Detail Werkz : 2008 Dodge Charger SRT8

DetailWerkz · #1 (**permalink**) 01-16-2009

This is a vehicle that I had already fully color sanded the whole car about 2 months ago. The owner received a custom air-brush flame job from a shop that does great air-brush work, but they have no clue how to clear coat a vehicle. I had over 26 hours the first go around, and during my work I noticed the shop did not remove the mirrors, door handles and window trim when they clear coated the paint. I noticed the clear was already started to split and chip around the moldings so I mentioned this to the owner. He took the vehicle back and raised some heat and they agreed to pull off the items and re-clear the driver door and the passenger door. Again this shop does not know how to spray clear. I have never seen a clear job done this poorly in my 7 years as a professional detailer.

Here is the driver door before I started my sanding.

I started to sand the door using 1500 grit paper using my dynabrade air DA sander. I could not believe how much clear was on this door!

After a few passes you can see how crazy this really is!!

After a few passes and a few discs I started to level out the upper portion of the door.

Here is a nice close up of an area where I have not yet worked it really good. This shows how poor a clear coat job this was!

The middle was the worse, they overlapped the clear from the top and the bottom and it was REALLY bad in this area!

Spots were so bad that I had to jump to 1200 grit sandpaper and do areas by hand!

Here is the door done with 1500 grit paper. You can still see bumps in the clear!

Again the middle of the door was the worst with the overlapping of the clear. You can see the bubbles in the clear in this shot. I knew that I was going to have to sand this area again!

The upper area on the door sanding out nice and smooth.

I went over the whole door with some 3000 trizak pads on my dynabrade to smooth out the 1500 marks.

It was time to see how the door looked buffed out. I grabbed my orbit and using the 3M UK green pad, and the new Gloss-It Evolution Finish Beta I started to work the upper area of the door. Also using the new Gloss-It EVP Prime on my pad so I could raise my speed to 3.5.

Just a few passes and the sanding marks were GONE! This beta is going to be so HOT for professionals!

The middle of the door started to show more clear spray, you can see the pitting in the clear. At this point I knew that I was going to have to drop down to 1200 and maybe even 1000 grit to get this level.

This is not the flake in the paint! This is the clear all pitted!

So I dropped down to 1200 grit on my dynabrade and check out just how much more leveling I had to do!!

So I hit the whole door with 1200, then 1500 then 3000 and am about to buff out the door again using my orbit, pad and new beta polish.

I wanted to hit the middle area first as this was the worst clear issue. The beta knocked out the 3000 grit sand marks like butter!

I used some Gloss-It QD spray to clean the area and wiped with a micro-fiber cloth to see how the paint looked. I was blown away! Crisp and clear!

Also looks like I leveled out the clear pretty good. I am pleased with this sanding job!

I had to focus my attention to the bottom of the door. It was a prefect opportunity to try out the new Gloss-It 3 inch backing plate for the orbit and the new Gloss-It white 3 inch pads. I was very impressed with the cutting ability of the new 3 inch white pads!

This is a great shot showing the new Gloss-It 3 inch packing plate working with the contour of my work area! Also the 3 inch foam pad really flexed well and worked great removing the 3000 grit sand scratches from this area!

Completed buffed out door prior to a QD wipe down.

After a wipe down here are the results!

Just a tad bit of pitting still can be seen under bright halogen light. I really do not want to take more clear off so I am going to leave it and move on to the next door. Here are the final shots of the driver door.

This was a lot of work but I feel it came out perfect. Now to do the same procedure on the front passenger door! More to come....

Mrgloss · #2 (**permalink**) 01-16-2009

Great write up Brian! This is some of your best color sanding and paint correction with the rotary! Wow... That paint was laid on extremely thick, massive orange peel! Yikes

Great shots with the new 3 inch backing plate!

rencho75 · #3 (**permalink**) 01-16-2009

I saw this Charger in person and it needed some serious paint correction. When Brian took on the job 2 months ago I knew it was going to be a challenge. When the Charger returned with the front doors recleared, the challenge proceeded and as always Brian pulled it off. Great job Brian!

theonesketch · #4 (**permalink**) 01-17-2009

hioly crap, being a painter, i cannot believe they let work leave their shop like that! Thats unbelieveable!!! I dont think ive ever seen anything like that before, and the customer actually paying for it, wow. I can only imagine now that the shop may be bragging about the work they did after you corrected it for them.
AMAZING work though! Wow!

DetailWerkz · #5 (**permalink**) 01-17-2009

Its one of those I know this guy that does this out of his garage and does not charge very much situations. Just goes to show you get what you pay for. Sure this guy got a good deal on the airbrush but the lack of knowledge of the guy applying the clear has cost him a lot of money. I have over 32 hours into this car, and add the 8 currently on this door, and still have the passenger door to do and then detail...well you get the picture!

SRTJeep · #6 (**permalink**) 01-18-2009

DAMN now that is impressive. I too have seen this car in person but not since he went all flamer on it-LOL. Great Job Brian now I'm not sure who is sexier you or the car-HEHEHE!!!

DetailWerkz · #7 (**permalink**) 01-18-2009

Why me of course! LOL

Auto Concierge · #8 (**permalink**) 01-19-2009

The door looked like a gravel road Brian!!,way to smooth it down. Maybe you can go back over it with some twisted wool pads as this will level some more.

DetailWerkz · #9 (**permalink**) 01-19-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Auto Concierge

The door looked like a gravel road Brian!!,way to smooth it down. Maybe you can go back over it with some twisted wool pads as this will level some more.

Its leveled enough. I did not want to over do this door and then not match up to the rest of the car, it would look funny and stand out. I wanted to leave some orange in it, just needed to match the rest of the car that I sanded with 1500, they just over sprayed this door with way to much clear and it was a chore to get it down and matching the rest of the paint.

damon@tirerack · #10 (**permalink**) 01-30-2009

This just shows that anyone can backyard paint a car. Just put too much clear on and sand smooth.

Good grief...