Ok, I have never had a car repainted, so I am hoping that someone with experience in this area will offer an opinion or advice. I need to know if I got what I paid for.

The main reason my wagon needed a paint job was because the clearcoat had started to blister and wear off really bad on the roof... It has been a Ca. car all of its life and it has seen a lot of sun... The good thing is that there is no rust anywhere.

Prior to dropping my car off, I removed everything that was reasonably easy to take off, such as the pin striping, side and wheelwell moldings, roof rack, wipers and tailgate emblems.

After looking at the paint samples in their office, I chose their 'Pro 3' paint job since it includes a clear coat and a 6 year warranty. I selected a gray clolor with a fine metallic flake that closely matches the original color on my car. If you go to www.earlscheib.com you can see what steps/featurest their different 'jobs' include. The price of the Pro 3 right now is $359

I dropped the car off on Thursday at noon and I was told the car would be ready around 10:30am on Saturday.

I received a call from them on Friday afternoon saying that the hood needed to be sanded all the way down since the original clear coat and/or paint was cracked and would cause the new paint to crack as well. I told them to go ahead with the extra work for the quoted $119. I even offered them to keep the car longer if needed since I have access to another set of wheels, but they said it would not be neccessary.

I was quite excited when I went to pick up the car at 11:00am on Saturday. The car was finished alright and sitting in the parking lot. Upon looking at the car close up I was very dissapointed in the 'finish' or lack thereof... The paint was very wavy and rough in places and you could even see some cracking of the paint on the hood.

When I pointed out the 'roughness' to the manager, he said that its normal and that its called orange peeling. He said that the paint needs to harden for a week and then it will need to be color sanded or something like that... He said it's a big job. He did not mention anything about this to me when I dropped the car off. Nor do any of their paint samples have this roughness.

Anyway, I paid for the job and went home with mixed feelings. When I took a closer look at the paint job at home, it appears that the orange peeling is particularily bad in the middle section of the roof and the lower half of all doors and fenders, as well as on the tailgate.

Although there was some overspray on bumpers, door handles and window trim
I am not upset about that part since I expected there to be some and it's not excessive.

However, the 'roughness' of the finish is a different story... In addition to it being obvious to the eye, you can easily feel it when you run your fingertips over it. It really bothers me.. specially when some parts like the top halves of the doors and the edges of the roof are quite smooth to the touch.

So, is this roughness really 'normal' on a cheaper paint job and can it really be sanded out? And, is it reasonable for me to expect there to be no cracking of the paint on the hood since I paid extra for the hood prep?

Thanks,
JJ
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