Paint touch up question.
Level & Buff
Until you level or mill the paint repair down to the same plane as the original paint, all you'll have is an ugly looking blob. Leveling the paint repair is easily done using a small sanding block and 1500- to 2000-girt wet and dry sand paper. I like to use a 1" by 2" rubber erasure as my sanding block, which helps level touch-up repairs with surgical precision. Don't forget to soak your sand paper overnight (30 minutes at a minimum) before use, as the directions indicate.
To level your paint chips, use your finger to put a small dab of car shampoo on the chip repair for lubrication. Next, use your sanding block and sandpaper to mill the high spot off of the chip repair. I always sand in a straight line, with the length of the car, never in a circle. Keep the area you're sanding well lubricated with water. Wet sanding will dull the paint. Don't worry, your polish will easily restore the finish. When the surface looks level, dry it with a clean towel and inspect with your fingertips. If you can feel a high spot, it needs more work.
This picture shows the repair area after a couple of passes with 1500-grit wet and dry sand paper. The scratch touch-up is almost level, and you can clearly see the surface scratches (micromarring) I put in the paint surface.
The final step is to buff out the repair with a good polish. If I'm working with my rotary buffer or Porter Cable 7424, I like to use Sonus Restore (SFX-1) followed by Sonus Enhance (SFX-2). Apply the compound and polish to a clean foam applicator pad or polishing cloth, rub into the paint area using a short back-and-forth motion (not in circles), and then buff out with a clean terry cloth towel. Tada! The blemish is gone. The job is much faster if you use a machine polisher.
The next step is to compound and polish. I did fewer than 20 passes (strokes) with rubbing compound. It does not take much to remove surface scratches. To completely polish and restore the surface, I polished the area twice.
As you can see, the repair and paint finish turned out to be quite beautiful. There are no visible surface marks in the paint, and the touch-up cannot be detected.
Until you level or mill the paint repair down to the same plane as the original paint, all you'll have is an ugly looking blob. Leveling the paint repair is easily done using a small sanding block and 1500- to 2000-girt wet and dry sand paper. I like to use a 1" by 2" rubber erasure as my sanding block, which helps level touch-up repairs with surgical precision. Don't forget to soak your sand paper overnight (30 minutes at a minimum) before use, as the directions indicate.
To level your paint chips, use your finger to put a small dab of car shampoo on the chip repair for lubrication. Next, use your sanding block and sandpaper to mill the high spot off of the chip repair. I always sand in a straight line, with the length of the car, never in a circle. Keep the area you're sanding well lubricated with water. Wet sanding will dull the paint. Don't worry, your polish will easily restore the finish. When the surface looks level, dry it with a clean towel and inspect with your fingertips. If you can feel a high spot, it needs more work.
This picture shows the repair area after a couple of passes with 1500-grit wet and dry sand paper. The scratch touch-up is almost level, and you can clearly see the surface scratches (micromarring) I put in the paint surface.
The final step is to buff out the repair with a good polish. If I'm working with my rotary buffer or Porter Cable 7424, I like to use Sonus Restore (SFX-1) followed by Sonus Enhance (SFX-2). Apply the compound and polish to a clean foam applicator pad or polishing cloth, rub into the paint area using a short back-and-forth motion (not in circles), and then buff out with a clean terry cloth towel. Tada! The blemish is gone. The job is much faster if you use a machine polisher.
The next step is to compound and polish. I did fewer than 20 passes (strokes) with rubbing compound. It does not take much to remove surface scratches. To completely polish and restore the surface, I polished the area twice.
As you can see, the repair and paint finish turned out to be quite beautiful. There are no visible surface marks in the paint, and the touch-up cannot be detected.
That's actually just wet sanding. There are places that you can take your car to and pay them to wet sand the entire car to remove all the orange peel. The sand paper they use is VERY non-agressive. It's very smooth and sleek. It feels like notebook paper. Makes the paint have that car show look and gives it that mirror look.
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menasor
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Apr 17, 2012 08:29 PM
