Anyone had "paint correction" done to their D?

stoopalini · Feb 8, 2016

We're picking up our 2016 Redline R/T later today, and have been driving a 2015 Redline Limited as a loaner for the past week. The paint on this limited is really bad. Lot's of overspray, orange peel, etc ... I assume the R/T's paint will look similar, so started asking around for quotes to do a correction, polish and protectant on it.

Just wondering if anyone else has done this to their Redline Durango, and what kind of results you had...

Chase300 · Feb 8, 2016

Not on Redline, but I had the dealer fix acid rain damage on a brand-new Brilliant Black Crystal pearl 300..which is probably a black version of your red paint.
They had a excellent detailer who was able to wet sand and polish the paint to perfection...I mean like a mirror.

I would think most dealerships know someone or have someone on staff who can help correct paint issues.

MJB8 · Feb 9, 2016

yup

stoopalini · Feb 9, 2016

That looks fantastic! Did you do it yourself, or have a detailer do it?

Citadel Brian · Feb 9, 2016

I do all the paint correcting on my vehicles. Don't really trust anyone else.

stoopalini · Feb 9, 2016

Nice. I typically do all the work to my vehicles, but I feel paint correction is out of my skillset. I have a mobile detailer who will do clay bar, a 2 step polish, and top coat protectant for $325; not including the roof though. Part of me says its a great deal, the other part says how good can it be for $325?

Is this typical pricing and process for paint correction?

MJB8 · Feb 9, 2016

My buddy does them for all of us. He charges $200 and takes about 8 hours. This was done in June 2015 and the D was 2 years old and had 33k on it. I do take good care of the paint myself but he had all the pads and chemicals.

Citadel Brian · Feb 10, 2016

stoopalini said:
Nice. I typically do all the work to my vehicles, but I feel paint correction is out of my skillset. I have a mobile detailer who will do clay bar, a 2 step polish, and top coat protectant for $325; not including the roof though. Part of me says its a great deal, the other part says how good can it be for $325?

Is this typical pricing and process for paint correction?

For $325 he may not correct the roof, but he better be putting that top coat protection on it.

stoopalini · Feb 10, 2016

He came out yesterday and did a test spot, and it had no effect on the ripple look of the paint. After reading more about how orange peel is removed, I'm not so sure it's a good idea to do it to OEM paint after all. It seems like a good quality job should run about $1500 or so, to wet sand the vehicle down through a good bit of the clear coat, the polish and seal. Not sure it's worth all that anymore.

parttimer · Feb 10, 2016

You really shouldn't wet sand factory paint, some do, with great success but you need a PTG (paint thickness gauge) to make sure you don't remove too much clear. To remove orange peel (OP) you need to wet sand or use denim pads to cut the peaks off. Denim pads are a much better choice than wet sand on factory paint. I have a Dodge and Chrysler, OP is terrible on both, not sure why but they suck at painting. I have removed most of the peel from my 300 but it is not a daily driver. If you're going to cut the peel off, I would suggest a coating over a sealant or wax to give yourself a stronger sacrificial layer than a sealant or wax. I don't know where you live but prices vary. I charge $120 for a one step polish here in Ohio, a regular coating on top of that is $250, I am cheap by comparison. Some guys will be in the neighborhood of $1200 for the same work. I can't charge that. The old, you get what you pay for does sometimes apply, I let my work speak for itself.....
One step on a 2009 Mustang:

Here is some OP removal work pictures. I spent about 40 hours doing this, followed it up with Kamikaze ISM and Miyabi coatings:
You can see the peeks and valleys of the peel:

After:

Here are some lighting shots showing the peel before and after:

after:

Does a car look great after OP removal, yep, but most people don't know a swirl from a squirrel. Do to your paint what makes you happy!

stoopalini · Feb 10, 2016

Great info, thanks! Part of the issue here is the guy (errr ... kid) didn't give me the feeling that his experience was good enough to meet my expectations. I was hoping the wavyness (which I'm calling orange peel) could be removed and leave a mirror finish. But maybe my expectations are unreasonable for $500 or less ??

The paint isn't terrible, but the wavyness irks my OCD/prefectionist side, and if it could be removed for a reasonable cost, I'd do it.

Here's a pic:

and here's a short video. If you watch the reflection of the window in the paint, you can see the wavyness:

parttimer · Feb 10, 2016

That for sure is OP, you can see it in the garage window frame, the edges aren't sharp. It looks like it could at least use some correction but the OP removal is something not to be taken lightly. If you have an uneasy feeling from the "detailer" already, move along!

Chase300 · Feb 10, 2016

That's pretty much how my Citadel is...but with the bright white color, its hard to see so I will not mess with it.
My black 300 is a mirror with straight reflective lines after it was worked on by the dealership detailer...but it was not as bad in OP as my D is.

Also, like you have found its hard to find a good detailer who is good with paint...other than putting a wax on which I can do.

NYMisano · Feb 10, 2016

stoopalini said:
We're picking up our 2016 Redline R/T later today, and have been driving a 2015 Redline Limited as a loaner for the past week. The paint on this limited is really bad. Lot's of overspray, orange peel, etc ... I assume the R/T's paint will look similar, so started asking around for quotes to do a correction, polish and protectant on it.

