Monique

My car has many paint chips because of enthusiastic use. I am trying to improve that aspect.

So far, I have cleaned the area and applied touch up paint. Now I am at the cleaning stage and I have spent +- 100 hours hand rubbing. The results are good but I still have some small scratches showing through and the spots where I applied a drop of touch up still have a rounded aspect. Because of the large number of these, wishing to accelerate the process, should I do some wet sanding?

I got lots of info through the search but is it necessary in my case? At the going rate, the Red Devil will be on blocks all winter!!

mborkow

i have some little chips on my hood and i was also wondering the same thing...

Harold

Unless you are an absolute pro, you'll end up wet sanding all the way back to primer...I know, I've done it so many times I wonder why I even still try. You just cant wet sand off touch up work on stone chips.... I'd leave it as is if you are a stickler for keeping original factory paint on your car. Otherwise, just get the whole front end resprayed by a pro.

Terry Adams

Monique, I did everything you have done so far, till my car looked like it had some tropical disease. I ended up getting all resprayed from the windshield forward, plus the mirrors. Then I got the Clear Armor professionally installed. Of course, the first two rock chips on the hood landed high where the Clear Armor stopped, so now I am repeating the tropical disease process. These are low cars - yours even more so - that catch everything. You could wet sand it, but my experience is that touch up never matches perfectly.

mborkow

"I ended up getting it all resprayed from the windshield forward, plus the mirrors"

what did that end up costing you, and how long did it take? are you happy with the results? can you tell where it was resprayed?

Frank 993 C4S

I actually purchased a 1000 grit sanding block which works quite well on flat surfaces.

JPhillips-998

What exactly does wet sanding do? I would think that the visual imperfections are in the paint and not the clearcoat so you would have to go through the clear coat to get any meaningful results, no??? I realize the touch up paint is on top of the clear but I thought I had seen someone on the board that wet sanded and polished the entire car.

mike cap

Jeff,

The imperfections (scratches and swirls) are in the clear coat finish. The object of the wet-sanding is to remove a thin layer of clear coat and thereby remove the scratches and swirls. The secret is not going through the clear coat to the base color and/or primer.

I think "dr kenneth e garchow" has done this to his Porsches. I recall a post of his on this subject.

IMO, the Porsche factory paint is not robust enough to wet sand. I would stick with polishing products and professional polishing machines (orbital polishers).

The best and final solution is the 3M Stonegard, Xpel, Invinca-Shield, etc. No more chips, period.

akolodesh

I have not been very successful at removing chips through wet sanding. It has made them less obvious (using 1500 grit followed by touch up paint) but I think an occasional respray is the only way to go if you want really nice look.

OldGuy

Mborkow I saw Terrys car after the respray and I think it cost around $2K but that'll depend on your
paint shop.
He shuold be satisfied, it looks awesome!!

Terry Adams

$2K for the respray. A couple of extremely tiny, hard to notice imperfections, otherwise a perfect match. For an extra $75, I had both headlight lenses replaced. Good improvement, but of course not HID by far.

kdurg

Not intending to hijack...

Terry....the $2k respray...did that cover the front hood, lower bumper and two side fenders to blend in ? Looking for a cost point of reference.....TIA !

Monique

I have been quoted Euros 75 for the trunk lid alone. But there is virtually no paint left: think the PO had a polish done at some point.

I'll have the splitters done as well. At 103 mms ground clearance (what ground clearance?) they occasionnally touch

p_carfan

Monique...Go to http://www.autopia-carcare.com/ and click the learn button, tons & tons of great detailing information. Good Luck!!!

Terry Adams

Yes, Keith, everything you mention was resprayed.