Nissan 370Z Forum - The Junkman Battles Another Keyed Paint Job

Hey boys and girls, I had the opportunity to go at another keyed paint job this week. As a lot of you already know, fixing paint is a passion for me and not something I do for money. So when the owner asked me what I wanted in return, I told him nothing but some pictures and food. He decided that was not good enough and bought me this setup:

http://www.pc-surgeon.net/images/cforum/HT-BD1250.jpg

It's the Samsung HT-BD1250 Blu-ray DVD player and 5.1 HD audio with wireless speaker setup. I have to say that this beats Outback Steakhouse since I didn't have anything to go with my new 46" LED wide screen I just bought. I also needed a Blu-ray player as I hadn't bought one yet!

On to the repair. This scratch was too deep in places to totally remove but in situations like this, you try and make the damage as least noticeable as possible. At first glance, you would not be able to see the fixed product. That's what you want to achieve with damage like this. Here's the damage and it was not pretty. The scratch went from the front fender to almost the rear quarter.

http://www.pc-surgeon.net/images/cfo...a_scratch1.jpg

http://www.pc-surgeon.net/images/cfo..._scratch1a.jpg

http://www.pc-surgeon.net/images/cfo..._scratch1b.jpg

http://www.pc-surgeon.net/images/cfo..._scratch1c.jpg

http://www.pc-surgeon.net/images/cfo..._scratch1d.jpg

http://www.pc-surgeon.net/images/cfo..._scratch1e.jpg

As you can see, this puppy was deep. I was going to have to start with 2000 grit paper for this scratch. This posed two problems. One, I cannot use the PC-7424XP to repair 2000 grit wet sanding damage (it is not powerful enough and would take forever). I would need to use my Flex 3401VRG polisher in this case. Two, this is a new Toyota, which is notorious for having some of the thinnest clear coat on the planet (the same with Nissan's). In a situation like this, you have got to use a paint thickness gauge that measures both base coat AND clear coat. I didn't have one handy and was going to opt out of trying to fix this but the owner insisted that I go at it, even after I warned him of the danger. That scratch was bothering him so bad that anything would be better in his mind. So, at it I went.

I started by claying the entire area as claying is the foundation of my shine. Another reason that I clayed the area is because the owner had used some Meguiar's ScratchX on the scratch in an attempt to repair the damage himself and I didn't want anything in that scratch that would affect my repair attempt. The only thing he managed to do was make the paint dull around the scratch. Once the area was clayed, I started with 2000 grit paper. When doing a repair like this where you are NOT going to be painting the car, you have got to know when to stop sanding. You do not necessarily totally remove the scratch. In most cases you won't, especially on clear coat that is as thin as it is on these cars.

After the 2000 grit, I followed it with the 2500 and then 3000 grit papers. Again, you have got to take into consideration that these papers are also going to remove clear coat so if you remove too much with the 2000 grit paper, you've screwed the pooch. That's why a paint thickness gauge is so important. At a body shop where they are going to paint the car anyway, a paint thickness gauge is a waste of time and not necessary. Here's some shots of the sanding process.

http://www.pc-surgeon.net/images/cfo...a_scratch2.jpg

http://www.pc-surgeon.net/images/cfo..._scratch2a.jpg

http://www.pc-surgeon.net/images/cfo..._scratch2b.jpg

http://www.pc-surgeon.net/images/cfo..._scratch2c.jpg

http://www.pc-surgeon.net/images/cfo..._scratch2d.jpg

http://www.pc-surgeon.net/images/cfo..._scratch2e.jpg

Once I completed wet sanding the damage, I broke out my Flex polisher, some Swirl and Haze Remover and a orange pad. After buffing all the damage away with that combination, I followed it with some Fine Machine Polish and a white pad. After that combination, these were the results that I was able to achieve.

http://www.pc-surgeon.net/images/cfo...a_scratch3.jpg

http://www.pc-surgeon.net/images/cfo..._scratch3a.jpg

http://www.pc-surgeon.net/images/cfo..._scratch3c.jpg

http://www.pc-surgeon.net/images/cfo..._scratch3d.jpg

http://www.pc-surgeon.net/images/cfo..._scratch3e.jpg

http://www.pc-surgeon.net/images/cfo..._scratch3f.jpg

http://www.pc-surgeon.net/images/cfo..._scratch3g.jpg

So as you can see, I earned my keep and this is probably why the owner was so happy. Now I need to go setup my new gear and hear what it sounds like! ;)

The Junkman