[It's Just Eric]

I just recently gave a long winded reply to what to look for when selecting a body shop to do your paintwork...seems alot of people are asking about it nowadays. Here's a copy and paste job:

Step 1 in looking for a body shop is checking out their quality, step 2 is price. Ask them to see work they've recently completed..Dont even ask what was repaired. If you can spot it, they likely didnt do it right. What to look for: Diffrent orange peel pattern,runs, overspray on moldings, hard edges from tape (Over taped moldings),light / dark spots, dust in the paint,Chips that were painted over, dents thet weren't repaired, wavy bondo / outlinesunder the paint,pinholes, hard tape ines in the base coat, sanding scratches, and color match (If they paneled the car, itll be easier to spot than if they did a blend)

Some of this is rather inportant for the longevity of the paint as well as astetics....

Difftrent orange peel pattern is a dead gieaway that something was repaired. Nothing kills a new paitn job like when someone looks down the side of your freshly waxed car and it looks like the ocean on a windy day.This, along with the light and dark spots and paint runs would indicate the painter isnt the best.
But more inportant than the painter's work is the prep-guy's work.
Let's say, for example, that nobody sanded the car before they put primer over the body filler spots. That primer will NEVER sit flat..The edges will "ghost" and basicy just sit on the old paint, waiting to peel off. Also, a mild wavy patern could be created from a prepper using short hard swipes with a sanding block.It's also pretty obvious when a chip isnt sanded..Or it isnt feathered out all the way, creating a layered hole looking spot.

Usually people don't notice this stuff, but you damn well will notice overspray on moldings, or parts where the old color is showing through. This is created when the guy with the roll of tape is careless. Keep an eye out for overspray on moldings, this is a dead giveaway that A: they never removed the molding B: The next best thing would have been to use lift tape...and they didnt and C: Now your molding has effectivly created a hard line in the paint, which is likely tom peel back over time. Also likely to peel back is an area that was taped and shouldnt have been, resulting in a hard edge of paint when the tape is removed.

Also on the tape up- duty is the guy who taped the car up for primer...If they made a nice little hard edge right next to the body filler, and expected the edge to feather out...Wel, they'd be right. But little do they know that edge will come right back as soon as basecoat is sprayed. The primer edge tends to eat away at whatever is underneath, leaving a lasting impression, much the same way "Support our troops" ribbons do when a car gets dirty. This one is hard to spot, and really doesnt create any future problems...but if your are a picky person with a black car...thisll be a nightmare.

One last thing in my long winded bodywork rant....sanding scraches. Now, this one is on the guy who put the bondo down. typically it should be finished with, say, 180 or 220 grit sand paper. 220 or 320 and up if the painter plans on doing a wet-on-wet with the sealer and paint (No primer) Sometimes though, they'll just leave it with 80, or worse yet, 36 grit. This one is a kicker...If the guy with the primer burys the mess, and it blocks out nice...and it gets painted and looks GREAT...Probly a month later itll show itself. Most primers and paints will actually shrink back as they harden, revealing whats underneath (See the hard edges in basecoat above)
If you look closely you can probly catch this while the paint is still fresh.

Umm...that might help....
Just a side note: Re-doing someone else's body work is a pain in the.....rear... and I would reccomend having the car dissasembled,and stripped to metal on the outside. Bodywork is like building a...perfectly flat thing. Over someone else's bodywork, it's like building a perfectly flat thing on a rocky mountianside. Of course, you could buldoze that flat...but then you run into diffrent layers of garbage and clay and all kinds of hooey. It's best to just find somewhere like.....Montana....where there isnt anything there to begin with.