When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I know this topic is probably been beaten to death, I've seen some posts that helped but still hoping for some advice. My oldest son bought an 05 mustang last year, had a very minor fender bender and a week later some stopped up converters so I inherited the car. I did some painting years ago but it was not with the base coat clear coat system so I thought I would give it a try. The paint on the roof, hood, the top of the passenger door and one of the fenders had issues so I thought I would redo the roof, hood driver side fender and the passenger door. I replaced the damaged passenger side fender and repaired the bumper cover. Sanding everything down went well, the sealer went on smooth and the base coat went on smooth but I kind of screwed up some on the clear coat, mainly on the hood which I blame on some poor lighting in my garage. I didn't have any runs but I do have some orange peel. The car looks great from 10 ft away.but not at all happy with the hood. After watching a ton of videos and researching a lot of forums, I went out and bought some wet/dry sandpaper, rubber block, spray bottle and the magiars cutting compound. I started on the passenger side door because there was some imperfections in the clear coat, did the wet sanding with different grits then tried the cutting compound with a buffer just like the YouTube video stars do and it did not quite turn out like it did in the videos 🤔. So I'm looking for any ideas or suggestions because I really don't want to resend and repaint the hood and I would like to make the roof look better. The car looks great from 10 ft away but the clear coat on the hood and now the dull part of the door is shifting my OCD into overdrive. The painting and clear coat was done over a week ago and it has set in the garage since, I waited for a week before attempting to smooth out everything. Is the wool pad better than the foam pad to apply the compound? Will waxing after the cutting compound make any difference, does a clay bar system help any with fixing the clear coat issues?
Last edited by Randyj68; Feb 17, 2025 at 06:11 AM.
The Only active Member Who I Can Recall Who Has Painting Skills is My Admin Counterpart @svopaul . He is a Busy Guy & We Shall See If We Can Invite Him in To Comment. Not To Say There are Not Others Be He Surely Knows!
Meanwhile I Going to Move Thread to The More Appropriate Exterior Mods For the 05-09!
The Only active Member Who I Can Recall Who Has Painting Skills is My Admin Counterpart @svopaul . He is a Busy Guy & We Shall See If We Can Invite Him in To Comment. Not To Say There are Not Others Be He Surely Knows!
Meanwhile I Going to Move Thread to The More Appropriate Exterior Mods For the 05-09!
KC
Yup I think he is the guy that can point you in the right direction.
No paint expert, but I wouldn't put any wax or sealant on that paint for a while so the fresh paint can breathe. When I had the stripes done and again after I had the dent in my fender repaired, both body shops told me not to wax it, or even use detailer sprays or washes that have wax or silicone since they can seal the paint. I can't remember the consequences exactly but it was something to the effect of the paint not adhering or lifting.
As far as it not being glossy enough, I've done some paint correction and the headlight restoration kits so I have *some* experience. The key I found was the same for both -- make sure when you're doing each stage that you've completely removed all of the sanding marks from the previous stage before you move on. So going 600 --> 1000 --> 1500 --> 2000, if you're on 1000, make sure you've removed all the sanding marks from 600 before moving up to 1500. It's easier said than done -- it's really hard to tell. I ended up spending a lot more time on the lower grits and the heavier compounds until the surface looked absolutely even, which really paid off when I started moving up.
Doing the headlight kit I wet sanded through 3000 grit before I moved on to compound.
Doing the paint correction, I used heavy cutting compound and then started moving up to finer compounds and finished with polishes. There were spots I saw the finer compounds weren't getting rid of the finer scratches, so I went back to cutting compound and worked my way back up.
I used foam pads for the paint correction, but there were different grades. Stiffer pads were for the cutting compound and the softer ones were for the polish. This was all according to Chemical Guys' directions.