Just wondering if anyone else has done this to their Redline Durango, and what kind of results you had...

I too am OCD and *properly* detail my own cars. The clear on most new cars now have an orange peel look due to the water based paint requirements. BMWs, at least a few years ago looked the worst of any brand. While it bothers me on our Red Durango, it's not enough to wetsand the car for 50 hours. To be clear, a paint correction detail will do nothing to remedy this, only a full wetsand then 3-4 step polish will, and that is not going to be $350 in any part of the country.

I should add that every Dodge I've seen on the lots had paint issues aside from orange peel. They all had dust nibs and drips in spots. I've learned to live with them since Im not paying $90k for a German SUV.

stoopalini · Feb 10, 2016

yep, I've already found 2 drip spots on ours. I suppose we'll live with it for a while, and if it continues to both me, I can always get it done in the future. It seems all the shops always quote clay bar into the price, so it shouldn't matter if I get it done now on in the future.

NYMisano · Feb 10, 2016

stoopalini said:
yep, I've already found 2 drip spots on ours. I suppose we'll live with it for a while, and if it continues to both me, I can always get it done in the future. It seems all the shops always quote clay bar into the price, so it shouldn't matter if I get it done now on in the future.

Clay bar just removes light surface contamination before polishing, its a 10-15 minute step that will not remove drips and do very little to overspray.

stoopalini · Feb 10, 2016

NYMisano said:
Clay bar just removes light surface contamination before polishing, its a 10-15 minute step that will not remove drips and do very little to overspray.

Right, what I meant was the vehicle doesn't need the clay bar treatment today due to it not having any surface contamination yet, but they figure that into the price anyway. So it won't cost me any more if I wait until it will need a clay bar treatment before correcting the paint, versus doing it now.

I figured it would take a lot longer than 10 - 15 minutes to clay the entire car, but I honestly have no idea. I just know it's one of the steps they include in the estimate, regardless if it needs it or not.

Chase300 · Feb 10, 2016

You'd be surprised how much crap is on the paint brand new from the factory.
My 300 clearly had iron filings so much have traveled by rail at some point.

Take me a couple hrs to clay bar a vehicle...though I'm no expert.

Surprising to me is that they shut down the factory sometime last yr to install a new paint shop and it seems the paint is no better or ever worse.

Lanson · Feb 10, 2016

My findings on this are that there's only so much that can be done to paint like this. My Granite '15 has some great spots and then there's the waviest damn sides on the doors ever. And just just typical orange peel like the paint was shot too dry, we're talking actual ripples and waves, ones that are very close together. They are perpendicular to the road surface, and extremely visible at certain angles of light. But as most have said here, wetsanding a factory paint job just isn't worth the time, or the risk, in most cases. So my regiment has been tailored to mostly hide the imperfections instead. It isn't ideal and the OCD in me knows what is under the paint, but at least it looks pretty good.

I've had the car only a few months, so I've so far done this to minimize the issues:
Clay resurface mitt (I use the Chemical Guys one but there are plenty good ones out there) with some lubricant and car soap in the bucket
CG P40 final polish on a white Hex Logic pad (I've not polished deeper than P40, haven't seen any scratches or swirls that exceed its ability yet on this new paint)
(the hiding part)
CG Blacklight on a white or blue pad
CG Glossworkz Glaze on a blue or black pad
Finish with Jet Seal 109 (could easily be Zaino, or a coating product)

This is very "multi-steppy" so I don't plan on doing it all the time, but the Blacklight followed with Glossworkz can really fill in a lot of the paint's imperfections. It can in no way remove them but can distract with a nice deep gloss and thanks to the Blacklight, a heckuva metal flake pop which really looks great.

If I knew I wouldn't burn through the clear in any circumstance, I'd happily take on the wetsand process, one panel at a time for weeks at a time, but you just can't guarantee that without knowing the paint's true depth.

edit: Still love the truck and the paint is still better than the Ford it replaced.

parttimer · Feb 10, 2016

Couple things, claying a vehicle used to take hours, with "clay" but you can get alternatives that do the same job with a huge time savings. The nano skin mitts and such, you can decon an entire vehicle in less than 20 minutes. As others have said, even a new ride should get deconned, my 300 sounded like sand paper on the roof when cleaning. The clay pulled all that out. The old plastic bag test will tell you how badly contaminated the paint is.
I've only wet sanded a few times, if you pick your compound right, you can be done in two steps. For my 300 I used Megs M105 with the denim pad, then polished with Menz 2500 on a white hybrid pad, coated the paint and done. I've wet sanded and followed it up fg400 and was done.
You can get an inexpensive paint gauge if you want to tackle it on your own. I personally would not wet sand, I'd do the denim pads, but then again I had a rotary and DA so all I had to do was get the denim pads.

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Anyone had "paint correction" done to their D?

stoopalini

Chase300

MJB8

stoopalini

Citadel Brian

stoopalini

MJB8

Citadel Brian

stoopalini

parttimer

stoopalini

parttimer

Chase300

NYMisano

stoopalini

NYMisano

stoopalini

Chase300

Lanson

parttimer

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