We used to wet sand with 2500 and polish with a pneumatic polishing wheel as soon as the clear was dry. We did that to every car that we painted. Have not had a single car come back in a LONG time(knock on wood). If its dry enough to drive down the road then its dry enough to wash.. trust me. The wind at 60mph would be much more brutal than a water hose.

 

That paint job was for a truck black, just like yours, with little or no body damage. I think we replaced the hood with a steel one, but other than that, not much body work.

If you were completely painting the truck..
We would start with going over every part to be repainted with 400grit and a DA sander.. takes FOREVER.(of course I am talking no body work because all body work has to be taken care of separately) Usually you would put some sort of sealer, and then paint it. You can clear it after you let the paint cure for just a little bit. There is no sanding between coats that I am aware of and then again other shops may do different things. After all that dries then you wet sand it to get rid of any orange peel and then polish it all out till it looks like a mirror.

The cost to paint the coupe depends alot on body work and paint color. If it just needs paint then you might get away with $1,400-2,000ish. Seems like a decent price to me.

 

Well I stopped by the dealership a little while ago, and they are just about ready to finish it up.. it's gonna finished by the end of the day. It looks like b2therad and raptor were right about the paint blend. They sanded the clear down, repaired the area, and primed the repair. It looks good enough so far. I'm guessing repainting the whole hood might have been a better end result, but I doubt I'll be able to tell the difference when it's all said and done.

Here's what I've been driving around with for the past few months.. my DIY repair..



And here's a few pics I snapped with the repair job in process.

 

It's black. The color is easy to match, but the finish and orange peel aren't. In the sun you'll be able to tell it was repainted.

 

Is that because they did a spot-job on his? I can't tell that mine were repainted when I look at them in the sun.

 

I think he's comparing any repaint job to the factory paint job. Orange peel and finish are never really gonna be the same. If done right, just about any decent shop can have a better finish than most stock paint jobs.

 

Psh! The finish is whatever you make it. You can make a 12 year old paint job look brand new. The whole reason for re-clearing the whole hood is so that the finish will be the same throughout. If there is orange peel then I suggest you get them to polish it. If there is still orange peel or what would appear to be.. its not orange peel. A little wet-sanding and a polishing wheel goes a long way.

I had suspected that was how they were going to repaint it. But I have to say for a touch up job, thats not that bad.

 

okok.. I picked up the truck from the body shop about an hour ago.. and it looks pretty good! definately worth the $290 spent gettin it done right.. most other shops in town were askin $400-500.. and this carries a lifetime warranty on the paint and workmanship..

anywho.. it looks spot on to me.. I'm assuming they did a paint blend, considering the repair pic, but I can't see any difference in color or finish, if anything the hoods finish has slightly less orange peel, but I'm not complaining.. in the sun or in the shade it looks good either way

Here's a few pics.. tell me whatcha think.






btw.. this was what it looked like originally.. before my DIY and professional repair..

 

That looks fantastic! They did a great job. Glad you got it all fixed, but it still sucks that you had to pay for it just because some bunghole decided to be jealous of your truck.

 

Thanks..

I knew in the back of my mind when I bought the truck and fixed it up there were chances of petty vandalism.. but I've had the truck for nearly 2 years now and this was the only thing so far... guess I'm doing okay..

I dunno why I put it off for so long.. It's sooo much nicer not having to see the patch up job anymore.. lol

 

It looks brand new.