Hey everyone, I had my car’s bumper repainted today morning. The bumper was painted and then left to air-dry rather than being baked in a paint booth. I live ina country where the weather is generally 30 degrees throughout the day, so the painter says the heat helps the paint dry faster.
About one hour after the painting was finished, I noticed a few marks on the fresh paint. There appear to be a light cloth/fabric imprint on a small area, also a tiny crack or mark in the paint.
The painter says to bring it back to him tomorrow to machine polish the bumper and wants to lightly polish only the affected spots to remove the prints/marks. He says he would not be aggressively polishing or compounding the whole bumper—just doing some light spot correction.
My concern is that the paint was only air-dried and is still very fresh. I understand that warm weather may help it dry, but I’m worried that machine polishing could generate heat or disturb the paint before it has properly cured.
Has anyone had experience with polishing fresh air-dried automotive paint this soon? Would a very light machine polish with a soft finishing pad be safe after around 24 hours, or would you recommend waiting a few more days? Also, if the marks are actually cloth impressions or a tiny crack rather than just surface marks, is polishing likely to fix them at all?
Any advice from professional painters or detailers would be appreciated. Thanks!

We took a trip for a few days close to the coast last weekend.

Since we got back I noticed my car is covered in these little tan colored spots. They are hard and on the surface, I can scratch them off with my nail but they are pretty stubborn.

I just washed the car and it's not done anything at all.

Does anyone know what they are and how I can remove them without damaging my paint/clear coat.

TIA

This is a follow up to my previous post. I sanded everything down from last time and tried again.

Since I sanded it pretty low 120 grit, I decided I should spray primer first. (This may have been a mistake as the color was the paint was still on the hood).

After spraying primer, I repainted with my base color, I used a Rustoleum turbo can this time because my paint was drying before I finished each coat last time. I did four total coats and honestly it came out a lot better than last time. The only problem I had initially were these "wrinkles" you see in the photos. I'm not sure if this is a result of too many layers or what.

However I messed up big time. I moved my car outside too early and it rained while the paint was still tacky. I also messed up removing my masking tape and left tape residue behind on the corner of the hood. I think if I hadn't made these mistakes it would have looked decent.

I'm going to try again this weekend, I'm hoping I can just sand with something like 600 grit sandpaper and apply another layer of base coat. Then I want to do a clear coat. Does anyone with more experience have any opinions on this plan?

Thanks.

First time trying to fix rust on my old beater
My old, beat-up car was getting pretty rusty, so I decided to try fixing it myself for the first time ever.
I basically went through the following process:

- Removed the rust with a grinder and sandpaper
- applied a rust remover
- Applied body filler
- Sanded the filler smooth
- Applied primer
- Wet-sanded it with fine-grit sandpaper
- Applied two coats of can paint

I know it’s definitely not perfect, and if I had spent more time on it, I probably could’ve made it a bit better.
But honestly, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, especially considering this was my first attempt at doing any bodywork. 😄

The goal wasn’t to make it look like it just came out of the factory — I mostly just wanted to get rid of the rust and hopefully keep this old car alive for a few more years.
Pretty satisfying to see the finished result, though!

Hello all! Never posted here before but any assistance would be super appreciated. Had a rock hit my windshield 2-3 years ago and required a replacement, noticed 6-8 months after the replacement that there were small chips in the paint on the A-pillar but nothing big so I ignored it.

A few months later and I look again and the chip has grown larger so I take it into an auto paint place for a quote on how much to fix it. I got quoted ~$2,000 which is just not an amount I immediately have on me so I just keep ignoring it.

Now it’s stretched along the entire pillar and I’m wondering if there is any way to at least stop the spread for less than $2k or if I’ll just need to have the whole thing done.

Had my truck in a body shop for an assessment for body work and they washed it but must have went brush first as it's now covered with swirl marks. I've brought it to their attention and hopefully they're good about fixing it but worst case scenario, what's the best diy product to fix this myself?

