Re-Clearcoating

[Slamtastic]

So my Jetta's paint is 100% Hologrammed and I'm looking into getting it re-cleared to fix it. Will this fix my swirl marks? Does anyone know of a place that would do this? And what would be a decent price?
I might sell the car next summer so I don't want to spend too much, but I might keep it depending on how it turns out.

TIA

[BaggedGLI]

Re: Re-Clearcoating

That will take care of your swirlmarks.

Any bodyshop.

Call around and compare.

[stefan]

Re: Re-Clearcoating

There is/was someone on here that does power polishing, I think that can get rid of most swirls.

[Slamtastic]

Re: Re-Clearcoating

Yeah I think I might spend my monday afternoon driving around and getting some estimates.

Power polishing is what messed it up in the first place and now its fubar-ed so I don't think that that is an option, but I might stop by a detailing shop to see if they think that they can get the swirlys out. Might save me a bit of $$$

[ryukin2000]

Re: Re-Clearcoating

whoever power polished that in the first place screwed up. probably with a rotary buffer(higher chance of instilling holograms in paint). if you want a cheap fix then it has to be power polished by someone using a Dual action polisher who knows what they are doing and with the right pads and compound. does it look like the pics in the thread i linked?

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/...detailers.html

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/...holograms.html

i would get the porter cable 7424XP(DA polisher) and some pads/polishes for around 250+. do a test run on a small area of the hood. it should do the job. its safer to use than a rotary and wont burn the paint like a rotary can. nothing against rotary. but if you are a newbie like myself its always good to start off with a DA polisher. if it doesn't work then you only lose that much. small price to pay if it saves you from forking out for a full respray. im no paint expert but i read somewhere that getting clear coated is the same as a new paint job so that would be in the thousands correct?

the holograming is probably shallow on the clear coat. once you polish that layer off it will look good again. would hate to see you spend a ton of money on a minor fix.

[BaggedGLI]

Re: Re-Clearcoating

VWPride, if your going to be in calgary, i can take a look at it for you i have professional grade polishes, i can probably tell you whether or not it will come out.

[Slamtastic]

Re: Re-Clearcoating

ryukin. It looks alot like the first pic. I have heard about those DA polishers but I should look into them some more. Thanks.

And Eurotuner, I'm probably not gonna be in Calgary any time soon but I'll let you know if I come down.

Thanks alot guys.

And it doesn't look like its gonna be sunny today, but if it is, I'll snap some pics and show you what I mean.

[Kor]

Re: Re-Clearcoating

If in Calgary area, talk to Jed at mobile reflections before you pay for new clear.

[Slamtastic]

Re: Re-Clearcoating

So I stopped by a body shop in Red Deer the other day. He said it basically takes the same amount of time to clear coat as it does to respray it. He just gave me a rough estimate of around 4000 for new clear, and about 5000 for clear and paint. The car its 8 years old so it's not really worth spending that kind of money.

He referred me to a detailing shop that they use all the time. The guy at the detailing shop said that he can get some of the swirls out, but I'll still be able to notice them. He said Its not worth his time and my money because I'm not going to be happy with the result.

I went and got compound, polish, and pads and borrowed the DA polisher from work and tried it out on one of my door panels. That didn't really help.

But I did do some searching and some guys just buy a load of Scratch-X and do it by hand. It has to be done a few times, but apparantly it removes most of the swirls. So I'm gonna try this out on one of the door panels this weekend.

[stefan]

Re: Re-Clearcoating

ScratchX works pretty good IMO, but I would think for a hole car there must be a more industrial equivalent? Maybe not.

So I stopped by a body shop in Red Deer the other day. He said it basically takes the same amount of time to clear coat as it does to respray it. He just gave me a rough estimate of around 4000 for new clear, and about 5000 for clear and paint. The car its 8 years old so it's not really worth spending that kind of money.

He referred me to a detailing shop that they use all the time. The guy at the detailing shop said that he can get some of the swirls out, but I'll still be able to notice them. He said Its not worth his time and my money because I'm not going to be happy with the result.

I went and got compound, polish, and pads and borrowed the DA polisher from work and tried it out on one of my door panels. That didn't really help.

But I did do some searching and some guys just buy a load of Scratch-X and do it by hand. It has to be done a few times, but apparantly it removes most of the swirls. So I'm gonna try this out on one of the door panels this weekend.

[stefan]

Re: Re-Clearcoating

so what exactly makes this happen... i'm seeing this on cars everywhere since this post started...

[Slamtastic]

Re: Re-Clearcoating

Well my theory is that most factory clearcoats and paint are cheap in order to cut costs. And things like foam brushes, non touchless car washes, and hand washing take their toll on the surface. Some people just don't care for their vehicles, and black is definately the worst. My paint wasn't that bad before I got it power polished, but afterwords it was totally swirly. This is usually due to melting of the clear, caused by leaving the polisher on one spot for too long, pressing too hard, having the polisher too fast, or using a cheap polish/pad. I just wish that I would have saved my $$$ and kept my OK paint. Live & learn I guess

All I can say is that I would never buy another dark colored vehicle.

Also, I tried this wax taht my Dad bought out of the back of some guys van a few years ago. All I can say is WOW. I'm def gonna be ordering a case of it when my supply starts to get low. I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone with a dark vehicle. It takes out almost all of the imperfections, and now mine looks like a regular 8-year-old black car.

http://www.fastwax.com/index.php?pag...id=6&Itemid=33

[N'Syncro]

Re: Re-Clearcoating

Xkote it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I don't know who in alberta does XKote, but a good friend of mine owns the rights to Saskatchewan. Clear Solutions Auto Shield - Jeramiah @ 306-980-6838 and i'm sure he can direct you to a shop. X-Kote is nothing short of amazing. You have to see it to believe it.

It's a hand-applied clear solution that changes the molecular structure of your clear coat... Those swirl marks if you looked at them microscopically would look like mountains.. Apply X-Kote to it and it'll look like the prairies under a microscope.

Best way to describe it is that your car will look like it just was freshly polished and waxed, car, but instead of lasting a few months, it lasts like 5 or 10 years, or as long as you take care of it... Yes, I just said up to 10 years. It's permanent. And depending on the size of vehicle, its only about $400.

Sorry for the rant, but X-Kote is seriously amazing.

[Slamtastic]

Re: Re-Clearcoating

WOW! I just checked out their website and looked at some of the before and after pics. I am definately looking into getting that done. The only thing is is that your friend's shop is the closest and its still 8 hours away. I'd prob wait until spring to get it done so hopefully a dealer will open in Alberta by then but if not I would be down for a road trip.

Thanks a lot for showing me this.

[N'Syncro]

Re: Re-Clearcoating

No prob. Give him a shout. I know Custom Auto Shield in Regina does it too. I'm sure there's a dealer somewhere in AB. I was actually going to buy the rights to N.Alberta a while back, but got side tracked w/ other things. I'd be amazed if there isn't anyone else in AB yet.

But seriously, pics do not do justice at all! If you think the pics are impressive you'll be blown away when you see it in person. And it sounds exactly like what you need. Why spend $4-5k on a new clear coat, when this is like 95-99% of what you'll get, at a 1/10th of the cost.