Spot repair

[John S]

This may be lengthy so please bear with me and as far as comments go please feel free to say anything you need to as I cannot be offended. The pictures I have show a rust repair near the halo top trim. No one would repair this for me. I found a body shop who did some work on a friend of mine‘s car and did an excellent job and he agreed to do it. When I picked up the car it looked fantastic the blending looked great I was happy. It has been close to a week now and the paint is still soft. By that I mean if you touch it with your finger nail  it will leave an indention in the paint. I do not know if the primer did not sufficiently harden or if there was no catalyst put in the paint. You can see the marks in the paint in the first picture. The last picture is when I picked up the car. Let me know what you think and you don’t have to hold back  I’m sure I screwed up but give me some ideas on what you think. I think the paint should have hardened by now, it is still soft. Tell me what you think went wrong I’m sure somebody out there is knowledgeable on this. I worked in the autobody business from 1978 to 1990 I’m sure things are a lot different now.

John S

[jft69z]

First off, did you ask the body shop about it yet?

Second, what kind of paint did they use? Base/clear, single stage urethane, enamel? That will make a difference on drying time. This is probably the most important factor right now, what kind of paint & primer is underneath. 

Maybe put it in the sun for a bit to help harden it up too, see what happens.

[John S]

Base coat clear coat

[jft69z]

Hmmm...Typically B/C dries pretty quick. Usually I'm scuffing & buffing it the next day or two depending on what I used. I'd still put it out in the sun for a spell. Don't be surprised it it dies down a little or shrinks a bit after heating it up. Worst case, they screwed something up and it'll show up after heating it.

[John S]

I’ll wait and see if there’s any improvement over the next couple days. I hate to speculate but possibly whatever primer they used may not have fully cured before it was painted.

John S

[Rancid87]

In the last picture it's hard to tell but looks like there might be evidence (maybe 1.5" from the left of the  picture just above the drop rail molding) of some solvent pop. It could be a reflection from your garage though - hard to tell! When painting a small spot like that it is easy to go overboard and apply too much paint too soon.

[John S]

2 hours ago, Rancid87 said:

In the last picture it's hard to tell but looks like there might be evidence (maybe 1.5" from the left of the  picture just above the drop rail molding) of some solvent pop. It could be a reflection from your garage though - hard to tell! When painting a small spot like that it is easy to go overboard and apply too much paint too soon.

Yes I see that. Just wondering if solvents may still be trapped inside. The problem I had was no one wanted to touch it. Two restoration shops in my area kept pushing forward dates to get it fixed finally after 18 months I gave up. It’s frustrating because when I worked in auto body, which I did for 12, years I’ve repaired many jobs similar to that. I cannot do the work anymore due to injuries, numerous hand surgeries and i’ve lost feeling in the tips of my fingers.