07LTZGREYSTONE

I just wanted peoples opinions on wet sanding my 07 tahoe.. I have minor flaws that i would like to fix in my paint.. I would say on a scale of 1-10 my paint is an 8.(10 being the best ) I was just curious so i took it to a body shop and they said for $1,200.00 it would look better than new, and i would see a 100% difference.. Is there any negative things that can happen??
Thanks for your help..

kcw002

hmmmm.. I have never thought of that. We have Greystone too... What do you mean by flaws..?

ZX1100F1

For under $100 and half a days work you can clay the paint and polish it out to perfection yourself.

Zaino makes great automotive paint kit (ZKIT1) that gets very good results.
There are also many other companies that produce products that are just as good.

Don't let a buffer touch your paint unless it is the absolute last resort and you are confident that man on the business end of it is a pro, most body shops tend to over-use buffers IMHO.

maries 07 tahoe

I was going to have my tahoe color sanded but the amount of clear the robots put on these poor painted units is sad.. We we scuffed the top and hood and all the sides and then painted the top, hood, upper sides trunk door and then Cleared the entire unit.. THEN we color sanded the deep clear and got what the factory BOTS should have done... and NO bump where the color changes just smooooth clear.. Marie

07LTZGREYSTONE

Just a few spots of egg shell here and there.. Nothing earth shattering..
thanks ZX i will look into that first, but i am very lazy!!

tjmorgan

The Zaino products work great! As for using a clay bar, I'm not sure it will give you the look you are after. Clay bars are for removing over spray, bugs, tar or rough spots on top of the clear (not caused by the initial spraying of the clear itself). There's no doubt that using a clay bar in addition to a good wax will make a vehicle that is a few years old look new again, but I dont think using a clay bar will make it look better than new (the day you drove it off the lot). I have clayed many vehicles for one reason or another and they always come out great (especially if you use the Zaino products afterwards!)
The minor flaws you likely have are 2 fold. The new Chevys tend to have areas where very little clear was applied (I've noticed it is mostly from the doors up). They also have areas where there seems to be enough clear, but the orange peel is worse than other areas. They seem to have gotten better over the last year (or at least a little more consistant). The first 07 I bought was black. I kept it for 2 days before swapping it for a greystone because the clear was so inconsistant and far more noticeable. I now have a black Avalanche that seems to be a little better.
My advice (I used to do some detailing of show cars on the side and I've showed a couple of cars for a few years) is to use a professional detailer to help with the clear coat issues. Most body shops will not do a great job for this application since they are usually some of the lowest paid employees who do the sanding, buffing and final detailing. They are also used to dealing with fresher paint that likely has a lot more clear coat than a factory painted vehicle.
I have a local detailer that works almost primarily on Ferrari's for the dealership that is going to do mine. He actually does a light color sanding and buffing process to factory painted, new Ferrari's in order to reduce the orange peel. I think he is going to charge about $400 to do it (which will include a full detail).

Just my $.02

TJ

engine2

I would follow the advice of that others here posted. Get the Zaino. Plus $1200 seems very high for wet sanding which I would not do anyway.

cocodrie55

A friend of mine had his C5 corvette wet sanded (1500 or 2000 grit) and it is absolutely the best paint job on a C5 I've ever seen. Its like a mirror, absolutely no orange peel anywhere. But he had someone do it that knew what they were doing.

ZX1100F1

A clay bar is a very light polishing abrasive; almost every new GM vehicle that you see on promotional display at special events is clayed by hand (not buffed by machine) then polished and waxed before the opener.


After a new car leaves the paint booth it is exposed to a myriad of contaminants especially during shipping (rail dust), most all dealers complete only a marginal wash job accomplished by poorly paid young adults (not pro's), if you run your hand over the paint of your new Tahoe you will generally feel tiny dirt and debris particles even after a wax job it normally isn’t as silky ice smooth as you would like, a clay bar is the most invasive polish method I recommend a novice home car detailer attempt on his or her new car.
Keep in mind that the only way to smooth an orange peel on your new GM vehicle is to remove clear coat and as pointed out above there is not an abundance of this protective coating on your vehicle to begin with so my advice is to use a method that removes little or preferably none.

You will find that after claying, polishing and waxing your Tahoe those areas of light orange peel will be next to invisible in the daylight.

$1,200 to have someone buff out your Tahoe is absolutely insane!
Never let anyone touch your vehicles paint unless you have seen their handy work, not only on a newer car but also one they had polished out years before.