Painting a small area

[spedzinski]

I've read the posts on painting a complete car but what is your advice on repairing a small area (top of front fender) thats been scratched through the paint to the primer in a 12 inch line? Can I repair (sand and prime) this area and paint it with an aerosol can and get it to look right? Would I have to do the whole fender?

I have Electric Currant Red with Clear Coat. I have an aerosol can with the correct color.

[Desert Stallion]

I would seriously consider doing the entire fender to keep things looking the same color. It's really tough to make a line on a fender match the paint that's already been there for years, ya' know?

Just a thought. I'm gonna be doing this in the next few months as my grey car is in desperate need of a makeover, and I'm gonna end up doing entire panels at a time if not the whole car, depending on budget. :rolleyes:

[Jon90LSC]

no offense intended, but I don't think you will make it look right using an aerosol can at all. What condition is the rest of your paint in? If it is in nice shape, I would get a bottle of touch up paint from the dealer (about $5) and just touch in the scratch. If you use teh aerosol can, it will have a completely different look to it, on the top of the fender, where you have to see it all the time.

If your paint is not all that great, and youy just want the fender red, my advice is to tape it off at the body line, sand it well, and paint that entire section.

DS, if you have a compressor, I would suggest getting a decent paint gun, priming the areas as money allows. I am guessing that a grey car that has been out in the AZ sun doesn't have much of the OEM paint left anyhow. If you have the room, paint and body is not really that hard.

[Desert Stallion]

Jon, that's the idea. I've already started blocking the trunk lid, which is the worst part of the whole car, and I'll move forward from there.

Once the car's been sanded, filled in, sanded, primered, sanded, filled in, sanded, primered, and sanded again, then I'll be converting my garage into a spray booth for a weekend and having a go at painting her.

I'm thinking I'm gonna stick to a dark grey/charcoal base, but I'm really tempted to add something a little... distinctive to it. Ya' know, something to make it stand out from other Mark's. :D

[Jon90LSC]

how bad is the car? From the other pics I saw, it really doesn't look that bad. A good thing to do with the color is build on what's in it. For instance, if there is some gold pearl, add to that, where it will change the color, but not dramatically. If you are wanting to stay in the charcoals, the '03-04 Chevy trucks have a great looking charcoal. It has big flake in it, and is very easy to panel paint.

[Desert Stallion]

Jon, the car is perty rough. Straight, but rough. Here's the trunk lid when I bought her: http://images.cardomain.com/member_images/11/web/491000-491999/491642_3_full.jpg

Note all the exposed primer and chipping clear, base, etc.

I kinda like the newer VW charcoal as well as Ford's newer Charcoal. Like I said someday it'll get painted. Until then I'll be prepping the body and getting things running right, getting my stereo installed, etc, probably swapping to fresh ported E7 heads and ported newer intake, etc. :cool:

But like I wrote, the thing's gotta get quote: sanded, filled in, sanded, primered, sanded, filled in, sanded, primered, and sanded again before I've gotta decide for sure on my paint scheme.

[Jon90LSC]

If you go through all of that, it should be straight enough to be proud to be black. Seeing the red primer, it looks like someone has been there before. BTW, is that a Regency Lincoln in Dallas emblem on the deck lid?

[spedzinski]

One more thing then on my original question...If I paint fill in the scratches using a touch-up bottle, do you just leave it like that or can you buff it down or just touch it up as best you can and then leave it alone. What about other spots that have been touched up?

Thanks for the advice.

[Jon90LSC]

the touch up paint will go on similar to nail polish. There will be a little brush in the cap. I would fill the scratch and see what it looks like. I don't know how it will buff down, but I am sure it will look better than using the aerosol can. The spray touch up would probably work OK for something lower, like below the moldings. I don't think you would be happy with the finish, especially on a top panel. Once you paint it, it would be nearly impossible to go back.

[Desert Stallion]

Jon, sure is a Regency Dallas tag on the trunk lid. Want it? :D It's coming off perty quick so I can finish sanding down the trunk.

The only reason I'll never paint a car black is that I live in AZ, and 360 days out of the year it's above 100* and sunny, so black would be like turning the car into a convection oven. Grey will do. smile.gif

[Jon90LSC]

I think if I lived in Arizona, all my cars would be white. It was hot enough here in DFW with a black car this summer. I know the convection oven feel, thanks!

[Danatriverton]

When doing touch-up paint, wait a few months for it to harden and then buff it to smooth it into the original.

Then re-do the whole fender with clearcoat. Clear coat affects the match of the paint.

It will never look matched unless you re-do the clear coat.

[cason1]

With enough time and patience with wet sanding, even a brush paint job can look good. I repainted my front bumper several months ago with an aerosal can paint and you couldn't even tell that it had been dinged up. Exept now it has several stone chips that I will have to fix this summer. I also had to do some work on the passenger side fender and just masked off a section about 8-10 inches from where I was having to paint and sprayed it and then wet sanded it until the new paint faded into the old and you can't tell anything has been done to it. Just be careful with the wet sanding and make sure you don't be too rough with it and take off too much paint. or even take it down to bare metal. The key is in the wet sanding. A friend of mine is restoring a 63 Impala SS and wet sanded the primer to the point that it looks like he put clear coat over it. If I hadn't seen him do it I never would have believed it. Good luck with it.

[spedzinski]

Thanks for the comments, Jonathon. I know that a lot depends on the color and this is a relatively dark red. Sanding is a key though. No doubt about it.

Maybe I should try this out on my "Light Titanium" car first. It has a lot of light scratches and one deep one on the back of the roof. Also, my son has done a lot of spot painting but I don't know if he has done dark colors.

The problem is finding the time to play around with stuff like this with spring coming up and the house to repair and paint.....but this would be "fun" right?

[franco]

spedziinski stated...
quote: but this would be "fun" right?

Hmm, don't know if painting a car in a non-dust free environment could be classified as fun. But it would be challenging.

Having done it before more times than I wish to recall, I would agree that it is fun if you have the right attitude, patience and budget.

It's been fun for me when it wasn't MY car I was shooting, or at least a car that I wasn't going to keep.

If you're painting in the garage, I found that hosing down the walls and floor with water just before shooting will help cut down on dust and debris in the air.

Not to worry though, most spray imperfections can be wet sanded out.
Btw, if you're re-painting the red car it's gonna cost more than the silver/titanium paint. Be prepared for that.