Body shop finish

[Bear]

My wife's CRV got hit in the rear door and quarter panel last month and we had a local body shop do the repairs. When done the entire vehicle looked brand new and has seemed to repel salt spray and grime for the three weeks we've had it back.
Now I take great pride in maintaining our vehicles and do a full blown wash, clay, polish, wax ritual every spring and fall with good results, but their work just blew me away.
Does anyone know what body shops might use to achieve this great finish?
I do plan to call and ask but not optimistic that they will reveal what they use.
And sorry, no pictures. You'll have to take my word for how this 2008 looks.

 

[SatinSilver]

Leave some positive online reviews for them if you can on yelp, etc. Two kinds of body shops, Top Notch ones and the horrible ones. Copart even has cars on there where the customers rejected the repair, that's how bad some of them are. My guess would be 3M Professional Grade, not cheap but a little goes a long way. Plus it helps buying in large quantity.

 

[Trav]

Chances are its just the oils and lubricants from the compound and swirl remover they used to buff it after painting, I doubt they used any sort of sealer or wax.

 

[E150GT]

Originally Posted By: Trav
Chances are its just the oils and lubricants from the compound and swirl remover they used to buff it after painting, I doubt they used any sort of sealer or wax.

I would have to agree with this since I always thought you werent supposed to apply anything to fresh paint until its cured. At least after a respray and non factory paint process.

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: SatinSilver
Leave some positive online reviews for them if you can on yelp, etc. Two kinds of body shops, Top Notch ones and the horrible ones. Copart even has cars on there where the customers rejected the repair, that's how bad some of them are. My guess would be 3M Professional Grade, not cheap but a little goes a long way. Plus it helps buying in large quantity.


So true.

The trend is insurance referral shops. To the uninformed comsumer, its streamlined... in reality, its adherence to insurance company procedures and hourly rates that may be subpar.

If a teferral shop has enough room in their pre-negotiated rate to give you the best, wonderful. But dont count on it.

 

[JetStar]

Originally Posted By: E150GT
Originally Posted By: Trav
Chances are its just the oils and lubricants from the compound and swirl remover they used to buff it after painting, I doubt they used any sort of sealer or wax.

I would have to agree with this since I always thought you werent supposed to apply anything to fresh paint until its cured. At least after a respray and non factory paint process.


Yea, its not good to trap evaporating solvents under wax, we used to call it vapor popping.

 

[nthach]

A lot of body shops will use 3M Perfect-It compounds/glazes and a rotary buffer - they're kinda old school compared to what detailers use, but a body shop is more worried about production than perfection.

If you must polish at home, I recommend using a random orbital polisher(Porter-Cable 7424 or it's Harbor Freight copy) than a rotary one - the former is much more forgiving than the latter. Rotary buffers can burn through your paint if you're not careful, so can a random orbit. Get yourself some Menzerna Intensive Polish, Meguiar's Ultimate Polish(or their 105/205 Mirror Glaze professional line) or a "correcting cream" with an orange pad. Go slowly and lightly. You don't need/want to use old school rubbing compound. Move on to a new panel once the swirls are gone and check your work regularly.

 

[Trav]

There is nothing wrong with 3M Perfect it products or a rotary buffer if you know how to use it.

 

[CharBaby]

According to a very reputable collision shop in my area, the products they using today are even waaaaaaay better than product just 8-10 years ago. The guy(Jim) that I spoke with, didn't give me any secrets about how exactly they do the whole job but they replaced the Rear Passenger Door Skin on the Mazda3 in my signature and quite honestly, they painted/blended/feathered that whole side of the car in order to match the new work that was done...They didn't just paint the one door, which would have been seen on some shoddy workmanship from a mile away(miss match color)!

So needless to say, the shop did a wonderful job matching the paint(SILVER) on the whole side of the car because well, they painted(and cleared) that whole side in order to match the rest of the car that the eye could see. I don't know where the tech blended/feathered on the car(where the tech stopped) as the blend work is very good!

 

[Trav]

It would be very rare to spay a single panel on any car and have it match the one next to it even black and whites, blending is the only way. Its an optical illusion, nothing more and very easy to do with base/clear but metallic single stage lacquers and enamels can be a real challenge.

 

[CharBaby]

Indeed!