I had some repairs to do to my car, small bog job to fill a dent, now it needs paint. Its a metallic grey basecoat&clearcoat system. What is an easy way to blend it in so that it doesn't look like a repair? It doesn't need to be perfect but don't want it to stand out.
Also need to do the roof due to oxidised clear coat, any advice would be appreciated for that job too.
kazbanz,
Jan 25, 3:07pm
If you don't want it to stand out then you need a pretty near perfect match. What you are trying to do is blend that panel into the paint further up the car. Short version--you don't paint just the repaired area but up into the rest of the panel. With the roof. The only fix is sand/prime /paint. That's given you have already tried cutting and polishing the roof. With some roofs its easy-with lines separating the edges from the centre. With outhers again you have to blend down the pillars. Keeep in mind the experts that post on here have spent years perfecting their craft.They can see where they blend to etc and the way to spray a metallic paint on so the grain runs as it should etc.
ceebee2,
Jan 25, 8:46pm
You will need to apply base coat over entire panel then apply clear over the entire panel as well. However if the panel is a front guard then it will need to be matched perfectly. I have sprayed base coat / clear on many different areas (Not a panel beater or Spray painter) but I can tell you it is not a job for a novice. If the dent has not damaged the paint then pay an expert to "tap" it out. I have seen it done and is a craft of its own but saves repainting an entire panel. As for the roof you will need to sand / srtip off the old paint and prepare as above. I found that using the 2 pot primer did a beautiful job of covering bog and sanded equally as well compared to the cheaper 1 pot primer. Any expert will tell you that good preparation is the key to all jobs. Good luck. If its an older car that you can "experiment on" give it a go but watch a few you tube vids first.
gunhand,
Jan 25, 10:58pm
I will try and answer this the best I can. Without knowing what panel you are painting it's hard to give advice. However, there are 3 reasons to blend. 1, paint match is not butt matchable but blendable 2, you have a panel that goes into the roof and you really don't want to have to clear a whole roof. 3, you want to get away with out clearing a whole panel, like a bonnet which has a very small bit of damage. Kinda same as 2. Blending usually is done up the smallest panel available, i:e the A B or C pillar or up a door shut area. Blending works, but the bigger the blend the more likely it will go wrong and it will show later on. Have a look at C pillars in car yards, they have a fuzzy looking line half way into the pillar. It's the blend showing up. The thing is, to blend a panel, say a door, its not worth the drama to actually try a blend as such. Here goes lol. Sand the area with 600/500 grit paper that will be painted. Sand beyond that area with 2000 or 3000 wet or get rubbing paste. Sand quite a large area. Spray the colour over patch till covered, then spray beyond that area with the colour as well, then again but spraying further out yet again. Kinda flick it on last coat so its not to wet. Then you have to clear pretty much the same way but going past the final colour coat. You also need a blending thinner for final blend area. Always keep in the flattened/sanded area. So you can see that small area ends up being quite large. BUT, if the repair was in the middle of a door I would do same thing but sand the whole door with 3000 or get the rubbing paste made for the job. Then do base coat as I said but don't go to door edges. Then clear the whole panel. This way works much better. When I do a different coloured door I never butt match but do front guard and rear door (if it was a front door replaced) in the manner I said. This ensures a uniform colour match. You would be surprised how far out a butt match can look but if blended you would never tell. Ive seen bonnets half blended and they just look crap after a year or so. Hope this kinda helps. Hard to explain it. There are some very good you tube clips on doing blends. Look up GUNMAN car painter. Very good real life car painting.
gammelvind,
Jan 25, 11:56pm
Well said Gunhand, just goes to show the work involved in a small repair. Not a simple flick of paint as so many that appear on these pages seem to think.
jmma,
Jan 26, 12:10am
Maybe, but probably took him longer to write that post than it would take to do the job. Just kidding, well done gunhand. Can you tell us how to service a VW now please (o:
gunhand,
Jan 26, 12:16am
Actually yes I can. Buy a Toyota or Honda, and for the next 250000kms do nothin to it, highly unlikely anything will go wrong in that time.Then buy another. 1X VW service sorted.
morrisman1,
Jan 26, 12:26am
started on the job with your advice there gunhand, its the rear quarter panel, and i was repairing an old repair that hte bog had lifted on. Looking good so far, once Ive finished my coffee Im back out to do the clear coat. Im doing the whole quarter panel, up to a seam line at the top of the C pillar. The dent was just infront of the tail light, so that had to get full coverage over the primer, but I got lighter and lighter as I went away from that as there was already grey paint in good condition underneath it. I used 320grit on the primer and a fine scotchbrite on the rest of the panel. I will be able to post a pic up tomorrow of the results
gunhand,
Jan 26, 12:29am
Excellent. Now for the disclaimer.
gunhand,
Jan 26, 1:09am
Forgot to mention, but should be obvious. When scotchbriting (or any sanding) make sure the panel is fully flat, no finger lines or missed bits. It should be a uniform flat finish. Reason, well it may lift there, but with some colours the unsanded bit may show through the clear, silvers and whites are bad for this. It ruins what can be an otherwise good finish. And the blending thinner is only need where you are not fully clearing to a stripe, molding or whatever. Although thinners have been known to be used in place of blending thinner.
morrisman1,
Jan 26, 2:11am
Here we go. With the blistering heat in Invercargill currently the clear is dry, so I whipped the masking off. Looks pretty good. The rest of the panels have 23 years of wear so not as shiny as the new clear coat. The clear coat didn't go on as easily as I expected, I was struggling to get a wet coat. My gun has a 1.4mm tip, is this too small?
Once the roof & bonnet are done, and the surrounding areas are polished it should come up reasonably good, good enough for a race car anyway.
well I take that back. Heres what I suggest for future reference. Once you have done ya base coat and ready for clear do this. Make clear as stated on tin, 4:1 thin 10 to 20% or not at all if desired. In fact it may say no thinning required. Spray a light coat over panel or several light coats at once, keep gun moving in all directions, up down sideways just spray it on. You are not trying for any gloss here. Then wait till those coats are real tacky, like ya finger sticks to it. Now apply a good wet coat, you should see the gloss as it lays on. The sticky coat will hold the wet coat up. Use a 75% overlay as you go down the panel or up the panel, which ever takes ya fancy. Now walk away for 15 mins and come back and do it again. wet. Keep the gun at about a hands span away from panel. Oh yea, you should have the flow control out to full, well I do anyway. You may want to try this on an old panel first.
attitudedesignz,
Jan 26, 2:39am
Did you get a fast, medium or slow hardener (activator)?
Never used that clear before (probably wouldn't either because of the statement of "Can be sprayed in 1 heavy coat") Don't like that idea.
attitudedesignz,
Jan 26, 2:41am
LOL, gold right there.
gunhand,
Jan 26, 2:42am
Could be a high solids product made for the shop who just wants the car gone asap, one coat, off she goes.
attitudedesignz,
Jan 26, 2:44am
Scary thought aye.
gunhand,
Jan 26, 2:48am
There out there. But can ya blame them these days. being screwed to the wall by insurance company's on a daily basis. No money in a car sitting around and the least product you can use I guess you save a dollar. Get em in get em out. add McDonalds wee tune here.
attitudedesignz,
Jan 26, 2:52am
OP, i'd suggest not thinning it down (as instructed by rep') And the BIG thing is don't be afraid to pour it on.
This is 3 coats that were literally blasted on and if it wasn't for a couple of bits of dust i would've left it at that.
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