Scratch & Chip Repair - good plan?

W

walletless

New member
I am trying to fix this:

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Basically, while trying to pull into a very narrow parking spot, I scratched the bumper of my brand new Nissan Altima with some paint transfer. I removed the paint transfer, but there are obviously some scratches and chips remaining.



Here is what I plan to do - please critique and suggest. I am on a super-small budget, so spending big $$ is not my preference - I will sacrifice a little quality to save some $.



My plan (not mentioning the obvious cleaning, degreasing steps)

{I'll try these steps on a test area first before going straight to the damaged area}

1) Use touch-up paint (universal black from AZ) - 2-3 THIN layers using a toothpick with 20 minutes drying time between each layer

2) Let the paint dry for 3-4 days, then wet-sand it with a 2000 or 3000 grit sand paper

3) Use PC 7424xp with a 5.5" cutting pad and Meguiar's Ultimate Compound until satisfactory

4) Use PC 7424xp with a 5.5" polishing pad and Meguiar's Ultimate Polish until satisfactory

5) After 90 days, apply wax



* If UC/UP does not work, I might step up to M105/M205..

* The car is generally clean, so I don't think claying will be necessary, but after washing, if I feel the need I might do that.





Questions:

1) Good plan? Any improvements suggested?

2) I have gone through several videos on how to use a DA Polisher. Most of these videos demonstrate very well how to do section passes, but the demonstration are on a flat surface like hood or door panel. For a bumper, are there any special instructions I should follow since there are so many curves on the surface?

3) I have already bought the 5.5" 3D Polishing (green) pad to use with UP.

For UC, what pad would you suggest - wool or foam cutting pad? Any particular brand you suggest? My walmart is one of the selected few that will be carrying Meguiars pro line stuff, and some pads as well (they dont have them on shelf yet) - to save shipping, would you suggest using a Megs pad for cutting?
 
walletless- Before/rather than getting into specific comments on your plan (and generally it sounds OK, other than that AZ Universal Black paint)...



If you're not gonna bother with a basecoat/clearcoat type of repair, I'd just go with the Dr Colorchips approach and avoid the whole sanding/compound/polish can of worms.



Plastic bumpercovers are a bit tricky anyhow (like flex additive..not using that makes the whole thing iffy) and I can't help but think that overall you'd be happier with the Dr Colorchip approach. And yeah, even if you do it and think "yuck" I'll still think you're better off ;) I didn't use that "can of worms" analogy lightly; people botch up/regret this kind of project all the time.
 
If you do go ahead with the wetsanding approach, be very careful to only let the sandpaper touch the surrounding paint very minimally while you are sanding the touchup and then use the highest grit possible for the final feathering. It's SO easy to strike through the clear with the sandpaper if you are not extremely careful. If that happens you are screwed and will need a respray. If you've never done this before, I'd recommend Dr. Colorchip as Accumulator said, much less risky.
 
ExplicitDetails said:
..If you've never done this before, I'd recommend Dr. Colorchip as Accumulator said, much less risky.
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Heh heh, and I *have* done it before, and I do OK ;) But on my Crown Vic (nometallic color, driver...) I'm just doing the Dr Colorchips. A case of picking my battles, and/but if I thought the improved appearance would *remotely* be worth it...*and likely*..I'd go ahead and "do it right". The fact that *I* am sticking with the Dr Colorchips oughta be a clue.



The truth is, to do a plastic bumper cover right, you simply gotta use a flex additive. That alone makes me think "just be reasonable about this one". The rash like that I had on my old Audi prompted me to have it removed/resprayed/reinstalled...turned out great, but it was pricey.
 
Thanks Accumulator. I will give that a shot (darn - it's quite expensive at $60 though!!). One question - do you know if it is easy to undo Dr. Colorchip if I don't like the outcome and fall back to my above writeup as plan "B"?
 
walletless said:
Thanks Accumulator. I will give that a shot (darn - it's quite expensive at $60 though!!). One question - do you know if it is easy to undo Dr. Colorchip if I don't like the outcome and fall back to my above writeup as plan "B"?
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I use Langka to remove touch up paint if I'm not happy with the end result. It's made for doing touchups, but is a pain to work with IMO, so I just use it as an eraser of sorts. Some people like doing touchups with it, so it may be another option for you but I just never had much luck with it except for completely removing the touchup.
 
