Casper's DIY Paint Repair

DIY Paint repair:

Ok, so I screwed up this morning, I had a few paint chips in the truck when I got it and now that most of the building phase is complete I decided to start hitting some of the details. I cleaned out the paint chips with gum cutter to insure there wasn't any wax in them and gradually filled the chips with a colormatched paint pen I purchased from the dealer. Let the paint dry then wrap a piece of 1500 grit wet/dry paper around a small piece of a stir stick and wet sand until flat with the surface. I then took a buffer and compounded and polished the areas until they returned to their original sheen and done! Well, kinda, in 30 years of running a buffer and doing all around paint and body work I have been careful and lucky enough to never have a mishap with the buffer until I'm working on my own truck, of course. This isn't one of your little polishing buffers you buy at the auto parts store it's a regular industrial variable speed buffer we use in the autobody trade. As I was buffing the front fender, even though I was being careful, the foam buffing pad snagged the fender flare and immediately removed about a quarter sized piece of paint right down to the black flare, I hate buffing around plastics. My response to this was very and no obviously it wouldn't buff out Uh NO!

At first I figured I'd get out my trusty paint pen and try and color it in which immediately looked like ass. So i decided to repair this correctly but in a way that anyone could follow and do at home with just materials I could purchase at the local Autozone instead of shop supplies just like any body else coud do if they wanted to do it at home instead of paying a body shop to repair. I used only very simple tools and supplies, took my time, and did not remove the flare to do the job just like many of you wouldn't do. I'm going to do this step by step to show you it's not hard and explain things as I go so perhaps no body will get scared of what they're seeing along the way.

The offending area the paint was ripped off in an area about the size of a quarter


The first step is to wipe the entire flare down with a mild reducer to clean and strip any wax residue or other contaminates from the area your working. I then wrapped a small piece of 600 grit wet/dry paper around a small piece of stir stick and wet sanded the area in a criss cross pattern until all the edges were feathered out and I achieved a flat surface. Use a piece of 1500 grit wet/dry paper and wet sand the whole rest of the flare in simple back and forth strokes until you remove the sheen from the surface. You can just hold the paper in your hand to do this part as your not trying to flatten anything just scuff the surface to promote good adhesion. Also go over the blemished area with the 1500. Dry the area your sanding periodically with a paper towel and it'll help you insure you haven't missed anywhere. Remember, other than the affected area all your trying to do is scuff the surface don't go too deep or you'll have more to paint.


Taping: Tape the area around where your working to isolate and keep from getting overspray in places you don't want it. A little extra work now can save you alot later. I started by using good 1/2" body tape to outline the flare covering the black edge of the liner that protrudes. Take your time with this part and make sure all the black is covered yet no tape is on the flare. I then covered the rest of the truck with cheap plastic drop clothes I got from Lowes for $1.98 apiece. Trim the plastic so it's a couple of inches away from the tape. Come back around the flare and cover the area right around where your painting with masking paper, newspaper, something other than plastic. Your wondering why I didn't just run the plastic right down to the tape? You don't want plastic right next to where your painting, when your painting you'll get overspray on the plastic which isn't good. If you have plastic right next to where your painting the overspray you get on it can either flake off while yor painting or untaping and fall into the paint ruining your work. The overspray will soak into the paper and not come off in these circumstances.

Plastic is run down near the tape and I used what I trimmed off around the wheel opening to cover the front tire and suspension


Paper is run all the way to the flare and overlaps the plastic



Painting: When the taping was complete I wiped the flare down again with a mild reducer, blew it off with compressed air, and wiped with a tack rag. A tack rag can be purchased with the paint supplies at your autoparts store and is simply a piece of cheese clothe that has been impregnated with a sticky resin to capture dust. Wipe lightly your only trying to capture dust. I then sprayed an adhesion promoter only on the areas that were to be covered with paint. I began dusting only the areas that reuired color with paint. I used light coats to gradually coat the areas until I achieved complete coverage and then added an extra coat just to make sure. After the completion of the color phase I let it flash, dry, for about a half hour. I then gently wiped the tack rag back over the flare, make sure the paint you applied is dry by touching the paint on the tape or paper right by it. 3 coats of clear was then applied over the entire flare to tie it all together and bring back your desired finish. Afterwards I let it sit for about a half hour before untaping checking for dryness first on the surrounding areas.

