Peel the Orange peel or go pro painter?
 

My black rx7 got victimized by a bad paint job (just had some chips but unfortunately the previous owner liked to spend money on it) by a local shop here before I got it. Thankfully, because the first guy who called would have bought it otherwise. The paint has really bad orange peel and looks decent when clean but not very much shine. Looked bad next to my old 89 and still looks bad next to the miata. Should I spend some money and do some research to try and wet sand it out (if possible!?) or pay the $1300 to a trusted painter in Indiana to redo it to better than new. I put the money aside when I bought the car but obviously it could be spent on important things like rear end and clutch... Selling the car and spending the money on the miata is not an option, sorry all you rotary haters.

let's see a pic, what you can do with it depends on the type of paint used. if it wasn't cleared don't bother trying to wetsand it.

If the orange peel is in the clear you should be able to wet sand it out. If it is in the base you're fucked.

If the paint is single stage you should be ok.

I'd try to wet sand it first, then after I fucked it up I'd pay to have it re-painted :)

You're best bet is have someone in the know look at it.

+1

If it's in the clear, wet sand the car then buff it. Not hard to do at all.

If it's in the color, you'll need to scuff or strip and repaint. Being a repaint already, you probably need to strip it down. $1300 doesn't buy much of a repaint. The materials cost alone for a car I painted was around $2k for a decent (not show winning) base/clear job.

BTW, did you try the clay/buff/polish/wax method? That might get the junk out of the paint and put on a layer of shine. You might need to maintain it with a monthly or semi monthly waxing. That's worked well on several cars I've owned, but not my miata. I've tried to buff it, you can't even tell. :cry:
Time for its 3rd paint job I recon.

Good advice. I've gotten mixed advice, but maybe I can find someone I don't know to look at it.

I really should buy all the stuff anyways as I can always use it on another car. This seems to be a good site:

http://www.detailuniversity.com/foru...ior-detailing/

I found it while whoring around at nsxprime.

The $1300 paint job will be the real deal, when I get the results and a regular price, it will all be posted. The guy is very talented and starting his own shop in rural Indiana.