How do you apply touch up paint properly?
 

Hi, i got a phantom blue rx8.

i've made quite big scratch on the side..

so i bought touch up paint and tried to apply it..

now it looks so ugly...! and so messy..

how can i do this properly??

almost undistinguishable by other person..?

like... really smooth surface.. or kinda like that..

and unpatched...?

What your gonna have to do is sand it down. With some 1200 GRIT WET/DRY sandpaper or finner 1500/2000. I would find a semi hard rubber sanding block to wrap the sand papaer around. MAKE SURE THE PAINTED SUFACE AND SANDPAPER/BLOCK ARE CLEAN. If you have never attempted anything like this before do it slowly! Only problem is if your not careful then you will sand the paint down around it first. You only want to sand the paint you applied. Be delicate and watch the suface for how much paint you are removeing. You must concentrate on the suface of the paint you applied ONLY. BE CAREFUL. I would use water in a spray bottle with a few drops of liquid soap in it. This will help carry away the particles you are sanding off. If it feels gritty THEN STOP and clean(rinse) the sand paper off.
Makes the sandpaper slide smoother on the surface.
This can be a tricky and time consuming process so always wipe it down with a clean towel and check your progress. Take note of the surface and how much paint you are sanding off.
When you get it down to just about perfect level then go with the 2000 GRIT PAPER.
LIGHTLY SAND DOWN TO A SMOOTH LEVEL WITH THE ORIGINAL PAINT.
This should leave a nice smooth surface that you may now take a POLISHING compoud by hand to and shine it up. Then you can apply some wax.
Chaces are you will still see some color variation ,but it wont look like someone globbed paint on the car. Metallic paint is the hardest to match.

This is not for someone who has doubt that they can achieve this. This is an EASY WAY to ruin your paint job if you don't PAY ATTENTION to what you are doing. Then you will be taking it to a bodyshop for paint.
I would recommend that you try this on a painted suface that you don't care about.
Like an old Beater car.

BE CAREFUL
I ASSUME NO LIABILITY TO THE ACTIONS/OUTCOME OF PEOPLE USING THIS TECHNIQUE.*

Thank you and have a good day,,, BE CAREFUL!
*This procedure should only be done by trained technicians.

Let the paint you applied dry at least 24 hours because their is not a hardener in the touch up paint and it will take longer for it to dry.

it is almost impossible to apply touch up paint smoothly on the car.
if it is too big, get it fixed by a panel beater. make sure he/she mixes the paint properly.

There are minivans like Chipsaway across town, in Melbourne and Sydney.

The guy I met was very cool and did a good job on my garage incident. ;)

if touchup paint cured everything, then panel beaters wouldnt have a job ;)

Then why do you wear makeup Missyk isnt that just a touchup lol.

I don't think it is possible to apply touchup paint without it looking like crap.

OUCH! :Kill2:

I don't think Missy's face is as big as Katana's scratches on his car :lol:


BTW when she does make up, if you have a chance to meet her, is an operation, not touch up :lol2:

If the scratch is big, then the touch up paint will be noticeable, otherwise, you can get away with it (it's still visible of course but only from certain angle and/or if someone looks at it carefully).

I always use clay bar for touch up paint to take away the excess.

This is what I usually do:
1. clean the paint using meguiar's paint cleaner (or other brand) to get a clean surface.
2. apply touch up paint. make sure the touch up paint makes a blob, as when it dries, it will flatten out.
3. leave for 24-48 hours for it to dry.
4. once dried, check the touch up paint, if the touch up paint is lower than the rest of the paint surface, reapply touch up paint and leave it to dry again (step 3 & 4).
5. if the touch up paint is flat and/or making a blob, it's time to use the clay bar.
6. make sure you use lot's of lubricants (not personal lubricants mind you :) ). Meguiar's clay bar comes with quick detailer. if you don't have quick detailer, car shampoo usually does the trick.
7. elbow grease is required to get a smooth flat surface between touch up paint and your paint finish.
8. once flat, apply meguiar's scratch x to remove the marr (spelling?).
9. don't forget to apply polish and wax to protect your finish.

it works every time for me. I got a 1 inch long scratch on my rear door, applied touch up paint, and I'm happy with the result. if you know where the scratch is, you can spot it, but it takes a certain angle and light to be able to spot it.

Good luck with it!

There are also posts in the show and shine forum on how to repair minor scratches so you might want to look there.

On the subject of using clay bars, I have a Clay Magic bay but I don't have any lube (I've used P21s car washing gel at the time) and I can't seem to remove the water marks on my car. ANy tips, black-8?

try polishing it, it usually works.

lol i wear makeup, not touchup, my makeup aint permanent!

operation hey taka? we'll c if thats funny when I c u in few days..........

I thought Taka was being exceptionally brave there. Break his balls Kall. :spank: :cwm27: :cwm27: :cwm27:

S'all good mate, im back from the beach and refreshed, new week of ballbreaking to begin :)