What did i do!!!?? sanding accident

[sushi]

Brand new car with a scratch. While buffing with flex 3401 and a lake country orange pad I created this monster mistake. It's on a lower area of the door on a Prius. It's going to be covered up by molding but can I do anything to fix this? Please could anyone explain why the color is changing from a orange pad? http://i.imgur.com/LfS2g4X.jpg

[Tim909]

Take a better picture.

[BobbyG]

You may have accidentally breached the clear and the color coat is beginning to show through...

[Just02896]

I'm confused. Did you wet sand or buff only?

[sushi]

You may have accidentally breached the clear and the color coat is beginning to show through...

I sanded with 2000 and went over with the orange pad. The orange pad did the damage. Can the lighter colored areas be sprayed with aerosol clear from the car parts store?

[BobbyG]

I sanded with 2000 and went over with the orange pad. The orange pad did the damage. Can the lighter colored areas be sprayed with aerosol clear from the car parts store?

You can give it a try but this is a brand new car so you might want to bit the bullet and take it to a paint shop and have them respray the panel....

[Turboclam]

Was the car new on the lot or transferred from another dealer? I see new transferred cars that sometimes have evidence of previous work. Therefore if that spot had been worked on before then you would have half the clear coat left.

[BobbyG]

Automotive Paint

Over the years automotive manufactures have been on a quest to lower manufacturing cost and just one of those areas is paint. By doing so, these improvements translate directly to their bottom line as profits.

The actual film thickness of paint is what I call SCARY THIN, meaning it doesn’t take much effort to accidentally sand or compound through a layer. A layer of paint is so thin today it’s measured in microns rather than thousands of an inch.


Corrosion

How many of you can remember the days when a panel on a brand new car would show sighs of rust or corrosion in the first 2 years? You don’t have to go that far back because this was pretty much the norm in the 70’s and 80’s.

To combat this, car manufactures teamed up with paint suppliers like DuPont to develop coatings and processes to greatly reduce or eliminate corrosion and rust through.


Microns

Microns are typically associated with either of the two following symbols; µ or µm

Just how big or small is a micron? 0.001mm, or about 0.000039in

To illustrate this lets put this in perspective by comparing a known and relate it to microns. On average, the thickness of a human hair is about 100 microns or 100µm.

1µ = 0.00003937in
10µ = 0.0003937in
100µ = 0.003937in

Now that we know how think a human hair is, see how it compares to the paint film thickness on most cars today....It's thicker than any individual coating applied and might be equal to all of the coating thicknesses combined! :eek:


Paint Application

Automotive paint is applied in layers and each one is designed to to work with out bond to the previous later. Today protective coating and paint layers can total 5 or more and at varying thicknesses. The photo below illustrates not only the coating but the average film thickness....

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1660/medium/Layer03.jpg



Phosphate - 1µ or 0.00003937in
Electrocoat or E-Coat - 25µ or 0.0009843in
Primer - 25µ or 0.0009843in
Base or Color Coat - 20µ or 0.0007874in
Clear Coat - 50µ = 0.001969in

[sushi]

Was the car new on the lot or transferred from another dealer? I see new transferred cars that sometimes have evidence of previous work. Therefore if that spot had been worked on before then you would have half the clear coat left.

Thanks it was transferred with a unfixed scratch but I'm who did this.

They have a molding to cover this section which is my saving grace.

Should I get the aerosol clear in matte or gloss? Is it even worth it or will it look ridiculous?

[Evan.J]

I have to say if I were you I would fix that properly with a repaint before sticking the molding back on.

That would not be right if you just stuck the molding back on a called it a day.

[sushi]

I have to say if I were you I would fix that properly with a repaint before sticking the molding back on.

That would not be right if you just stuck the molding back on a called it a day.

It's my wife's car, so i am in the doghouse :bash:. I only need to know how to improve it the best i can without taking it to a shop.

[allenk4]

I sanded with 2000 and went over with the orange pad. The orange pad did the damage. Can the lighter colored areas be sprayed with aerosol clear from the car parts store?

You will not be successful with aerosol clear for a spot repair. Very difficult to blend, even for Pro Painters with a gun.

I suspect that the sanding did the majority of the damage and the compounding was the straw that broke the Prius' back.

[Evan.J]

It's my wife's car, so i am in the doghouse :bash:. I only need to know how to improve it the best i can without taking it to a shop.

Oh ok gotcha!

In all honesty it will need a repaint. I know it's not what you want to hear.

As Allen stated most of the damage was with the sanding and the little bit of compound you did probably remove what little bit was left.

[sushi]

Thanks everybody. I have contacted a mobile painter guy here in the DC area.

[EVOlved]

Thanks everybody. I have contacted a mobile painter guy here in the DC area.

A mobile painter... That doesn't sound good. You want all paint work to be done in a controlled environment like a booth, otherwise contaminants will be sneaking in while the painting is being done..