when detailing and touching up paint, what order?

M

mnewxcv

New member
If I'm doing a detail and the vehicle has some areas that need touching up, should the paint be applied before polishing? after polishing before waxing? after waxing? thanks!
 
Depends on what sort of touching up you're doing. Are we talking about areas where you're going to follow up by sanding the blobs down to level them? If so then do it before you polish.
 
I don't do too much touch up, but where ever you apply fresh paint, make sure that the areas is free from polishing oils. I do an alcohol clean. So you can polish, clean the area and once dry, apply wax
 
If you're just doing a simple touch up and not wet sanding it or using something like Langka on it, then you want to do it after polishing so it doesn't lift when you run the polisher over it, and before waxing because the wax will cause adhesion problems. Make sure you use IPA or something to thoroughly clean any polishing oils from the spot you are touching up. You could also do the touch up before polishing, but give it time to fully dry, at least 24 hours, so it doesn't lift when you polish. It will feel dry very quick after you apply it, but it does take some time to completely cure.
 
thanks for all the tips. I'm actually using the dr colorchip touchup kit on a few spots on a bumper and door handle. I will do it between polishing and waxing after an IPA wipedown. And dont worry, and post in the click and brag once im done :-D
 
mnewxcv said:
thanks for all the tips. I'm actually using the dr colorchip touchup kit on a few spots on a bumper and door handle. I will do it between polishing and waxing after an IPA wipedown. And dont worry, and post in the click and brag once im done :-D
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Depending on the polish you use, you may very well need something better than IPA.



Be careful doing the "leveling" step lest you mar the surrounding paint. Maybe use something other than the cloth that comes with the DRC kit.



And yeah, their paint is kinda fragile for a while, so don't try to polish it without at least a few days worth of cure time (I got by with far less time than some others here have needed, but in a few spots I still polished away the touchup). I'd even be a little careful when waxing it.
 
mnewxcv said:
Polish will be m205
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I didn't use that on the car I DRCed, but considering what I did use (M105/Uno/1Z Pro MP) I'm pretty confident that M205 *can* cut the touchup right off, so be careful if you use that after touching up.



It's a bit of a dilemma, how to do the DRC leveling without marring the paint vs. how to polish without messing up the DRC work :think: :confused: :nixweiss
 
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