Pinstripe Removal Snag and I Need Suggestions???
 

Over the weekend I removed the beige pinstripes from my Orient Red 81 300D. It went smoothly, for the most part, but I did run into a little snag and I was wondering if some of you might have some suggestions on what happened and how to move forward.

The first pic is of the pinstripes, before the work had been done.

The second picture is of one of the panels after the pinstripes had been removed. You can see the color contrast from the shinier/darker paint that was under the removed pinstripes. This was to be expected and I'm fine with it. After polishing it up it looked real good, you can still see the color contrast which, again, is fine and after the polishing it was smooth to the touch with no ridges. Great! This was the case for the entire car except for the driver's side door. In the third picture you'll notice that there is a slight ridge which I wasn't expecting. It looks kind of like a flaking clear coat but my car is a single stage paint with no clear coat, supposedly. So what gives???

The only thing I can think of is that maybe the driver's door was repainted at some point and it was clear coated but I don't see any other signs that the door had been repainted in the past and also... the car has been detailed with a light clay bar treatment/detailing a couple of times, which I believe entailed some sort of light color sanding, so my question is... if the door had a clear coat on it, wouldn't that have been revealed when it was detailed?

More importantly, how can I knock that little ridge back down and make it smooth without damaging the paint? Can I wet sand that area on the door with some 2000 grit sandpaper and then polish it out? Or maybe use some sort of abrasive polishing compound? Any thoughts/suggestions? Thanks!

The door was definitely repainted. The DOI (distinctness of image) is much much lower on the door. Just look at the reflection of the white van in the background. You can see how the image is much less distorted on the fender vs. the door.

With that, the coating on the door does seem to be more susceptible to damage. If it were me, I would repaint the door. I wouldn't be able to tolerate the differences in finish quality, and I would be concerned that if you try to buff that out, you would create a bigger mess.

With that being said, I developed OEM paints, and folks with more experience in refinish may be able to give you better advice. Any better suggestions out there?

I'm with JMK on this. The odds are if you try to buff/sand down the re-paint you will find they used a primer beneath the top layer of color.

That being said I'd probably try to sand down a very small patch and keep my fingers crossed. Who knows? You might get lucky and if you don't, a dab of touch-up won't be as noticeable until you get the chance to redo the wing.

Crazy, I've never noticed the difference in the quality until you pointed out the reflection in the photos. When actually looking at the car in person it looks pretty consistent to the other panels but now I notice it. Honestly, I never thought for a second it had been repainted until I removed the pinstripes and noticed what looked like a clear coat, which is what made me think it may have been repainted. Also, keep in mind that I'm a total novice regarding this stuff so maybe some of you would've noticed immediately.

I'm definitely not in the market for repainting the door at this time. The goal is to repaint the whole car at some point down the line for sure but I can't pull it off at this time, financially speaking. I'll need to live with it for now though, unfortunately.


What would you recommend if I was to attempt this? Wet sand with 2000 grit, maybe?

If you can use a buffer then start with that. If not start with 3000 grit then move on to a 2500 grit then go to 2000. You don't start something like this with what you guess may work, you start with what you feel is too fine then slowly move to heavier grits.

I've color sanded the trunk lid on my 1985 black car then buffed out the scratches removing just a slight amount of paint. It turned out excellent. My brother took paint off some of the edges with a big buffer using by using wrong the wrong technique on that same car.

Maybe you should see a professional who can use a buffer. Idk, but you're doing right by researching this before you start removing finish.

Before I removed my pinstripes and ended up with that little ridge, my game plan was to do this:

https://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/how-to-articles-by-mike-phillips/66800-4-steps-restore-single-paint-paint-1972-mercedes-benz-280-se.html

This is still my plan but I'm assuming I should first try to smooth out that little ridge before moving forward with the 4 step process mentioned in the article above.

Since your suggestion is to try the buffer first, which I agree with... do you have a suggestion regarding which product to use when using the buffer to remove the ridge?

Be careful with a buffer.
 

Restoring paint is way more simple than removing humps where pinstripes were. Meguiare's is fine but it's not going to make removing those humps simple, quick or easy and it's not going to protect the area around the humps.

I don't think this is a process which a beginner could master without help. You should seek professional advice, imo. I would. I'm fairly good with a buffer but this project would cause me nerve issues.

I would definitely find the best body man in the county and have him examine the problem. The more I consider this the more difficult and challenging it seems.

I have the luxury of a donor car to try new processes for experience. I spend extra time talking to people at Finishmasters and the other top auto paint suppliers here in town.

After talking to people you kinda get the feel for who is dependable for advice and who is just trying to sell you snake oil.

Light sand.. wet sand then polish over the problem area.

No, no, no, that's not what I want you to tell me. I want you to tell me I can handle by myself and that it will all work out okay. Ha ha! Which Meguiare's product do you recommend if I foolishly decide to try it myself?

If I do try this... should I use 3000 grit?

I'm a 3M fan.
 

I have 3M's rubbing compounds and the rest of the three stage stuff. Idk about any other but I'm satisfied that it's the man running the buffer, not the buffer or the brand on the bottle.

If you're intending on removing any significant amount of paint you're going to have to mask closely. Remember, what you take off of the hump will also be taken off the areas close to it if they are not protected.

Mask the hump off and try 3K or 2500 grit wet and work your way toward more coarse grits if needs be. I'd suggest you take a little off then pull the tape and wipe down with a good cleaning solution and evaluate how much you've removed. I do not recommend you trying the entire project but rather experiment until you have a system working. One or two linear feet to start with.

If you have a spare door try it and develop your skill on it before you attack your car with sandpaper.

Thanks again for the tips. I'll updated this when I finally get around to taking a stab at it.

You may want to just repaint the door.

The finish looks quite good on the fender, and if the rest of the car is OEM, then the finish would be worth saving. Mercedes finish of this vintage is very high quality. Repainting the whole car may not improve the car.

Examine the whole care carefully for finish quality.