This is after the adhesion promoter and 2 light coats of color


Here I have achieved complee coverage. I'm not sure how well it'll show up in the pictures but where I painted it's slick and shiny looking yet around it you may be able to see a haze. The haze, or overspray, is the actual blend yep this is a blended repair. Have you ever wondered how guys paint cars and they'll change colors or tints and you get a really cool fade from one color to another? Same thing just with a larger area and using different colors. The actual fade is just the overspray from one color over onto the previously applied color.



Here is the finished product. By aplying the clear over the whole surface you achieve a uniform finish allowing the touched up area to blend right in with the facotry color




Cost and Materials: If you took this repair to a shop you could be looking easily at $300-$400 body shops aren't cheap. The materials the body shops use aren't cheap and my labor rate is $72 an hour I believe, of course I don't get paid that.

I used: Duplicolor direct match aerosol 8.99
Duplicolor automotive clear 8.99
Duplicolor adhesion promoter for plastic 6.99
2 plastic drop clothes 1.98 x 2
Misc supplies to include reducer, tape
masking paper, 1 sheet 600 grt paper
1 sheet 1500 grt paper, and a paint paddle 0 I had it in my garage

TOTAL: $28.93 if my math was correct not including tax


Hopefully this is useful to somebody I would say this was a rewarding little project but for me it was just work

 

Very very nice step by step !

Cypher

 

Thanks, I was kinda hoping I could write something that might help some body learn how to do this kind of repair I just don't know if it's in the right place

 

Depends on how many questions you want to get ...If they use search they will find it .


Cypher

 

Bob is going to do something with it

 

Thanks Bob

 

@TacoFMS @Coot83

 

How much would you charge to paint an entire car? The paint really sucks on my Corolla tuner when you get up close.

 

I have nowhere to do it contact @TheGunSlinger he's well equipped and from what I've seen does very nice work. I just don't have anywhere here to do it

 

I used the flare as an example but this process can be applied in any area

 

Bravo Chris! Awesome writeup!

 

Nicely done!

 

I do have a question about the aerosol clear coat. I've heard that it will yellow over time with the sun. Have you ever seen that?

 

Great write up. Perfect step by step. Will save for future reference.

 

Solid write up...I will be curious to see how the clear coat matches up with the factory paint in the light. Not to buzz kill or anything, but my professional paint buddies always deter me from using a rattle can over quality paint through a paint gun. Dont get me wrong, I use rattle for small items, but when painting up panels on the truck I don't chance it. That being said though, I also have glass which is always getting torn up as it is. With yours being white though, it def has the best odds of blending where as my red paint would be pretty distinct.

 

Of course having a shop do it or, if you have the tools, getting better materials like a shop uses dupont, PPG, RM whatever is better and may give a better result. The idea of the write up though, was to show people who were interested in trying their hand at it that it wasn't as difficult as they might think. Also, that it is possible with materials they can acquire themselves fairly easily. Even after sanding the flare down I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure the white is single stage. A blend can be achieved with single stage but would have required wetsanding and buffing the repaired and surrounding area and on the plastic flare I wasn't too excited about that option. As far as your red being more difficult, perhaps, especially with aerosols where you don't have the option of hand tinting the color to achieve a direct match but for some their happy with a close match and being able to complete the repair in a DIY manner. This was also supposed to be focused on small panel repairs or painting if I were doing say a whole bed side or hood then it would have either been repaired in the same manner then the whole panel would have been wet sanded, compounded, and polished, or the whole panel would have been wet sanded, as the flare was in this instance, and cleared with regular automotive clear through a paint gun.

 

I have seen folks try to color match with a rattle can as you say to colors like blue, red, and black...the mix can be much more apparent. I do agree the general scope of this project is worthy of documentation as many don't have the resources to get a solid match up. I just figured with how much effort you go to correct small blemishes on your ride with a painting background as a profession, a little surprised that you would consider a rattle can on your ride. Don't get me wrong, I use the rattle can when possible...but I also don't have the professional painters eye. Hope it gets the results you were going for.