Help with touch up paint

[TheTick]

I somehow got a deep scratch right down to the black plastic on my side skirt. It's about 2"x .5". I sanded it smooth then brushed on some touch up paint. I'll sand it smooth with 2000grit, but don't know what do do from there. Is it necessary to hit it with some clearcoat first? I'm waiting on some Menzerna SIP to come but not sure if it will get out the 2000 grit sanding haze with a PC and orange 4" pad. Please help.

Thanks!

 

[Garry Dean]

What color is the paint? Is it metallic?

 

[Accumulator]

TheTick- I always use clear (unless touching up single stage), but some people just use the basecoat. I'd put in a few coats of basecoat and then fill the scratch the rest of the way with clear.



I dunno if SIP will be up to removing the 2K scratches, but there are a number of products that do it with no problem at all.

 

[TheTick]

Do I need to polish before I apply the clearcoat? Or will the clearcoat eliminate the need to polish. Also, what kind of clearcoat do I use?

 

[Accumulator]

Do I need to polish before I apply the clearcoat?

No, it'll melt into the top of the basecoat and adhere just fine. It'll also fill any (minor) imperfections in the basecoat, but still try to get the basecoat as smooth as possible.

... what kind of clearcoat do I use?

I get mine from the same source as the basecoat so I know they're compatible.

 

[TheTick]

Thanks for the help Accumulator. I got the touch up paint from the infinity dealer. I hope they also make a clear.

 

[Patek14]

Thanks for the help Accumulator. I got the touch up paint from the infinity dealer. I hope they also make a clear.

I've seen clearcoat touchup paint from OTC brands like dupicolor. No clue how good they are...It would not surprise me if dupicolor is probably the supplier to infiniti and other car brands for touchup paint



Accumulator - All touchups i've done have been base coat only. How does the clear touchup change looks over the base? I've had some blending issues with less reflectivty on my base coat only touchup spots.

 

[Accumulator]

I've seen clearcoat touchup paint from OTC brands like dupicolor. No clue how good they are...It would not surprise me if dupicolor is probably the supplier to infiniti and other car brands for touchup paint..

I dunno..the touchup paint Audi sells appears to be of German manufacture. Oh, and it comes with two bottles, one of which is clear. There are just *so* many variables with this stuff...



I have touchup paint from a few places, and they all seem slightly different :nixweiss

- All touchups i've done have been base coat only. How does the clear touchup change looks over the base? I've had some blending issues with less reflectivty on my base coat only touchup spots.

Whereas almost *every* touchup paint I've bought for my b/c vehicles came with both, see how different situations can be!



I've never noticed any problems with appearance after adding the clear, but I gotta emphasize that my touchups never (well, *very* seldom) turn out remotely good IMO. The clear isn't part of the problem though and I just like the idea of having all-clearcoated paint instead of small areas that are just basecoat; seems like the touchups will weather/age more like the OE paint, but that's just a gut-feeling.



Check out the websites for Paintscratch-dot-com and AutomotiveTouchup-dot-com (sorry, no links handy). Sometimes they get certain colors *really* close, other times they don't.