Wait time before complete repaint on freshly painted 63 Caddy - Cold weather

Covert1

New Member
Morning Gents, I have a 63 Caddy that was sublet to another shop for a complete repaint on a year old paint job from another state. The guy's metal work is crazy good so when he said he could paint i didn't question it. BIG mistake. I new have to completely repaint this car again. I'm worried with 2 paint jobs in the last year that putting another on it may be a disaster if done to soon or at all. I haven't had any experience with this type of mess and was wondering if anyone would offer some suggestion as to how long i should wait, should i sand it all off, chemical strip all off, if painting over it is even a good idea or not, etc, etc. It's been about 50-60 days inside/outside in weather ranging from 8-80 degrees. Plenty of sun in the high desert dry climate.

Appreciate any advise.

P.S. Nason sealer, base & clear. 2 layers EA.
 
Are you putting a 3rd paint job on it or a 2nd?
I'd let it sit in the sun for a week or so. 50-60 days is a while and it sounds like not a lot of material on it? What was going to be done with 2 coats nason clear? You couldn't hardly 1500 da and buff with that.

Always the best route is sand it back off and start over but not every budget can afford that. If it's going to be the 3rd paint job then I'd want to know what is under it and how it was prepared.

Jobs like this are setting yourself up for failure.
 
Sounds like there is not too much buildup on the second paint job that you need to worry about that part of it, but that can only be seen by starting to sand it off. Crazy good metal work does not mean there is not alot of filler on it, so thats where the can of worms starts to open for me with the acre of body on that thing.
 
Sorry, I figured more detail would be needed after i posted it. So here's the whole rundown. I hired this guy (kid-25yr old) to do some of the metal work on a 36 Plymouth I'm building for a customer. I've seen multiple vehicles he's done and have been present with the work on the Plymouth. All top notch work. Just a skim coat over the top type metal work. He grew up working in a hot rod shop in Cali, (his story) his parents just moved up here into a place behind my shop, he followed and was working initially at another rod shop in Bend, OR. He decided to go out on his own after being there a year or so. Still does work for that shop. He moved his stuff into his dad's shop at their place and that's how we meet after he flagged me down one day i was hauling a 50 Victoria out of my place and he flagged me down to look at it.

I'll tell you straight up, I'm no master painter. More like a novice. Painted about 12 rigs now, several motorcycles and some custom sign work, several implements and some of my own stuff. Worked with a paint company for 2 years also. I'm a Master mechanic by trade with a very broad skill set. This whole hot rod shop thing just sorta happened after i built the C10 in my pic for a guy that is way, way up the food chain around here put me in business.

Anyway, the Caddy was painted about a year and half ago at a shop on the other side of the country. The filler had broken out in the rear panel, the paint had runs in it, the body lines were off, doors didn't line up, you name it. The metal work was a mess with 1/2+ filler over a lot of it where they made repairs. When i got it in and found all the issues we ended up stripping most of the car to bare metal and fixing all the work. Both doors, rear driver quarter, rockers and partial fender work. The guy did all the metal work and while i was there one day i asked if he did paint, filler and would he be interested in doing the caddy the rest of the way because i was buried. He said ya, sure. He had Iwata supernova guns and sounded confident. With his metal work being so good i didn't question any further. So he finished the repairs, brought it to the shop to use the booth and painted it. His prep all looked good, i went over it with him before leaving him to paint it. The car is Aspen white, we were supposed to add a touch of gold pearl in the mid coat. The owner wanted it very very subtle, i told him to use the end of a toothpick with the pearl twice. That's it.

I didn't open the door or go in the booth because i hate being disturbed when painting. He finished late in the evening, came out and said he'd be back the next day to unmask. Said he got a couple runs but he could take care of it, cool. When i walked in the booth i didn't need to see more than the grill and front of the hood to know it was a complete redo. There were a couple of runs. They started at the back and went to the front down both sides, down the full length of the hood, the base was shot dry and i mean DRY, looks like little mountains under the clear and he zebra stripped it BAD. Every body line, the trunk lid, hood all of it with enough pearl to do 2 or 3 cars i would bet. He used half a paint stick of pearl, didn't shoot all the clear coat on it. Still have half a gallon unmixed left, same with the base. Didn't get any base on the inside of the rear wings, you getting the picture. The next day he was absolutely sure he could sand, cut, buff and polish all the runs out. I stopped arguing and decided to let him go at it knowing he had a week long lesson ahead or more knowing it was getting repainted just due to the pearl in it. To his credit he did a pretty dam god job of getting 80% the runs out but sanded through in 1 spot and buffed through another. I stopped him when he came out and asked how many cars he had shot. 2 of his own.

So now i have a Caddy that has some original paint, about half of the paint on it from the shop across the country and what he sprayed on. 2 base, mid coat with pearl, 2 clear he said. I'm confident in the repair work to the body he did and know from seeing that there isn't more than 1/8" of filler anywhere. All the product has been Nason including the first job. Rage filler. My plan was to just DA it down close, finish flattening it out by hand and then reshoot 3 coats base and 3-4 coats clear. I've heard horror stories i don't want to experience if possible so i was looking for advise on how long i should wait before going back after this monster a 3rd time.
 
Any hardener used in the base? If not, I would try my best to avoid breaking through the clear. You are looking at a potential lifting or wrinkling problem anywhere you hit base. Those sand through spots need to be spotted with full strength epoxy (2 coats) and left to dry overnight before proceeding with more base.
 
Boy sounds like a real mess. Hope you can work it out. Like Texas said maybe you can get away with getting the clear sanded flat and rebase and clear.
 
My god, it would have to be a 63 caddy! Acres of trouble. You say half the paint from the shop across the country, I thought you took that all back down to metal? Do you know what kind of products were used on it from that shop?
 
Update and outcome if anyone see's this. We ended up wet sanding it all flat and let it sit in a hot booth and outside off and on for about a month then we sanded it again and let it sit another month. All total we pretty much sanded it back down to where it was before the kid shot it. I decided to spray 2 full coats of epoxy over it and seal it up before painting again. The car has been finished now for 6 months with no issues to date.
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