamel cures fully it's extremely hard to remove.

If you use enamel reducer you're going to have to be very careful not to get it on the car's paint itself. Tape off the panel and don't get the rag too wet when you work on the trim.

As for the gloss you want...well...it could be many things, the least of which being that the paint quality isn't that great. If they sprayed a budget clearcoat (or single stage if that's the case for you) then the gloss will not be the same as a high line paint. You can buff away forever and it won't shine like a high end Sikkens, DuPont, PPG, Spies Hecker etc. You should ask them EXACTLY what brand and line of paint they used. There are levels from all manufacturers, so just a brand name is not enough. There is a term known as 'DOI" which refers to Definition Of Image, the clarity/reflectiveness of a given clearcoat's ability to mirror the way water reflects on a panel of paint. Water has a DOI of 10, the better clears get to 8, maybe 9 on the highest end. Cheaper clears are 6's and 7s.


That said, wet sanding it isn't necessarily the answer, because you'll have to buff the wetsanding haze just the same as if you buffed /polished the paint as it now is.

Personally, if I were in your shoes, (and I wasn't skilled in paint remediation as I am) I would go back and ask THEM why the shine isn't very good. They SHOULD HAVE delivered the car to you in optimum condition, buffed and polished if need be.

Speak up, you said you paid a good deal of money for the job, so make them amenable to that.

If you want to try to bring it up yourself, we can work out a plan, but you need a lot more info before you do that, so you don't spend a lot more money on tools, compounds and polishes in vain.

You need to know what line of paint, whether it's base/clear or single stage, how many coats they sprayed (VERY important when you start contemplating wetsanding!) and whether or not it was baked or not.

The curing of the paint has a lot to do with how it polishes out initially.

Hope this helps.

 

GUITARMAN, couldn't have put it better myself. I had my first car painted over and i had the same problem you do, shine wasn't as good as i thought would be and just dull overall. I know for a fact that he used Dupont which was very costly. To keep a long story short, I ended up taking it to another shop that my best friend dealt with and the guy there does awesome buffing/polishing. He ended up wet sanding and buffing/polishing the car and I kid you not when i say it looked like a mirror (color was black). I ended up paying $150 for the buffing/polishing. Since then i've purchased 3 cars and they all go to his shop to be polished.
As Guitarman said though, take it back to the shop and see what they tell you. GL