Just had my '74 Scamp painted and we put about $2200 into it. 600 for the paint and the rest in body work. It's a base coat/ clear coat deep metallic blue and it looks very nice. But.. the paint guy says I might want to cut and buff it. I cannot imagine standing over this thing with sand paper in had. He wants another $350 to do it. What would you guys do? Is it that much of an improvement and can it be done later on if I feel like it? He says after a few weeks the paint gets really hard and it's more difficult to do it.

Thanks.

I say for $350 that's a good deal - do it. My '64 paint job looked good before the wet sand/buff, but looked AMAZING after...

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

If you have quite a bit of orange peel, it's worth it, but it's not really hard to do yourself, if you have a GOOD variable speed buffer.

It does make a big difference, unless they did a perfect job of laying on the clear coat.

Towed it home on Saturday and after looking at it over the weekend I am disappointed. Yes there is some orange peal but there are a lot of tips. Looks like specs of dust to me all over the car. Now the guy told me to assemble it before doing the "cut and buff". But he also told me the cut and buff is easier to do when the paint is fresh. I need to call him again and ask what I should do. I can't get the car completely together in 2 weeks. From first look the car looks great but under closer inspection there are a lot of imperfections. Hmmm.

Go to: www.autobodystore.com and post your question on their forum. You will probably get answers from several experienced paint and body guys. They helped me a lot when I painted my truck last year.

first let me give you a warning.
if you do this yourself I sure hope you know what you are doing, one slip one mistake and you will burn through that clearcoat period!
if that happens you will regret it because this panel will have to be repainted again.
now its true, polishing the clear looks amazing what he is BS about is the part where he says it can only be done when the paint is fresh.
hell a friend and I did it on 20 year old paint (car we wanted to sell had solid but weathered paint) the truth is, the harder the paint the beter it will look. Now why does he says it has to be done when the paint is fresh? simply because is easyer to do and takes less time thats why!

ask annyone who knows a thing or two about polishing, the harder it is the beter the shine (wanna try this yourself? take a piece of pine wood and try to polish it, then take a piece of oak and do the same I bett you can make that oak shiny!)
my car has been buffed about 3 months after I put the paint on so...
in fact I find it stupid to buff paint that has not had the time to fully cure, sure it will look shiny when done but after a week it will look a litlle dull again. thats something that wonth happen on fully cured paint

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Moving to the U.S??? no thank you! I'm livin' in the land of free healthcare!

I once saw a car that had sat for about 5 years before being cut and buffed, the black paint looked like a mirror when it was finished.

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94 Falcon 4.0 auto
70 Valiant 265 Hemi auto
70 Valiant 318, 904, Coupe
69 Valiant 225 auto x 3 (1 sedan, 2 coupes)
64 Falcon 250 2V auto
yes, I have too many projects.

Thanks, I was thinking the same thing. I would rather work on it a while and get some things done on this car. So maybe I should wait before taking it back. I am impatient by nature and I just want it done. BTW I don't know what I'm doing and that is why I am paying for the work. The mechanical I can do but polishing is not my game. Not sure what to do now.

Thanks

BTW I did post at the link so thanks. I'll check for a reply later.

Ok here's my latest thinking. I called a couple local paint shops and the guys were very nice and suggested doing it right away. One guy said that he always does it right away because he wants the job completed to the customers satisfaction. He said I would just pick it apart over time and not be happy until it looks right. He also said it depends on the quality of clear coat as to long term durability.

The other guy said to do it right away because later they will have to remove more clear coat to get to where they need to be to make it look right.

Decisions decision!

Oh also it's not lacquer, I think it's polyurethane or something else, but anyway he said laquer paints would buff well after years where the newer paint claer won't be as durable. I guess they can't shoot laquers anymore due to environmental restrictions.

Another note. The guy at another local shop said his cheapest paint job is 1000 dollars but include wet sand and buff. Where as my guy charged 600 w/o sand and buff but charges 350 for the wet sand and buff. So I'm not getting ripped off but my guy is not exactly upfront with what needs to be done.

Thing's are starting to point to doing it now.

so basicly what both are saying is: I want your money, and I want it NOW!
don't forget these guys are making a living out of this, what you should do is get behind your computer and do a search (thats what I did) and don't stop at only one place the info will be more precise then what you get from a paint shop.
here are some and I'm sure there are plenty more places to visit.
http://www.repairnation.com/index.html
http://www.autobody101.com/
http://www.autorestorer.com/
http://hotrodders.com/kb/body-exterior/articles.html

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Moving to the U.S??? no thank you! I'm livin' in the land of free healthcare!

I got the Scamp back yesterday after the cut and buff and it looks amazingly better. Looks totally professional and well worth the money. I could never have done such a good job. We looked it over pretty close last night and there are a few swirls and a few small dents we missed but for what we need this is exactly what I had in mind. It had been rained on so on the way home took it to a car was and boy it's smooth and shiny and deep rich color. The color is called Sonic Blue which is the latest dar blue Mustang color. I am truly impressed. Now we can finally start putting parts back on the car. Thanks for all the help.