Opinions sought urgently....Could this be fixed without a repaint? PLEASE HELP!!!

[604_Coast]

Hi guys,

Looking to buy this vehicle from a gentleman about 700 miles away from where I live. I'd be flying out and driving back. He has sent me pictures of some fine scratches that he unfortunately tried to touch up. The colour is Blue Slate on an Infiniti G37 and from what I've been able to research this is a tough metallic to match with. As you can see in the pics the guy has used a paint pen he says from OEM to try to fill in these scratches. The most concerning is the one on the hood which from what I can tell is 3-4" long. There is also another strange touchup near the passenger door handle which extends into the fender as you can see in the last pic.

My question to you pro detailers and possible touch up artists, is, how would you say this could be fixed? Could I possibly slowly wetsand with 2000 and try to remove the touch up paint on top? Or possibly use a compound on a cutting pad with my DA? I need to figure out what I'm doing with the car today, and if the consensus is the only way to fix it is to respray the panel at a shop I think I'm going to pass.

Please leave your opinions below!!

 

[Mike lambert]

From what I can tell you should be able to sand it then polish out

 

[Stokdgs]

I would want to measure the paint thickness all around the area to be corrected, wet sanded, etc., and determine after what will work..
Infiniti paint is nice, but some versions were weird..
You should be ok Im thinking..
All of the below will be done in the shade on cool to the touch metal, great lighting, inside a garage...
Usually, paint correction paint is lacquer, so I assume lacquer thinner carefully applied with a sharp Q-Tip to a test spot first, to make sure you wont have an issue, and then if all well, carefully, apply with a sharp Q-tip to the end of the paint, then see what comes off on the Q-tip, and what moved on the paint correction..

You will also have a very good absorbing rag right there to quickly press on the work, to remove the lacquer thinner..
See what you get...
Good luck !
Dan F

 

[EXPDetailing]

If he put touch up on it, most likely it was a scratch that could be felt with a fingernail.

 

[604_Coast]

I would want to measure the paint thickness all around the area to be corrected, wet sanded, etc., and determine after what will work..
Infiniti paint is nice, but some versions were weird..
You should be ok Im thinking..
All of the below will be done in the shade on cool to the touch metal, great lighting, inside a garage...
Usually, paint correction paint is lacquer, so I assume lacquer thinner carefully applied with a sharp Q-Tip to a test spot first, to make sure you wont have an issue, and then if all well, carefully, apply with a sharp Q-tip to the end of the paint, then see what comes off on the Q-tip, and what moved on the paint correction..

You will also have a very good absorbing rag right there to quickly press on the work, to remove the lacquer thinner..
See what you get...
Good luck !
Dan F

Thanks Dan. Due to your post I started researching this avenue. I see Langka has a kit, I wonder if it is just glorified mineral spirits? Now this is going to be a while since the paint was applied so it may take longer to dissolve I would imagine?

 

[Stokdgs]

Glad to help !
There are lots of paint touch up kits - Dr. Color Chip comes to mind as one that works easily and very well...
You want to just get paint only into the scratch, so it flows and levels itself off..
Before all these kits decades ago, we just used a camels hair sword brush that came to a beautifully sharp tip and kept its shape..
I still have one from the 1980's and I use it whenever I need to touch up a spot..

If you can find out what kit or pen he used, and possibly search the Web and find out what their paint is - lacquer, enamel, etc., ( not a lot of choices here anymore), - just be sure it is NOT the factory paint - then you will know what they thinned it with, and that will absolutely soften it up and remove it, hopefully without hurting your existing paintwork.. It should come off easily no matter how long it was on there..

Then, just experiment with removing it. If you can do this safely, you will not remove any of the factory paint in the process that you want to save as much as possible, in case you have to sand the scratch down and carefully compound and polish out...
Good luck,
Dan F