Paint touch up tips

safetyman2010

New member
Several people have asked me for help in touching up their vehicles paint with professional results so here goes. The first thing you will need is the proper paint code off your vehicle.

Once you have your paint code I would recommend visiting your local auto paint supplier and having them mix you a small amount of the appropriate colour in a can (touch up sticks from the manufacturer don't tend to match perfectly IMO). I use standox paint for my business and highly recommend it due to its high quality and perfect colour matching (Standox is a little more expensive but I use it day in and day out and trust me it's the best).

You will also need to pick up a 3M rubber squeegee usually used for wet sanding but we need it for a different purpose. Also get a small bottle of 3M body prep solvent and a small package of tork 909 polishing cloths.



First remove all waxes and silicones from the chips you want to fill with the body prep sol and a clean lint free rag. Once all the chips are prepped, you will need the rubber squeegee and the paint you had mixed (it will help if you put a small amount of paint into a small squeeze bottle for ease of use). Squeeze a small amount of paint onto the edge of the squeegee and pull the paint across a chip. You don't want to leave a large amount of excess paint around the chip if possible so use sparingly. This will have filled the chip with paint and left a samll amount of paint on the surrounding paint (don't worry about this as we will remove it later).

Go ahead and touch up all the chips on the vehicle using this methos and wait about 15 min for the paint to set up.

Once the paint has dried you will need the squeegee again so clean it up and rmove all the paint from it with some thinners and wrap the squeegee with a tork towel (you want the towel tight and smooth across the surface of the squeegee). Apply a small amount of prep sol to the tork towel and gently sweep the squeegee across the chips you have painted (apply no pressure - let the solvent do the work). You should be slowly removing the excess paint from around the chips (once again - make sure the tork towel is tight and you don't use any pressure or you will pull the paint out of the chip).

Once you have removed all the excess paint the chips should be filled with paint and be nearly invisible. You should get a very fine artists brush now and touch up all door edges and spots that can not be squeegeed (apply the smallest amount of paint possible and re-apply if needed).

Let the paint set up for another 30 min and remove any residue from the prep sol with any QD you wish to use or wash the car with a good car wash soap.



This technique is very similar to what I use but has been modified slightly because the materials available to me are not available to the public.



Good Luck.
 
Great article ShineShop! I really appreciate the tutorials from pro's such as yourself. :xyxthumbs
 
ShineShop - Great article and thanks. Do you apply clearcoat as part of the chip repair if the car has clearcoat paint?
 
dengsxr



You can get small squeeges from an art supply shop, at least in aus you can..



Rubber and also like a foam type..





Chris.
 
What are tork 909 polishing cloths and where do you get them? Do the small squeeges have handles or are they like what window tinters user?
 
thanks for the post Chris I am going to check out my local auto shop as I have 3 chips that I would llike to take care of. Thanks again
 
dengsxr said:
where can you get a squeege that small?



Just got to any body shop supply store and they will have them. Ask for the 3M rubber sanding block (thin - about 3/8 inch thick) and is abou 2 inches x 4 inches.
 
jd80 said:
ShineShop - Great article and thanks. Do you apply clearcoat as part of the chip repair if the car has clearcoat paint?



I don't because I am mixing enamel paint that doesn't require the clear. Also the thickeners and bonding agents we add ensure the paint will NEVER come out of the chip unless you want it out.
 
PAW said:
What are tork 909 polishing cloths and where do you get them? Do the small squeeges have handles or are they like what window tinters user?



Tork 909 polishing cloths are available from any body shop supply house and you can virtually use any soft rubber squeegee you can get your hands on.
 
Chris S said:
what about applying some clear?



:nixweiss



Seems like an important step, isn't it?



Important in a refinish situation with a whole panel - yes. In fixing a stone chip, no - provided the paint is of high quality and has the appropriate thickeners/bonding agents which prevent the paint from coming out of the chip. Acrylic enamel/polyurethane paints are a single stage paint and require no clear to be applied after the initial application like a two-stage (base/clear) paint system.
 
What exactly is "prepping" a chipped area?





What would you recommend for a paint that for some odd reason has worn off on the lip of an edge, for example the hood of the car, up by the windshield?



Thanks, looking forward to trying this out......
 
Thanks for the great how-to. I have some nasty chips to fix on my girlfriends car, and have been a little leary of sanding. Now if it would only warm up :D
 
TristanCSI said:
What exactly is "prepping" a chipped area?





What would you recommend for a paint that for some odd reason has worn off on the lip of an edge, for example the hood of the car, up by the windshield?



Thanks, looking forward to trying this out......



To prep a area for repair you must remove all oils/waxes/silicones etc... so the paitn can adhere properly. To touch up an edge, I usually take a wooden match stick and dipp it into my paint and "drag" it along the area to be touched up. It will evenly spread the paint along the area to be touched up if applied in thin, even coats. I find a match is better than a brush due to the fact that it is perfectly rigid and won't flex against the edge giving better control over the paint.
 
Interesting info about the wooden match. Paper matches for applying paint, I have heard of for years, but never the wooden ones until now.

A product that I find very helpful is the "Microbrush". It's kind of like a very small Q-tip on a bendable plastic handle. It is intended for getting paint, adhesives and solvent into areas that are not always easily accessible. Works good for me. They have several types and sizes, and are available at some, but not all, paint supply stores. www.microbrush.com



Charles
 
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