Paint Repair

[vernonator]

Sorry if this is a repeat but could not find anything with a search.

 

While washing the SHO this weekend I noticed several chips in the paint. These are small, likely from gravel, and are on both the front of the hood and on the A-pillar. They are fairly deep going down to the (what I assume is) the white primer layer. Any advice on repairing these little bastiges?

 

As a second - I have seen the "clear bra's" discussed here, anyone have any experience with them? Did you do the install or did you have them installed?

 

Thanks all for the help.

 

Mark

[mjhpadi]

I know when I got several dents last year, I ended up having the hood repainted to repair them...knew that going in, but I've never really been happy with the repaint, the Candy Red never matched the factory paint to my satisfaction. Before you consider repaint, which as really the only way I'm aware of to make them totally disappear, consider the fact that the repaint may not match perfectly, in retrospect, I almost wish I would have lived with the dents instead of mismatched paint, other then they were very deep, I am considering having the hood redone. And since the new clearcoat paints require painting at least the entire panel, it means your entire hood would probably require being redone. Good luck. hope someone else has a method that doesn't require the whole hood being redone.

[Crash712us]

I'll offer up a method, and well it comes out really depend on the color of your car. Works best on solid colors metallic's don't touch well. The method that we use at fords is called drop spot repair, this you do just it sounds. You put a drop of paint in the chip filling it up, if not a little over full. Cause as the paint dries it will shrink, no in your case you will want let the paint dry for several days to insure it is throughly dry and bonded to the car. At the plant this done in 15mins with a heat lamp, however I don't recommend force drying air dry paints. We use a enamel and will never dry unless baked. Once cured you will need sanding stone, or a small hard flat block and some 1500 grit paper. With either one you choose you will wetsand the drop even with rest of the paint, while trying not to sand the surround paint to much, the stone works best here as it not flexible as a rubber block can be. Once flat lightly wet sand with 2000grit paper to remove scratches a rubber sand block will work best here, and remember to sand is circular motions. And finally you will need to finish with a polish compound.

 

Here is a link to the stone on amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0009IQYYE/ref=asc_df_B0009IQYYE2146712?smid=A1AUFI5NHGNZ61&tag=dealtmp52162-20&linkCode=asn&creative=395105&creativeASIN=B0009IQYYE

 

If you opt to do this with hack saw cut stone in half. Dress the stone with some 400 grit paper on a hard flat surface lay your paper done and flat on side of the stone then round of edges and corners from stone. For wet sand a spray bottle full of water and 1/3 rubbing alcohol works best, also soak stone in water for a hour before using. Keep when sand paint on a car be care of edges and corners as they are easily sand thru.

 

I should really do a how to one day.

[SHO Rod]

I did basically this "drop spot repair" method with the, umm, help from my brother. A few years back his daughter decided to play tic-tac-toe on the hood of his wife's Fusion with some gravel. It scratched through to the primer. A year or so later the car was in a small accident and the body shop left him a small bottle of touch up paint. Since the damage from the accident didn't touch the hood, he didn't get the hood fixed. Fast forward another year. His wife wanted to trade her car in for a hybrid so my brother decided to use the touch up paint to "correct" the tic-tac-toe. Of course it didn't match quite right so he got a bottle of clear coat and applied that. Now the color was right, but the tic-tac-toe was still very obvious. He asked me to see what I could do.

 

I used a rigid foam sanding backer from the auto paint and supply store along with some 1000 grit to start with. Once I got pretty close to flat I moved up to 1500 with light pressure followed by 2000 and then 3000, all wet sanding. Once all the extra paint had been removed I used the 3M foam pad polishing compound with a Dewalt DW849 rotary polisher. Following the foam pad was Meguiar's #9 swirl remover. Photos below show the before and after results.

Before:

 

After:

 

-Rod

[mjhpadi]

That looks amazingly good. I'd love to see this work in person. The thought of sanding scares the heck out of me, even though it's wet sanding and with 1000/1500 grit! I sure would be an eager student to learn this technique. Results sure do speak for themselves!

[markssho]

Mark,

I purchased the clear bra material (Avery Nano Fusion product) and put it on my car a few months after purchase. I watched the you-tube videos for a few weeks making sure I knew how to apply the product. It wasn't but around $250 for the material. My son and I put it on the car. It wasn't fun, and took a few hours, but, looks great. I'd definitely do it again on any new car purchase.

[SHO Rod]

That looks amazingly good. I'd love to see this work in person. The thought of sanding scares the heck out of me' date=' even though it's wet sanding and with 1000/1500 grit! I sure would be an eager student to learn this technique. Results sure do speak for themselves![/quote']

 

Thanks! The key really is to use a fairly rigid backer to avoid getting grooves and to let the paper do the work, do not apply too much pressure and keep it lubricated. Once the sanding has done its job, make sure not to get the paint too hot and avoid the edges with the buffer.

 

Keep in mind this wasn't my first time wet sanding or buffing. While I'm just a hobbyist, I have done this type of thing a few times. Plus at the time I was also repairing and repainting the rear bumper so I knew if I screwed it up too badly, I could always sand it smooth and feather in to the rest of the hood. Through trial and error I came up with a feathering technique that seems to work pretty well as well.

 

-Rod

[TractorAK]

Auto armor wrapped my entire front clip, "A" pillar to 6 inches back on roof line, back of mirrors and a thicker plastic on headlights. About a thousand but try and paint a front end for that.

 

 

Trying to figure out stripe on new hood (fail) but a good shot of how still shiny the paint is with plastic.

[EcoBrick Bob]

My son does touchup on his vehicles much like Crash does at start. He keeps re-filling the chip and then sands and buffs. He is extremely patient and consequently, even dark green metallic (Pontiac TA) looked almost perfect from 6 in. I had an issue with my Brick when it arrived at the dealership new. there was a glob of paint on the extreme point of the pass. side fender. Dealer took pix and Ford wanted to re-paint fender. I said NO... and fixed it by shaving the glob down and sanding. NOT PERFECT... but better than re-paint on Rec Candy.

 

As for clear bra's.. Friend with White G8 spent a grand, and it is yellowing due to FL heat. Also, on white at least, you can see the line where it stops, and collects dirt.

 

Wouldn't work for me as my cars when in IA sit outside... NO Garage... No room for one... Had 2 stall... NOW our master BR and bath! I love the smell of old burned oil when I wake up in the morning! Think Tractor may have the right idea in doing the whole front clip. NO odd cutoff line.

 

Also.. needs to be done immediately when NEW.