A terrible touch up

[DaveA]

Hi guys, I have a question about my sons new car. It has about 10
small chips on the front and hood that the previous owner must have been out of his mind when he Tried to patch it. He just globbed on paint and even missed half of a couple chips. How would I remove the globs of paint without causing a larger problem? I don't know if I can post pics here but I'll try.... Thanks.

[Markus Kleis]

Re: A terrible touch up

Hey Dave,

First of all, it looks like you tried to embed pictures possibly located on your hard drive? Try hosting it on Meguiar's own hosting service for free, and then give that a shot again.

HERE is the link for that.

As for the chips, it might depend on the age and how hard they have gotten. There are touch-up kits like the Langka kit that come with a liquid that softens up the paint so it can be removed with just a towel.

Are you looking to re-do the work and fill them with new touch-up paint?

[DaveA]

Re: A terrible touch up



Thanks Mark. I usually use Photobucket so lets see if this works. Yes,I'm planning on fixing this mess after I get the old paint off.

[Murr1525]

Re: A terrible touch up

I am not sure they were 'missesd', it looks like they bubbled and chipped off.

If Mark says to try the Langka stuff, then that is probably a good idea. You will also probably want to sand the chips, and the edges, to get rid of any more loose paint.

How involved do you want to get on the re-touch-up?

[the_invisible]

Re: A terrible touch up

Hi Dave,

To remove the touch up paint, you could use a product like this:

It seems expensive at around $7... but it lasts forever, and it comes with a refill.

http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36547

To level down existing touch-up paint that are in good condition, you could sand the blot of touch-up paint lightly with a piece of 1"x1" 2500grit wet sandpaper, and then buff the sanded area by hand with a compound such as Meguiar's Ultimate Compound. Mask the area so that you sand no more than 1/4" outside the touched up area.

Here's a good how-to:

http://www.fjcruiserforums.com/forums/how-technical-articles/45758-scratch-repair-wetsanding-step-step.html

Glad to see that you are so caring for your son, and that he doesn't hate you!

[DaveA]

Re: A terrible touch up

Thanks for the responses guys.
Murr1525- Yeah,I see what you mean on the pic.Looks like it popped off but
some of the other chips looks like he dabbed it half on the spot. I don't understand how someone could be so sloppy like that. It is a beautiful car - 06' Mercedes.How far do I want to go? Well, I'd like to touch it up to be invisible but I don't have a lot of experiance so we shall see .
Hi Invisible one, Thanks a lot,That looks like a good product for cleaning out the chips. Thanks fer the link.
Yeah,I'm pretty lucky that my son and I get along.

[Murr1525]

Re: A terrible touch up

The most basic thing would be to get those spots cleaned out, sanded, and then just dabbing in touchup paint with a tooth pick in several small coats.

Wont be quite as good as the making a little blob, wetsanding, buffing, etc, but takes a tad less skill.

[JoeDirt]

Re: A terrible touch up

I have one of those fiblerglass pens- they do work very well. They wear fast, but they do good spot work... Mine is a 3M, but looks the same, probably made by the same people...
They have them at WalMart or Meijers by the car paint stuff.

[JimboB5]

Re: A terrible touch up

They also have the prep pens at Harbor Frieght - $5.99 if memory serves me. If you have touch-up paint, the Quixx paint repair kit works well... and can be had at Walmart as well. Want to follow the directions and wait till the paint is fully dry.

[DaveA]

Re: A terrible touch up

Thanks guys. I do have experiance with nitrocellulose lacquer over wood.
I build acoustic guitars.
I've used a lot of different shades(sunbursts) and I spray 12 coats of clear lacquer,wet sand and buff.
I think this job wouldn't be too much different. I just don't want to get into spraying on my sons car. So after cleaning up the spots I think I should be able to layer the touch up color on,wet sand and buff like I do my instruments. Hopefully that will work out and not look too awful .
Thanks again for all the advice guys and I'll post some pics when I get it done.
One other thing ...I was thinking some clear should be added over the color and then wet sand. Correct? Thats how we do lacquer touch ups.
Or would just the color look fine buffed to a high gloss ?

[searle]

Re: A terrible touch up (Lanka really does work well)

+1 on the suggestion to try the Langka. Langka say that touchup paint has a different chemical composition than factory paint, and their stuff really does easily remove touchup paint with no visible effect on the factory point.

I have used it to smooth touchups (like sanding, but much safer for a clutz like me), and to remove all touchup paint to redo spots.

One of the few things in life that works exactly as advertised.