I had some body work done by a shop that is pretty low tech, but I saw some of their paint work and it looked nice.

Well, I got my car back and the parts they painted have little dots in it here and there, where the paint did not stick or something. You painters may already know what I am talking about, but further explanation would be say if you held a ballpoint pen tip to the body part, sprayed paint, and removed the pen, they are just veeery small dots. What the hell causes that?

I'd like to get some background on this stuff before I take it back in and see if they will repaint the panels. BTW, these small spots are both on urethane and metal, so .. I dunno if it means they didnt prep the surfaces correct or what, from a few feet away the paint looks great, exact color match and all that jaz.

Thanks

im no paint tech, but it sounds like they had something on the panels that prevented the paint from sticking in certain areas..or lack of prep work didnt allow the surface to take hold of the paint properly. just my guess

yea, obviously if I can see it, then they saw it and passed it off onto me, so I am definately going to take it back and have them refinish, just wanted to know what the deal was incase they try to snow me again.

I have had many parts painted by several diff places and never had this before.

What you are descibing is what is called "fish eyes" in the paint. Caused by shitty prep work, among other things. Tell them you want each and every fish eye sanded out and the panels repainted correctly.

^^^Yep, what optikal said! Some call them "pits" and some call them "fish eyes". Either way I would demand they wetsand and buff out!

Sometimes it's caused by dust in the painting area, if the shop doesnt have a good paint booth, that would more than likely be the culprit. They SHOULD fix it for you for free since they screwed up the first time, if they refuse or try to pass of the blame somewhere, there are gov't agencies that you can call and get on their backs. Personally I hate being ripped off like that, and I know how bad it sucks.

Yeah, I am no body pro, so I have to trust people a little more than I should. The reason I went to this low-rent place was because my distant cousin works there and he said 'good paint comes out of here', and the jobs I saw looked pretty good actually, and they were willing to let me buy the aftermarket parts I needed replaced.

This was an insurrance job, I paid them fully what the insurrance gave me, so yeah, I am going to call and tell them what you all said and hope for the best.

Any additional info you all have keep on coming, or agencies I will need to get in touch with if things go sour, which could quite possibly happen.

Edit: btw, this is the hood, both fenders, and front bumper. I would guestimate I could count 50-75 'fish-eye's' overall, and a run or 2 as well as shotty fitment issues... Kinda not wanting them to touch the car again, but dont want it left like this either.

Originally posted by Super20G
Edit: btw, this is the hood, both fenders, and front bumper. I would guestimate I could count 50-75 'fish-eye's' overall, and a run or 2 as well as shotty fitment issues... Kinda not wanting them to touch the car again, but dont want it left like this either.

almost sounds like the shop was too cold to paint in...... most of the places that are not so top quality use tons of fisheye remover in the paint to compensate. Maybe your insurance company can help you if they decide not to repaint it.

Originally posted by madhatter210

Originally posted by Super20G Edit: btw, this is the hood, both fenders, and front bumper. I would guestimate I could count 50-75 'fish-eye's' overall, and a run or 2 as well as shotty fitment issues... Kinda not wanting them to touch the car again, but dont want it left like this either.

almost sounds like the shop was too cold to paint in...... most of the places that are not so top quality use tons of fisheye remover in the paint to compensate. Maybe your insurance company can help you if they decide not to repaint it.

Yea either the surface was contaminated by someones hand or something in the wetsand water. Heating the shop with a kersene heater or propane may do that also but like stated above additives must be included in the paint to reduce the effects of fumes in air. these additive are not usually included unless needed, every shop i have been in only added as needed, not cheap shops either but everyone has diff experience. Sometimes thereis no guarenteed way to say what caused fisheyes, it becomes a guessing game.

Terry



96 Eagle Talon ESI....Daily driver

97 Eclipse.........

Yeah, what they all said ^^^

It's VERY hard to find a reliable body shop. I went thru 4 different shops over the year my car was overhauled.

Originally posted by CrazyEclipse
Yeah, what they all said ^^^ It's VERY hard to find a reliable body shop. I went thru 4 different shops over the year my car was overhauled.

yeah and it still looks like shit :whoa

Just kidding

Terry
96 Eagle Talon ESI....Daily driver

97 Eclipse.........

I took the car out and had the owner of the shop take a look at it. He is going to repaint a couple of the panels and buff out the front some more. Hopefully this time they will get most of it looking better.

Glad to hear he's repainting the panels. Fish eye CANNOT be buffed out no matter what they say. Fish eye is a physical dip in the paint, most likely due to dust in the paint booth. If they buff it out, they are just making your clear coat extremely thin in that area. My friend's shop had a freshly painted hood that was perfect, and then a small fly landed on it. It left a very small dip in the paint, which probably could have been buffed out if they didn't care about the clear coat there. But they ended up repainting because that's the only right way to fix it imo.

YEP, you got fisheyes. Were the parts painted fiberglass or urathane? More common in fiber glass. When preping with urathane filler primer you have to use your finger and make sure those holes are filled with primer. Then your finger marks will sand out in the block sand before paint.

Let this thread die. They are repainting it, two, maybe three people that responded know what they are talking about.