I used to swear by the cheap Sherwin-Williams stuff from the local auto paint supply place near my shop in Cleveland. Thought paying $65 a quart for PPG was just a waste. Then I had a custom silver metallic job that kept tiger-striping on me with the cheap paint, and after 3 resprays I finally caved and tried the PPG. One coat laid down perfect, no streaks, and it matched the factory color dead on. Anyone else have a product they were skeptical about that ended up saving your butt on a tough job?
I keep seeing cars come through this shop in Austin where the previous guy laid on like half an inch of filler on plastic bumpers. It always cracks out after 6 months because nobody preps the surface right. Am I the only one who sees this or is it just my area?
I always kept the pad flat and just pressed down hard like a grinder. A coworker at the shop last Thursday pointed out I was leaving holograms all over my paint jobs. Has anyone else had to unlearn bad habits from early in their career?
I visited a Ford dealership last week and looked at a 2025 F-150 on the lot. The orange peel on the hood was way worse than anything I'd fix on a $500 respray, and this is a $60k truck straight from the factory. Has anyone else noticed this trend or am I just being too picky?
I grabbed a forgotten tube of seam sealer from my shelf last week, the one that's been sitting since 2019. Smelled fine but it came out clumpy and never fully set. Had to sand down a whole quarter panel job and start over because it cracked after two days. Check the date codes on your adhesives, especially if you buy in bulk like me. Anyone else get burned by old material that looked okay?
Had a 2012 Ford Focus with some nasty orange peel and normally I stop at 2000 grit. Took it up to 3000 this time and the haze was way deeper than I expected before I even touched the compound. Anyone else find that going finer just means more buffing time or am I missing something?
I used to just use soft pads on everything for years, but after a job on a 2018 Civic with weird body lines last month, I tried a long hard block on the panels. The flatness is way better and I'm not chasing low spots as much. Has anyone else found certain panels just need a hard block no matter what?
Used bondo brand for years. Did a hood repair last month and it took forever to sand flat. Pinholes everywhere. Switched to 3M Platinum Plus on a door ding this week. Night and day. Sanded smooth in half the time. Anyone else find a brand that made a big difference?
Got a 2000 Civic I'm painting next weekend. I was sure HVLP was the way to go since everyone talks about transfer efficiency. But the guy at the auto paint supply shop near me talked me into a conventional gun for like $80 less and said I'd get better flow with my little compressor. Now I'm reading online that conventional puts out way more mist. My garage is tight, maybe 12 by 20 feet. Am I going to fog up everything in there? Anyone else been in this spot with a small space?
A guy left a solvent-soaked rag in a pile near the heater and it went up in about 2 minutes. Has anyone else dealt with rags spontaneously combusting after using acetone?
I don't know what was in the air but I did three door jobs and a quarter panel replacement and every gap measured spot on. No shimming, no tweaking, no redo. Usually I mess with at least one. Has anyone else had a day like that or am I just getting lucky?
I was in the middle of a clear coat on a 2022 Ford F-150 hood yesterday and my Iwata gun just STOPPED spraying. No sputter, no warning, just dead air. Turns out the internal seal blew out and fluid was leaking everywhere inside the cup. I had to strip the whole thing down in the middle of my booth and swap to a backup gun that cost me an extra 45 minutes. Has anyone else had a new gun fail like this right out of the box?
I have been pushing hard on a restoration job for a classic Mustang, and I logged just over 100 hours of spray time in 30 days. My respirator started smelling like paint even after I changed the filters, and now I have this nagging cough that won't quit. Anyone else ever hit a point where your gear just stops protecting you even with fresh parts?
Had a 2018 Corolla rear bumper with a nasty crack last Friday. I was going to just replace it since that's what I usually do, but a buddy from the shop next door said to try the plastic repair kit from 3M instead. Spent about $45 on the kit and $30 on my time versus the $400 for a new bumper. It came out pretty dang good, no warping or anything. Anybody else start fixing plastics more lately or still swapping them out?
Spent extra time masking everything off and still ended up with a tiny line where the hinge met the door jamb. Customer didnt notice until the third day. Now I wonder if pulling doors is worth the extra labor even though it risks alignment issues. What do you guys usually do on a full respray?
He said I was laying it on like syrup and causing runs that took forever to sand out. I cut back by about 20% and now I finish panels in half the time with way less rework. Anyone else get feedback that totally changed their spraying technique?
I used to always go with standard filler primer on door skins because that's what I learned. But after a job in March where I had to fix a 2015 Civic door with hail damage, the pin holes kept showing through after three coats. My guy on the crew kept saying try the high-build stuff but I resisted for over a year. Finally caved and bought a quart of Evercoat high-build primer and the difference was night and day. Took two coats to fill everything smooth and saved me about 2 hours of sanding. Has anyone else stuck with an old habit way too long before trying something better?
Last week I turned down a $400 job from State Farm because the estimate they wrote was way off from what I could actually do hourly. But then a buddy of mine said I was stupid, that low pay beats no pay in a slow month. Who here actually walks from those jobs and who just takes the hit?
I spent $200 on a cheap wall-mount dust extractor from Amazon last month, thinking it would keep my booth clean during sanding. But it barely pulled any air, and I ended up with dust all over my fresh primer job. Had to stop work and borrow my buddy's shop vac just to finish the day. Anyone else get burned by these budget dust collectors? What actually works?
I was picking up some sandpaper yesterday and this older body guy was telling the counter guy he uses a heat gun for 10 seconds on those brittle plastic clips before prying them off. Claims he almost never breaks them anymore. I got home and tried it on a 2012 Civic front bumper I'm working on and it actually worked pretty well. Has anyone else tried this or do you just buy a box of replacements like I usually do?
Was working on a 2019 Honda Accord last Wednesday, did the prep and base coat perfect but then my gun sputtered halfway through the clear. Ended up with this weird orange peel patch near the rear quarter panel that took forever to sand back down. Anyone got a trick for fixing gun sputter on fresh clear without having to redo the whole panel?
I got this truck in the bay that looked like someone keyed it from front to back on both sides. Not deep scratches, just ugly white lines all over the dark blue paint. My old method of wet sanding and buffing by hand would have taken me two days easy and probably still left some haze. So I tried out a DA polisher with a wool pad and some heavy cut compound I had sitting around for years. I hit one test panel and the difference was night and day in about 20 minutes. The whole job took me 4 hours total and the owner asked me if I repainted the doors. Now I'm wondering why I stuck with hand work for so long on this kind of damage. Has anyone else switched to a DA for scratch removal and seen way better results?