Smudged my paint to the primer, any hints?

[vortex-5]

A question to the wise on how to proceed next.



I know that an area affected as big as mine (size of a dime) requires the work of a professional. I have full intension on taking it to one, but I was wondering if there was something I could do in the interm before then cause I want to wait until my hood gets more chips to justify it.



The "smudge" looks like:

I've managed to paint over the area as follows.

now I'm waiting for it to dry for 2 days and I plan on evening it out after with a RO polisher and some polish (with a potential of some rubbing compound / wet sanding / langka). I painted using the squeege method where you smear paint on like a spreading toast. I found this method gave the most even texture on my metallic paint and that it left the best match.



Using microdabbers won't cover the area and using the dumb brush in the OEM paint can is gross producing a mountain texture.



My only question is will I be able to get satisfactory results by polishing alone? It seems that langka seems to pull out the colour and leave the metal flecks, and wetsanding is dangerous from what I hear. I understand I won't get a perfect match but I was hoping maybe I could get the area flat and make it look like a slight discolouration or something. Your input is welcome.



And I know I should've left it alone but it's so hard being such a big eyesore.

 

[White95Max]

How did this occur? Did you try anything else before painting over it?

 

[imported_themightytimmah]

Your best bet is to wetsand with 3000 grit paper - it's fairly hard to mess up, and the marring can be taken out with a PC. It will take forever though, due to the light cut nature of 3000, but the results will be worth it.

 

[vortex-5]

Sounds good i only got 2000 unigrit paper on hand I've found that i've been able to remove the marring with some turtle wax mild polish which is a slight abrasive compound.



Should this combo be adequate?



2nd there's a slight problem with leveling since originally the smudge did not have any height to it, usually we're used to a pit well if you put your and across and feel the surface there's a very smooth transition across the smudged area as in no hills or valleys aside from a small dent from the chip.



So after reading your advice I'm going to try a wetsand with 2000grit + polish is there anything else I should know before I start? I'd rather not make any mistakes. Oh and do you need to soak papers overnight to do a wetsand?