Hello,

I got my RX7 painted by a professional body shop about a year ago. It looked really good for a while, but I’ve noticed a bunch of sanding marks showing up quite recently. It’s something I would’ve noticed right from the get go, but it seems like it just keeps getting worse. I’ve attached an image of what I am seeing show up all over the car. I don’t believe these scratches are in the clear coat, I’ve tried polishing and waxing, and they are not able to be felt with my fingernail. They look like a coarser grit sandpaper. Now I’m assuming the worst, because I’m sure there is no way to fix basecoat sanding marks short of repainting the entire car. But my question is, is this something that is common? Did the primer shrink over the coarse of a year or something? And is there any way to keep this from getting worse?

yes that looks like to cores on the sand paper. you will get some shrinkage, but its usually only a problem when to heavy paper is used.
Jay D.

Some high build primers will continue to shrink over time. A lot of it has to do with how fast they forced the paint package. I mean, if you keep stacking any coating over and over and don't observe flash/dry times, yeah, stuff is still curing/shrinking. The bad part can also be in the cut/buff stages..... If you don't have a good cut and buff guys may be making up for clear scratches with glazing compounds to fill in and even out gloss. In your case though these look like they are under base color.....

Jay D.