hi everyone in W&W. i was wondering, after a car comes out of the paint booth, what steps and products do paint shops use to buff the paint to a shine?

thanks

depends...

if the whole car is painted, prob nothing more to do (after the clear coat) except the cure process

if its just part of the car, they might buff and blend.

if they have to buff its cause they didnt do as good of job, as i understand it, as they could have with the paint. if the paint is faded, they will buff to try to match to the surrounding paint.

the paint is very soft at this point, so the last step is putting badges back on very carefully

they should not need to buff the shine in the paint cause its brand new!

and the paint needs to cure before any protectant is applied to avoid trapping in gases that need to escape as the paint cures. depending on the process used, the cure can take a month or more. the body shop can tell you how long to wait.

did i get close to answering your question?

thanks! well my car came out of the bodyshop the other week. they painted the bumper, fenders, hood, and blended the doors. the trouble is, there is a couple of small areas on the door that are dull, like they didn't buff it out.

the shop is kinda out of the way so i want to take care of these few square inches myself.

what polish and pad do i use for this?

are the dull areas in the new or old paint?

if in the new paint:

this is a polish that you could try
http://www.topoftheline.com/new-paint-polish.html

i would prob do this one by hand if its a small area, but if you want to try the machine be very careful (remember that the new paint can be soft)... low speeds and a non aggressive pad like the blue lake country pad
http://www.topoftheline.com/lacopa7.html


do not wax or synthetically seal the new paint until it has fully cured... a very light polish (to bring back the new paint shine) is the most that you should do.

thanks!!

welcome-

be sure to post up your experiences with this process... if you can take some pics and post it all up that would be great-
i am especially interested in what you think of the products