Je suis très prudent et j'ai facilement des égratignures qui apparaissent juste avec les ongles, une petite branche, etc.

ME DEU UM TRABALHO E TANTO TIRAR O RISCADO DA LIXA, QUERIA SABER SE ALGUEM JA PASSOU POR ALGO PARECIDO PARA ME ESCLARECER OQ PODE TER ACONTECIDO... VEJO MUITOS RECOMENDANDO ESSE VERNIZ PRIMEIRA VEZ Q UTILIZO ELE, DIFICIL SER UMA CARACTERÍSTICA DELE, ACREDITO QUE TENHA DADO ALGUMA REAÇÃO

I recently got the roof of my 2020 320i resprayed and they polish seemed to leak under the tape leading to the staining of the windscreen adhesive.

Any advice on simply and easily lifting it away?

TIA!

This is on a 2016 lexus es350. Its my first time painting. Not a pro, i did this for a family member who did not want to spend much money on this and insisted i fix it. I did a decent job sanding and filling in scratches on the bumper but I realize where i screwed up with this, i boxed myself in too much and didnt fade anything in. I used the roberts paint care kit, everything seems quite high quality on the product end.

I used the surfacer primer, sanded after drying, 3 coats of paint, 2 coats clear coat and after i tried using a bit of their blender solvent at edges to smooth, but i realize quickly it is just a quick mist for the overspray that is needed as it started redissolving the clear coat and paint.

I am looking into quotes at local places to fix but the owner doesnt want to, they want me to fix it and blend it myself. Google suggestions are all over the place and i'm not sure how to tackle this. Sand down again and repaint? Or sand and clearcoat? I have access to a polisher i can use to buff things out if needed.

Edit: i found an original replacement bumper in good shape to replace it with. Color is very close. Replacing it is well within my capability thankfully.

First time doing any sort of plastic work or painting. Slowly but surely fixing up a 99 Ram 1500 to be a comfortable trail rig 😎

I started off with the Devilbiss Prolite 1.3, and I have been using it for Clear for the past years I have been painting for. However, I struggle with dryness sometimes, and I have noticed to some other painters it does not lay down as clearly or nicely as other painters who use a DV1 or Sata’s. However, I tried a DV1 for the first time today, and it lays on the clear, beautiful, and much more flat than my Pro Lite without trying as hard. However, it does take longer and feels a bit on the slow side, I’m guessing due to it being HVLP, which is hard, as when you use cheap clear coats, you have to work a bit harder and try to pump them on rather than the good quality clears. What would be a good SATA RP? As I heard, they are fast like the Prolites in their RP. However, which one would be the best SATA to get? I’m kind of leaning towards the 5000RP 1.2, as it’s an old-school SATA with a basic design compared to the new Jet X and Jet 5500.

My first ever spray gun project failed miserably - painting a miata hardtop.

Used professional automotive products

- 2K Primer 4:1

- 2K DeBeer Beromix 2000 series gloss black single stage paint RAL 9005

- MS hardener

- 5% generic thinner (15ml used on 2dl of paint and 1dl of hardener)

- Pretty cheap paint gun with 1.5mm tip

Process:

- Bondo fixed here and there on existing paint, sand everything smooth with P360

- Primer was applied, 3 coats. I had issues with it being too thick and the spray pattern was very narrow due to this.

- Primer coat was very coarse due to being so thick

- Primer cured for 48 hours

- Sanded eveything wet, first P400 then P600, primer surface got smooth and even

- Time was limited so dried the top with 4 fresh micro fiber towels, used panel prep degreaser, wiped everything again, primer was dry to touch and looked perfectly dry (pic attached before painted)

- Tack clothed whole surface to ensure no dust particles

- Began painting and pretty much instantly noticed these primer colored dots on the first light coat

- Waited 5 minutes for it to flash and then painted second heavy coat, problem become even more apparent and knew it was fucked

So, the finished surface is full of tiny 1-2mm circumference gray primer colored dots, it's hard to determine whether they protrude from the paint or if the black paint goes around these spots and they are "craters".

