Paint Sanding Only One Side of Car

[intlhuckster]

Hi, I have a question about paint sanding. My new car was damaged in an accident. The 1st body shop worked on it twice but there was still filler ripples on both door panels. I took it to a new body shop and they thought they could minimize the ripples by paint sanding the doors. It did minimize the ripples, but I can still see them. The bigger issue is the finish on the car. They paint sanded both doors and the front and rear panel on the drivers side and they look great and have a glass finish. The problem is the rest of the car does not. The factory paint had more of an orange peel finish and there is a definite difference between the drivers side and the rest of the car.

I haven't spoken to my insurance company or the body shop yet because I wanted to get some advice. I have a feeling the suggested solution is going to be to paint sand the rest of the car. This is a new car and we plan on keeping it a long time and I am concerned about paint sanding the factory paint and clear coat damage down the road. Also am I correct in assuming the only way to match the finish is either to paint sand the entire car or repaint the damaged section?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[intlhuckster]

Re: Paint Sanding Only One Side of Car

I meant color sanding or wet sanding.

[DetailFreak517]

Re: Paint Sanding Only One Side of Car

If the ripples are in the body filler, the only thing they can do to fix it is sand all the way down to the filler and level it, then re-paint the affected panels again. They can restore the orange peel finish on the panels they color sanded so it matches the rest of the car.

Sounds like you had two body shops that don't know what they're doing work on the car. The LAST thing you want is for them to refinish the rest of the car and destroy perfectly good factory paint -- just have them rework the areas they screwed up on and call it a day.

[Selectchoice]

Re: Paint Sanding Only One Side of Car

I would approach your insurance company first. See if they can send you to another shop they recommend to correct the original repair.

Not sure if it's filler that is causing the ripples in this instance, but sanding the orange peel out on factory paint is just making your overall paint thickness, which is needed to protect from UV and the like, thinner. Maybe too thin, or maybe just thin enough that there won't be any "workability" in the paint. By that I mean the remaining paint after sanding is too thin to remove any swirls, scratches and the like safely in the future without exposing the basecoat and therefore requiring a repaint.