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.