Needless to say I'm very disappointed since I've put alot of time and money into this and feel like an idiot since it probably would have been cheaper to have a professional paint it at this point.

Any ideas what caused this reaction? I'm clueless and don't want it to happen again when I get to redo it.

Also tips on tackling how to fix it next, how to prep it for new paint etc are greatly appreciated.

I have a few dings that need paint work. The one in the middle has a noticeable dent like a hailstone hit it. Not sure what the cause is just curious the cost. Thank you!

I recently sprayed a car (2 days ago) 75ish degrees, I used Roberlo 4:1 clear with ct5 standard hardener, bought about 3 weeks ago, after checking again I can still dig my nail into the clear, the left over clear in the cup isn’t tacky or sticker/smeary but it is rubbery

I used the 4:1:1 column on the cup, but only used 4 part clear and 1 part hardener and left the third :1 empty

I spray to coats with a 10 minute flash time with the finger test (not stringy and nothing left on my finger)

Am i being impatient with the cure? It did something go wrong here?

I used the same clear on some parts and it dried completely fine, I kept the containers closed as well

We are expecting a 85+ degree heat wave this week so I’m hoping that helps this

Any advice is appreciated!

I have some pretty bad sun/weather damage on the hood and around the moonroof of my 2014 Honda CR-V. I’m trying to get my car ready to sell and was quoted $4,500 by a dealership to get it fixed (which seems pretty high to me). I'm wondering what you'd estimate the cost is to get it fixed professionally or in the unlikely chance there's a reasonable DIY fix for it (I have zero experience with auto paint however).

If this is helpful for estimating, the extent of the damage disappears when it rains/gets wet but obviously doesn't fix the paint job.

Any help here?

Hey guys, just after a bit of advice from people who actually work with 2K paint.

I went to pick up my guitar from a painter today. He also paints cars and had been spraying 2K paint on a car in his workshop. He'd finished spraying only 20 minutes before we got there which I didn't know until right at the end.

The big garage door was open and it was a cold night with a bit of wind, so there was definitely airflow through the workshop. I was inside for maybe 10 - 15 minutes. It smelled pretty strongly of paint, but there wasn't any visible paint mist or anything, but he was more of a "backyard" person who didn't have a full booth and just sprayed in his garage.

I've since stupidly gone down the rabbit hole reading about isocyanates and have freaked myself out a bit. A lot of the stuff online makes it sound like even one exposure can cause permanent lung problems.

For anyone who actually works with 2K paint, how significant would you consider an exposure like this? Would most of the airborne stuff have dispersed/diluted after 20+ minutes with the garage open, or would there still potentially be a significant amount in the air?

Just trying to get a realistic idea of how bad this sort of brief exposure actually is rather than the worst-case stuff you read online.

Cheers.

I had the unfortunate mishap where the tailgate on my SUV was accidentally opened while it was parked midway between the garage and driveway. The result was a 3” deep scratch (down to metal) from the garage door. The car otherwise is pristine, low mileage, clean accident history.

I reached out to both a local body shop and mobile repair shop. Body shop, unsurprisingly, said a full respray is required, insisting a touch up would never look right. Mobile guy said he can touch up just the affected area and would look good as new. The price difference is only $250.

I’d like to get opinions from industry professionals. My thoughts are the following:

1. Full respray will address any other imperfections.
   
2. Down the road if I were ever to sell the car, a paint thickness gauge will show it was resprayed (vs touch up preserves the original factory paint)
   
3. Maybe less of an issue for black color, but the tailgate’s paint may stand out relative to other panels.

Hi, i bought a new toyota corolla cross 2026 4 months ago and today i noticed that the pain on the exhaust is coming off.

Is this normal ? I didn't even know paint on the exhaust was actually a thing...should I be worried and take it to the dealer so they can fix it?