No Scuff ’n Shoot Here Aztec NM

The mindset that car refinishing is easy seems to be spreading throughout the industry. But there are no shortcuts to perfect paint jobs, and thorough prep work is essential to a lasting, quality repair.

By Nathan Tarr
5/1/2007

Painting is easy. It’s just a simple scuff and shoot, right? This is the mindset of many who aren’t familiar with car refinishing. Insurance companies think this way and attempt to reduce paint times accordingly. Plenty of shop owners and managers, with their thoughts on production, have also fallen into this mindset. Surprisingly, there’s a disturbingly large number of painters who also feel this way. But if your goal is a great paint job, there’s a lot of effort and care that needs to be put into the prep work. Everything you do before that car rolls into the paint booth determines whether it will be a lasting, quality repair or a “get it out the door because it’s Friday” one.

I enjoy doing good work. I take pride in the paint jobs I do, so I must take pride in the prep work I do on each and every car. Prepping is the most important step of the paint job, so if you find yourself having to redo a lot of paint jobs, examine what you’re doing wrong during the preparation stages of the repair. There are no shortcuts to perfect paint jobs.

Clean, Clean, Clean
Many times I’ve observed a refinish tech pull a job into the paint shop, pull out a DA and go to town on the car. ...