Painting Advice Required

[MrT]

Does anyone have any tips on touching up paint chips?

 

I have numerous pebble chips on my bonnet, fortunately none have broken the primer and marks on my rear passenger door from supermarket trolley. Now why Ford chose to use white primer on a black car is another issue.

 

On my bonnet, I have tried using the Halfords touch up pen/brush kit. Cleaned the bonnet thoroughly, filled the chips with paint a little at a time till until it built up to the right level. But when I used rubbing compound and T Cut, it removed all the paint from the chips. I assume the chips were too small for the paint to get a proper grip/key.

 

On the door I did the same but as the scratches were larger the paint held and it gave an almost perfect finish except for the slight impact mark to the metal that can be seen in the reflection in strong sunlight at a flat angle. However two months on and the edge of the area I repaired, the paint has the appearance of a frosted ring around the edge of the repair. Someone suggested putting clear lacquer on top, leaving it for a few weeks then rubbing it. I am not sure if that would give that part of the door a totally different look.

 

I have had chips away to look at it and they said on the bonnet that they could paint in all the chips, but they don't blend in the paintwork and it would be noticeable and would cost around

[Ivor_E_Tower]

Don't go to the dealer - find a good local bodyshop with "proper" panel-beaters. You will get a much better job done this way - offer them cash for a "private job" and they will probably bite your arm off to do the work. The paint around chips needs to be rubbed down to the same level as the chips to make them "disappear".

If you are in the GU postal district I can recommend a few places to try.

[MrT]

Thanks but I am in the Enfield area.

 

My logic of going to the Ford dealer was that if they mess up they can sort it out. The unknown (to me) small backstreet garage might just say their finish was good enough or a little less polite.

 

Its a bit like sending your wife out for cosmetic surgery, you want a perfect finish and will pay a bit more for a known operator.

[Ivor_E_Tower]

Nope, not a small backstreet garage but a proper "VBRA-approved" paintshop. Ask around - there are so many that just like to replace panels rather than having skilled panel-beaters who can work magic. My wife "did in" the front passenger door and sill of my old Honda a few years ago. First two places I went to effectively wanted to write the car off as they wanted to replace the whole door. Third place, recommended by a young lad at work who repaired insurance write-offs for a hobby, panel-beat the worst of the dent out, filled and re-sprayed. Unless you shone a bright light on the door, and squatted down and squinted from the front or rear of the car, you could not tell that it had been damaged and repaired. I was most impressed.

[Guest nelse]

got to agree, I made the mistake of usind a ford dealer. It took 2 attempts and still not up to a standard i'm completely happy with, however i'm loath to let them anywhere near it again because the faults are fairly minor and i should be able to either sort them out myself or get them sorted out fairy cheaply elsewere and then argue over the cost with the dealer. First time they didn't even remove all the chips in the bonnet, despite this being the only reason for the repair, they also messed up and sprayed both wings completely, making a real mess of them in the process, they then tried to claim they hadn't painted the wings at all, Second time i picked it up it was covered in particles in the clear coat. They looked at me as if i was mad when i moaned, now they did all cut out but the point was surely someone somewhere thought it was fine like that, I work in metal finishing and would get a rocket up my arse if i let a job anywhere near a customer with such glaringly obvious faults.

 

On the positive side you should be able to get the bonnet resprayed for around