Patient name: 1998 Chevy Cavalier Z24

[caseypayne69]

Reserving a thread for my project starting tomorrow. Will be taking pictures as I go.

I have the following.
Super black KH3 Nissan paint ( for later project, Cavalier is my test dummy)
Clear coal paint
3M 1500 grit sand paper soaking over night
Dupont paint prep cleaner

My steps include: (please feel free to correct)
1) wash car & dry
2) find a chip on Cavalier (millions)
3) clean surface of chip spot with Dupont
4) dry with microfiber?
5) use pen not brush of touch up paint. Apply thin layer
6) let dry for 30 mins, reapply, reapply
7) allow paint to fully dry 24 hour
8) apply clear coat
9) allow slight bulge in paint
10) let sit for 24 to 48 hours
11) apply lubricant on spot (what kind, not sure?)
12) wet sand with 1500 till surface is flat moving back and fourth in the direction of he car.
13) buff sanding out ( ebaying a Rotary but not sure of pad or polish)
14) done

[BlackScreaminMachine]

Re: Patient name: 1998 Chevy Cavalier Z24

Any updates??

[elohel]

Re: Patient name: 1998 Chevy Cavalier Z24

From my (admittedly) narrow scope of knowledge, I think there are a few things that can be negated or improved upon.

I don't think you'll need to dry the spot after using the prep cleaner as I would assume it's some kind of mineral spirit/alcohol that will just evaporate quickly.

Also, waiting 30 minutes between paint applications might be too long. You don't want it to harden on the outside, you want it to be "tacky"/sticky. I would say 10-15 minutes tops as it's a small amount of paint and will harden (on the exterior) pretty quickly).

Once it has cured for the day, you should sand it smooth before applying the clearcoat (I'm assuming you're applying a clearcoat and just forgot that step?). With those paint pens, they create a blob of paint, much like if a bead of water sits on the car. You want that to be level with the rest of the paint, or else when you sand the clear coat layer smooth, you'll sand through the entire clear layer and start sanding back onto that blob.

Your car isn't old enough, I'm assuming, to just be a 1 stage paint with no clearcoat. If you don't put clear over the chip that you're trying to buff, I don't think it'll shine like the rest of the car will.

When you wetsand, two things I think need to be pointed out here. For one, don't get that cheap, black "automotive wetsanding" paper you see at autozone, walmart, etc. I don't think it's very uniform as it leaves all sorts of tracers in my paint that I can't get out. Spend the extra money and get Meguiar's unigrit paper. I've only heard good things about that.

Secondly, don't stop at 1500 grit. That's a fairly coarse sand paper to try and buff out. I would do 1000-1500 grit until smooth, and then 2500-3000 grit paper to finish it off with. That'll make it much easier to buff out the scratches.

For polish, I would use Meguiar's M105. That stuff is the bomb and makes even an amateur like myself look like I know what I'm doing I would assume the W-7006 pad would suffice for this.

And just for a random piece of advice, I would suggest getting some kind of flexible back to wrap the sandpaper around. I used to do it by hand, and the people on here are right, it doesn't leave a very uniform sanding.

[caseypayne69]

Re: Patient name: 1998 Chevy Cavalier Z24

I've just purchased Meguiar's "Professional Dual Action Polisher". And well as all the pads, Polish, Finish, Red Pad and wool pad.

Here is a few pictures of the car I am working on "1998 Cavalier Z24." Sorry for the bad quality, I took them tonight on my iPhone after clay baring the hood and rear trunk lid for tests. During clay baring (black car) I started to see black specs all over the clay bar. I quickly stopped assuming that I was just picking up paint and scratching the rest of the car.

My question is from the three pictures above. What is my next step on these sections? Do I whip out the Polisher with the most aggressive pad down from the wool pad? Do I use the wool pad on the hood, deck lid or rear bumper? or do these parts require repainting and no amount of polisher will help?

If repainting a patch is required, does this forum have how to's on how to repaint large patches say the side of half the roof etc?