Hi Gang,

Long story so won't go there for now. My black 08 has been buffed several times to remove water etching. The dealer is footing the bill on this so guess I won't rant yet. The car still has very bad buffer trails and swirls all over. The detailer that is handleing it now says they did eight passes the first time it was in and even had to wet sand a few places to remove the etching. He feels that it will take him at least five more correction processes to get back it to where I had it. My question is at what point, or thickness, of the clearcoat should the correction process be stopped? I know there are ways to measure it and would like to know when it's time to tell the dealer game over. Thanks in advance and no names will be used until this ordeal is over. Only fair to those involved, IMO, at this time.

 

Sounds kind of excessive for water etching. How bad was it? If the Vette is that new, I would definitely be concerned, but without a thickness gauge there is no way to tell.

 

Thickness -

A clear coat has a thickness of 1.5 – 2.0 Mils, removing more that 0.4 mil (0.0004") of clear coat will cause premature paint film failure. As a point of reference two sheets of Saran wrap placed on top of each other measure 1.5Mil (0.0015") a surface scratch that will `catch' your fingernail is approximately 0.004" deep and will usually require wet sanding and refinishing.

Using a moderate to light polish; and utilizing a rotary polisher will remove approximately 0.000025 - inches (0.635 Microns) from the paint surface (they are many variables such as polish/compound and speed / pressure used that may affect the paint removed)

There comes a point when you must judge wither removing a scratch will compromise the clear coat and if so you’ll have to ‘live’ with the imperfection

 

wow DaBum you need to talk to a top paint pro imho your in need of a wet sand and some new clear coat it's a 08 and black to boot the thing that worries me it that your paint should be able to be buffed out now BUT at the cost of removing way to much clear coat the uv protection will be compromised and you still have to be able to polish your ride for many more years to come.The prospect of future premature paint failure should be of GREAT concern .... I think it's in your best interest to have a top notch paint shop do a evaluation and call your lawyer good luck and let us know how it turns out

 

I would have them use a PDG and check each panel. If they have burned through it and there isn't much thickness leftl, then you can push to have the car recleared. At least that way you would have it color sanded and there wouldn't be any orange peel. Good luck.

 

At a minimum the dealership would need a PTG like the Defelsko PosiTector 200 Series for the composite/plastic body on the vette. Google it and you will see the cost is $1700. Its going to be hard to find somebody with one. I myself have the advanced version of the 200 series. I have not had it long enough yet to give you my opinion of how much clear the vette starts with.

 

Thanks all and the removing of to much clear and premature paint failure is my concern. As a reference I will throw up one pic of the water etching after I got the car back from being serviced. Hard to look at but here you go.

 

Damn Dabum...and thats an 08 pretty messed up. I agree with what others have said. If they burned through the clear the you need to have they reclear it...good Luck

On the bright side,...I don't see any swirl marks near the reflection of the sun.

 

For what I can see on the photo there doesn't appear to be any 'breakthrough' of the CC (Strike-through (burning through clear coat) begins as a small circular ‘halo’ where the clear has begun to delaminate from the basecoat, as heat is generated the halo becomes larger and the area becomes area opaque compared to surrounding paint surface t usually appears as a 'Halo')

 

You guys never cease to amaze me!

TOGWT, your in-debt knowledge is truly incredible.

GMBLACK3, you have all the cool toys. I hate you. J/K

Big – you are correct, there were no swirls when the car was dropped off for service. I bought the car the last week of June and probably had close to 60 hours of correction into the car with a PC, SIP, NANO and Zaino. Here is a pic of me taking a picture of my ugly self with the hood up, let's call this before:


Here is a pic of where we are now.



When the full book comes out I will share pics of each step along the way buy it is as I said earlier, a very long story. This is probably going to have to go the lawyer route as Stig-zz sugested, thus no names will be mentioned until this is resolved. Thanks again everyone.

 

looks like dealer left it in sprinklers and the mineral deposits baked into the finish in hot sun. Polishing likely wont break thru clearcoat, although wet sanding (depending on how deep the etching is) could, but as offered without a guage its almost impossible to measure correctly.

 

that's some nasty looking $hit etching looks pretty deep to me
is that wax or burn-thru on the edges ???wet sanding would do wonders i would fight for adding some new clear sounds like the problem is not of your making and the dealer should step up to the plate One nice thing with a wet sand no more orange peel
A high-end paint shop can make your baby better then new good luck and keep us posted

 

OMG, Holly S**t! Man, I feel for you, guy. I have no advice, only empathetic sympathy. I sure hope this works out for you, but IMHO, once they get that cleaned up, and comfirm there's no burn-through, they gotta add CC.

All the best on your journey through perdition!

 

That really doesn't look bad at all. I don't know what the detailer did on those eight passes, but that shouldn't be very hard to remove, and the risk to your clear coat from what I can see should be minimal. One thing is for sure, do NOT let him continue to wet sand. Even if it is worse than I am judging it, a pass or two with Menz PG with a 60/40 wool/acryl blend on a rotary is about as aggressive as that should ever need.

 

Thanks everyone and I will keep you posted. PurePrestidge,I hope you're right but the amout of buffing that has already been done has me concerned with premature paint faiure.

Thanks again everynoe.

 

Paint Removed by Polishing - using a moderate to light polish; and utilizing a rotary polisher will remove approximately 0.000025 - inches (0.635 Microns) from the paint surface (there are many variables such as polish/compound and speed / pressure used that may affect the paint removed)
If you have reservations about the amount of paint surface removed or the amount of paint coating remaining the use of a paint thickness gauge (PTG) is arbitrary

 

I would not have any work down until you find out how much clear it has left. Find someone that knows how to use a paint thickness guage and can measure it. I measure all my cars I work on every time and then determine the process.

Your difficulty will be finding someone with a PTG that will read the fiberglass.

Trust me..............don't do any work until you establish how much CLEAR is there and how much should be there.

Cheers,
GREG

 

hmmmmm Ok so after reading this....if measuring the clear coat is the way to go....how come the machine and places having them are so scarce? I know it sounds like a lot of money...but you would think any reputable buffing/paint repair place would have one? OR is it just not a very profitable business and they figure if you have paint issues where your questioning how much clear you have...you should just bite the bullet and get it repainted?

 

[.but you would think any reputable buffing/paint repair place would have one? ..]

Most reputable detailer's that do paint renovation own / have access to a PTG

 

Thanks again everyone. I will do some calling around and see who I can find that has a PTG and go from there. I can't wait to get past this as I truly love detailing my car. However, I don't want to do any work to it that someone might say caused any damage. It hurts to look at it and not be able to do anything about it. Thanks gang.