dkleather

Call me stupid....walking past the front left fender carrying an air ratchet I must have been holding the hose by the quick disconnect...ratchet fell catching the front fender right above mid-tire and left a 1/4 inch chip to the primer right at the bottom edge of the fender. First mark on my five year old paint so a few choice words were said. Would like any advice/tricks on how to touch up the spot with bottle paint so it will be least noticeable. She's a driver but she ain't ugly!!

AZDoug

if you acn't match the paint exactly, go with a darker shade, the touchup won't be as noticable thatw ay.

Doug

Seaside63

Touch up shouldn't be hard but it helps to know what kind of paint is on there. If it's base/clear it will be a slightly different process than single stage.

Essentially you need to carefully clean out the chipped area, slight sand the inside and feather the edges if possible.

Then dab the paint in there and let it cure (it may take several coats to build up the thickness). You need to build it up higher than the surrounding surface.

After it's really dried and shrunk, take a single edge razor blade and bend it slightly into a crescent. You will shave the repair to level it close to the surrounding. The crescent is to keep the corners up off the paint as they could gouge the good paint.

After shaving, get a wet 600 git sand paper and with a diluted soapy water, sand very softly to level out the paint. Use a popsicle stick if needed to keep from creating fingertip craters.

Then wipe clean and it should be dull. Next step go to a 1000 or 1200 grit, then after that a 1500 grit. The point being that each subsequent sanding takes the sanding marks finer and finer.

You need to be careful not to take the repair too low and not to sand away the good paint.

After all that, use a very fine polishing compound. Meguiar's #2 is good. DO NOT use that old Turtle Wax Polishing Compound. Throw that old junk away.

Use a clean foam waxing pad to rub in the compound. If you have a buffer with a foam pad you can hit it with that but be careful.

By now it will be nearly impossible to see the repair. Clean and wax and you're done.

All the above steps will only take about 15 minutes after the paint has dried.

If you have base/clear, the process is almost the same except you want to keep the base color below the chip edges and then build up the clear. Since you'll be shaving and sanding the clear, keep in minfd that it looks cloudy and white until the final polishing.

dkleather

Thanks so much guys....Seaside your info was exactly on the mark as to what I wanted to know!! I do have base/clearcoat and will put the last few build up coats on in clear. I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my question so thoroughly....I don't want to screw it up and with your info, I'm sure it will go fine. Thanks alot!! dave

tdelph

seaside that was very good information. I will keep this as well.

Bob Schaefer

Hi All-

1. Would it be advisable to use a primer before applying touch-up to the base?

2. Also, would it change things if the damage was a narrow scratch? I guess I'm so naive, I don't know whether my scratch is just in the clear coat, the base paint or all the way thru to bare metal on a silver (non-Corvette) car.

Thanks,
Bob S.

ThomC

You might also want to look into a product from Langka (www.langka.com). Works like a charm to remove the "bump" from touch-up paint repairs.

Thom

dkleather

Thanks Thom...wish they had a pic of the blob remover...would like to know what makes it worth $30!! I'll look in some of the catalogs they say they sell in. Thanks for the help...dave

ThomC

It's a liquid. First you fill in the chip with touch-up, putting on enough so it creates a "bump" of paint; let it dry for up to 24 hrs.; then wrap a tightly woven fabric (they recommend a bedsheet type fabric) around a stiff plastic card, wet the fabric with their "blob remover" and rub it over the bump until it melts it and removes the excess paint to the level of the original paint. Somehow it only melts the touch-up paint. Just to be safe I tried it in an inconspicuous spot first - and it worked as advertised (go figure!).

dkleather

Thanks Thom....interesting!! Do you sand after doing the removal of the "blob"? Seems to me that using cloth over the touch-up paint would leave a surface unlike the surrounding paint and be noticeable. I assume you've used it....does it blend well? dave

ThomC

Nope - no sanding. With a little practice you can get great results. Toughest part is not taking too much touch-up paint out of the chip while you are going over it. If you do - just hit it with more paint, wait a day then go over it again.

dkleather

Thanks again Thom...I've ordered the kit to try. Since I see your car is Rally Red...(great looking car, by the way...want to sell those sidepipes??ha)..and mine is Riverside Red, I'm hoping for the same great results you say you had. Does your car have a base/clearcoat?
Can't wait to try it....dave