My mini was recently repaired from an accident. After I picked it up I noticed there was an imperfection in the paint. I took it back to the repair shop and they said they would correct the problem. They pulled my mini into their shop and a guy grabbed some sandpaper and attacked my car. He was rubbing the car with the sandpaper before I could say anything. He then used a white creamy substance on the car which he used a buffer to apply. I asked him what it was and he informed me it was rubbing compound. I am a little concerned that their fix damaged my clear coat. What are your thoughts? Obviously I notice a ton of swirls in the "corrected" area. Do I perform a detail with swirl, amigo, epic, bg? I appreciate your insight.

 

Do nothing until it is made right.

 

+1 , they left it improper, have them pay for a quality polih job. Or you could correct the issue yourself if you feel comfortable enough.

 

sounds like they probably fixed the paint issue alright, but need to do a final polish.

 

You'll need to polish the paint. What to use will depend on the the amount of damage...you'll probably want to use a PC / white pad / swirl to start and see if that gives you the results you're looking for.

Or you could join the WCM group tomorrow morning at Richard's place and let him evaluate it for you

 

my concern is that this damaged the clear coat. Did it?

 

Anytime you repair/repaint any panel on a car you must sand the area smooth then polish it out, why it was not done prior to pick up seems strange, but to answer your question should be no damage to clearcoat, it may be a little thiner in the area they sanded, when properly polished you will not see any difference.

 

What grit sandpaper? Could have been anything from 60 to 6000.

 

Without more details on what kind of imperfection this was, I'm assuming it was a fisheye, or lint, or something in the paint. You say it was recently repaired, so this repair shop is a body shop? If that's the case, then they probably took some 1500 grit paper and sanded the defect out which fogged up the paint. In order to make it clear, it gets buffed with a polishing compound (not a rubbing compound).

The problem is that's usually where they stop. The wool pad and compound is very aggressive. As others have said, it needs to be finished. Sometimes a PC is all you need, or further rotary work might be needed.

At yesterdays detailing clinic, I repaired several scratches. In one case, the paint was too thin for safe sanding, so I just compounded it and the owner was very pleased. In another, there was sufficient paint to sand with 1500, 2000, and 2500 Unigrit and compound with M105 and a wool pad. I followed that with an LC Orange pad wth Prima Swirl on the rotary. Then I took that same orange pad, put it on a PC, and continued polishing. A few times, I had to go back to the rotary with some M105 to pull some some sanding marks that remained. In the end, the side swiped MINI that looked like it needed a repaint was saved and everybody was impressed.

MOST SHOPS do not know how to finish paint. They know how to sand and cut paint, but that's where they stop. Telling them to make it right won't help. Wish you had asked me for a referral as I would have sent you to a shop that would have done this right the first time.

Richard