my friend got his car painted and got it back from the shop. we both noticed there was some dust on the car from when it was painted. is there a way to get it out? can he buff it and that would take it out? or if he buffs it would he have to get it clear coated again? any info would help. tia.

No, that is terrible. If there is dust in the paint, there is no real safe way to get it out. If it ended up on the top coat of clear, you may be able to wet sand and buff it. But most likely it settled on the base coat before they shot the clear coat (they had to let the base coat dry for at least an hour before shooting the clear). Are there dips in the paint where it goes in (known as "fish eye"). There is no way to fix fish eye if there is some in the paint. I would go back to the shop and see what they want to do. Don't try to buff it out yourself or you may make it worse.

no we didnt notice any fisheye. the only reason im asking is because he painted his car to look good and it sucks that there is dust in it. also my uncle does professional body work whether it be paint or buffing or what not. man this sucks cause the paint he chose looks awesome, but the dust takes away from it.

btw, what causes fisheye? sorry im a noob :(

Dust actually can cause fish eye. I think it's because the paint doesn't end up on the car (instead it ends up on the dust or bug or whatever contaniment is on there). So then you end up with dips in the paint from where it was not evenly spread onto the car's surface.

actually, oils, waxes and greases are more likely to cause fisheyes than dust

Originally posted by eclipse804
No, that is terrible. If there is dust in the paint, there is no real safe way to get it out. If it ended up on the top coat of clear, you may be able to wet sand and buff it. But most likely it settled on the base coat before they shot the clear coat (they had to let the base coat dry for at least an hour before shooting the clear). Are there dips in the paint where it goes in (known as "fish eye"). There is no way to fix fish eye if there is some in the paint. I would go back to the shop and see what they want to do. Don't try to buff it out yourself or you may make it worse.

usually you just want to give enough time to clean out the gun in between base and clear coats. the less time you give it the shineyer (sp?) it will be.

wax, grease will cause fish eyes. and they do make stuff to fix those. Fish Eye Remover.

I'd say take it back and have them do it again.

Originally posted by 95_ESi_Person

Originally posted by eclipse804 No, that is terrible. If there is dust in the paint, there is no real safe way to get it out. If it ended up on the top coat of clear, you may be able to wet sand and buff it. But most likely it settled on the base coat before they shot the clear coat (they had to let the base coat dry for at least an hour before shooting the clear). Are there dips in the paint where it goes in (known as "fish eye"). There is no way to fix fish eye if there is some in the paint. I would go back to the shop and see what they want to do. Don't try to buff it out yourself or you may make it worse.

usually you just want to give enough time to clean out the gun in between base and clear coats. the less time you give it the shineyer (sp?) it will be. wax, grease will cause fish eyes. and they do make stuff to fix those. Fish Eye Remover. I'd say take it back and have them do it again.

Oh I didn't think about that. They must do very little prep work to have wax or grease left on the surface. I sanded my car probably 5 times and use thinner all over it to clean it off.

How does fish eye remover work? I have no idea how it would fix dips in the paint. Usually if there is fish eye, it gets repainted at good shops. Also, for PPG/Dupont paints, you don't wait too long between base and clear. But with Sherwin Williams paint, they actually have a paint line that requires you let the base dry before you shoot the clear. The shop that painted my 2gnt switched to sherwin-williams from PPG. My wrx side skirts were painted with the sherwin-williams paint, and the clear was sprayed a day after the base and pearl coats were sprayed. This method allows you to clear coat a lot of parts from various cars (different colors) at the same time, and actually comes out looking nicer than traditional paints ccording to the shop.

yeah, I used PPG. dips? i know with runs you sand away and hope you don't go through (which i've done, it sucked!)

PPG Deltron rocks, but $700 for 2 quarts of Radiant Fire Red, 1 gal clear (concept?) and chemicals?!!!?!!! hell, it looks good, my sig shows it, but car is dirty in it

silicone is a big thing that will also cause fish eyes.... hopefully the dust is as said above in the clear... that way you can wet sand it with 2000 and then polish it.....

thanks guys. the dust was on top of the clear coat. he got it all removed by having it wetsanded with 1500 and then buffed. thanks a lot guys.

btw my car is in the shop, different one, and getting painted. sonic blue pearlcoate. :) cant wait till its finished.

and i really do appreciate you guys taking your time to help a brotha out.:thumbsup + 2 for all you fellas.:thumbsup

Originally posted by icedout
silicone is a big thing that will also cause fish eyes.... hopefully the dust is as said above in the clear... that way you can wet sand it with 2000 and then polish it.....

You're right icedout....the most likely cause of fisheye is silicon contamination in the air, or on the paintable surface...for example...if the shop it was painted on is fairly small, or it could be big...if it has a good bit of air circulating, and someone in the shop somewhere is misting armorall on a car....it will cause fisheyes on anything painted that isn't already in a sealed, and properly filtered spray booth. AND..for the fisheye remover...it doesn't actually remove fisheyes, but it is liquid SILICONE, and other additives that make the paint flow onto the surface of a potentially contaminated car. Silicone and paint carry similar characteristics as oil and water if you want an easy way to understand it. It is not recommended to use fisheye remover on vehicles if you are not having problems with fisheye. Hope that helps.

fisheyes... i have two ways of avoiding them... (especially when painting car yourself)

1. when wet sanding have some simple green in the water. that helps remove a lot of the wax.

2. use some prep salts when done wet sanding. (PPG Acrylli-clean)

I used both methods. i went: prep salts --> wet sand w/simple green --> prep salts again