•  On Oct, 01, 2018
•  admin
•   Painting Cars

Custom Car Paint Jobs are NOT all the Same

Not all auto paint jobs are the same, but how can you tell? What makes some auto paint jobs better than others? Keep reading to find out.

It all comes down to how thoroughly the auto body repair shop is with your car. Here are a few things the professionals always do to ensure a job well done:

1. Locate All the Dents, Dings, and Scratches

The auto body shop should inspect the body of the car to ensure there are no dents, dings, and scratches. They need to have a smooth canvas before they can start to paint the car.

2. Eliminate all Low Spots and Minor Dings

The auto body shop should not paint over unfilled low spots and minor dings, as it will ruin the look of the car. A professional and experienced auto body shop will access the back side of the panel and eliminate the ding using a body hammer.

Dents less than 1/8-inch deep can be filled with a body filler. If your car has several dents, they will remove the paint from the divots. Then fill them in using a plastic spreader. It’s important you visit an auto body shop for this, as if done improperly, the filler will come out of the dent.

3. Sand the Coat of Paint

The auto body shop will sand the coat of paint after applying it to the body of the car. Again, doing this at home can result in leaving a mark on the paint. When you sand incorrectly on a glossy coat of paint, it will look horrible.

4. Get the Panels Flat and Smooth

The auto body shop will ensure the panels are smooth and flat. If they are not smooth and flat, the paint will not shine through. If you apply a new coat of paint on any imperfections left not repaired, the imperfections will stand out like a sore thumb. The auto body shop will sand in several directions throughout the sanding process to eliminate the imperfections (such as perceivable patterns and grooves).

5. Use Guide Coat to Ensure Panel is Smooth and Flat

The auto body shop will use a guide coat to ensure the panel is flat and smooth before they apply the coat of paint on the car. Before they change the sandpaper grits, they will spray a coat of paint on the panel. Once the guide coat dries, they will sand with another grit of sandpaper to prepare the car for painting.

6. Use Masking Tape

They will place masking tape on the car before they start to paint it. Masking tape will not stick to greasy, wax-covered surfaces, or dirty surfaces, and it comes off easily when the paint has dried. They will remove the masking tape and use wax and grease to clean areas where the placed the tape.

An auto body shop following these steps (plus some other tricks of the trade), do a better job at painting cars than others.  Since you now know the general process, you’ll be able to ask insightful questions to communicate with the company about to work on your car! You never know, maybe you’ll love it so much you’ll want to get a custom paint job!