Accumulator said:
walletless- Before/rather than getting into specific comments on your plan (and generally it sounds OK, other than that AZ Universal Black paint)...
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Can you please expand on this part? The car I have is the super black (KH1) Altima. I looked at the manual next to the paint section at AZ, and it seemed that Universal Black was a good match for it.. Not true? Or are those touch up paints at AZ not good quality? Would you recommend something else if I had to revert to this as plan B?
 
ExplicitDetails said:
I use Langka to remove touch up paint if I'm not happy with the end result. It's made for doing touchups, but is a pain to work with IMO, so I just use it as an eraser of sorts. Some people like doing touchups with it, so it may be another option for you but I just never had much luck with it except for completely removing the touchup.
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Thanks. I looked at Langka - looks quite good actually. In fact, it seems the process is very similar to the touchup process I described above - but does not require color sanding (it seems the chemicals inside it levels the paint somewhat, although may not be absolutely perfect - which I am OK with). I will spend some time tonight to go over both Dr.Colorchip and Langka threads here to understand what to expect (don't want to set the expectation too high - since any touchup will not look like original - especially for a n00b like me :-))
 
In fact, Langka makes me think if there are chemical substitutes to wet sanding.. where I can still use the touchup paint etc, but use a chemical to "somewhat" level the paint rather than sanding it. Will be somewhat cost effective, I would think - compared to Langka or Dr.Colorchip?
 
From the way it smells, Langka is basically a weak paint thinner in a cream form. It softens and removes the relatively fresh touch up paint. It's not really a replacement for wetsanding, except for doing a small chip/scratch repair. In theory Langka seems very easy, but it's pretty tough to get the touchup exactly even with the original paint. It's easy to go to far, then you have to reapply the paint, let it dry and start again, so it can be frustrating. But if you have the time and patience, you can do ok with it. I don't like it because I don't have the time to re-do things in a shop setting. But for your own personal car it could be worth trying. It's definitely alot less risky than wet sanding as it won't remove the cured factory paint.
 
ExplicitDetails said:
From the way it smells, Langka is basically a weak paint thinner in a cream form. It softens and removes the relatively fresh touch up paint. It's not really a replacement for wetsanding, except for doing a small chip/scratch repair. In theory Langka seems very easy, but it's pretty tough to get the touchup exactly even with the original paint. It's easy to go to far, then you have to reapply the paint, let it dry and start again, so it can be frustrating. But if you have the time and patience, you can do ok with it. I don't like it because I don't have the time to re-do things in a shop setting. But for your own personal car it could be worth trying. It's definitely alot less risky than wet sanding as it won't remove the cured factory paint.
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Yes, I wonder if it is easy to manufacture that blob remover at home by diluting lacquer thinner or isoprohyl alcohol. The way I see it, Langka is a good solution, but $40 for 3 bottles of 3oz chemicals seems too high - especially when 2 of the 3 solutions (degreaser/wax-remover & paint sealant) are easy to obtain OTC. All the "magic" is really in the blob remover - which seems like a chemical to thin and remove excess paint. That also explains why Langka likes factory paint over OEM paint - because the thinner chemical could easily remove OEM paint which takes longer to dry.
 
The ingredients to your altima's black paint are just black and a clear additive, so I would imagine universal black would be ok. Also, black along with any other non-metallic color works best for what you're trying to accomplish. Unfortunately, the only thing you can do with something like this is give it a shot, and see how it turns out. As far as Langka, I've used similar products, and its like others have said, its a little finicky, but can be a nice shortcut.
 
walletless- The Lankga and the Dr Colorchips stuff are similar in concept- "level/remove the excess paint". The Langka uses basecoat/clearcoat, the Dr Colorchips uses a single paint.



I find the Dr Colorchips easier to work with/get good results with, but that's just me. Gotta admit that I have a knee-jerk aversion to that system's single paint, but on nonmetallics at least it works well.



My issue with the AZ paint is that there are many subtle (and not-so-subtle!) differences with "black paints" and I'd want to get one that matches really well.
 
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