Chip Repair - 89 black RX7

[metal]

Prev owner did some sloppy touch up, and there were a bunch of chips on the drivers side fender, door and rear quarter, so I touched em up last week, wetsanded with 2000, and today I compounded with Hi Temp Extreme Cut and a wool pad via rotary, then Optimum Polish on a white LC pad to finish up. Threw a coat of RMG on the car, and then rewaxed it with S100. The whole time I was doing this, it started getting REALLY windy and was hard to work with the wind, and it throwing small leaves and crap in my garage, but the kicker was that right after I dressed the tires and put my equipment away, it started raining heavily out of no where!!!! Now, 10-15 mins later, its back to blue skies but still windy...Thanks weather :angry



I might need to reapply some touch up, and wetsand it level again on a few places on the fender, they didn`t come out too well.



Rear 1/4 panel chip

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e211/rmetal/Chip%20Repair/Picture002.jpg



Some of the "touch up" work done by the prev owner

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e211/rmetal/Chip%20Repair/Picture007.jpg



Wetsanding..

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e211/rmetal/Chip%20Repair/Picture010.jpg



http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e211/rmetal/Chip%20Repair/Picture011.jpg



Final product!

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e211/rmetal/Chip%20Repair/Picture012.jpg



Fresh RMG and S100 right as it started raining....

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e211/rmetal/Chip%20Repair/Picture013.jpg

[Toyo245]

Great job by the way! Love the black!

Could u go into more detail on how u wetsanded the sloppy touch ups from previous owner (pic 2). My car has similar crappy touchups and Ive wondered how to get started with wetsanding them. I have little detailing experience by the way and would appreciate ur help

[imported_artikxscout]

hmmm do you have pictures of the final product of the spots you filled? Was there a basecoat + clear or was it Single stage? Love the beading shot :)

[metal]

artikxscout - I just did the touch up with a bottle of black touch up Mazda paint that I got at a local car store, and applied with a toothpick very sparingly.



I didn`t get any shots of the other spots; a few of them were still not touched up fully so I`m going to redo them this week. I expected that since it was my first attempt, but if you look at the first shot, that chip was in the center of the 2nd last photo, it wasn`t a small one either, probably 2mm, so it would be noticable in that 2nd last photo.



Toyo - I just added more touch up paint to the prev owners attempts in order to fully fill them, then wetsanded them down level to the paint with 2000grit. Do a search for "chip repair" and "wetsanding" and you`ll find a few in depth write ups on here, one of which is very good by G35Stylez (I might have got the name wrong).

[TRunne4]

When wet sanding, do u typically take off the clearcoat? I would imagine that something so abrasive as sandpaper would.



can i get some good wet sanding paper at lowes or home depot? do u recommend certain brands or types?





still trying to learn this stuff



thanks

[Twista616]

When wet sanding, do u typically take off the clearcoat? I would imagine that something so abrasive as sandpaper would.



can i get some good wet sanding paper at lowes or home depot? do u recommend certain brands or types?





still trying to learn this stuff



thanks





Yep, thats exactly what wet sanding is doing, taking off clear coat. Its seems worse than it really is! It really depends on what grit paper your using, and your technique! By no means is it easy, but once you do it a couple times, its a breeze! When you wet sand, you obviously use water and that water is sort of a barrier between the sandpaper and the clear coat,...it gradually glides over the surface while cutting away the clear.



You can usually find any good paper at lowels or HD, better yet an automotive paint store if any are near. Most are Wet/Dry paper, usally dark in color. Make sure it say "wet" and the most important thing though, soak your wetsand paper for a couple hours before use! If you dont know what grit to buy, i wouldnt go below 1500! 2000 is highly recommended in my book!



Good luck and i hope i was of some assistance!

[SHhhhh]

How necessary is using a touch-up "primer" before the paint color?

[TRunne4]

Yep, thats exactly what wet sanding is doing, taking off clear coat. Its seems worse than it really is! It really depends on what grit paper your using, and your technique! By no means is it easy, but once you do it a couple times, its a breeze! When you wet sand, you obviously use water and that water is sort of a barrier between the sandpaper and the clear coat,...it gradually glides over the surface while cutting away the clear.



You can usually find any good paper at lowels or HD, better yet an automotive paint store if any are near. Most are Wet/Dry paper, usally dark in color. Make sure it say "wet" and the most important thing though, soak your wetsand paper for a couple hours before use! If you dont know what grit to buy, i wouldnt go below 1500! 2000 is highly recommended in my book!



Good luck and i hope i was of some assistance!







Thanks! Great info.



Why would anyone want to take off the clear in the first place? On this site, there is a lot of talk about how to preserve the clear. After doing the repair, wont u notice that area being dull compared to the rest of the car? And also, afterwards it cant be a good idea to polish that area if you are down to the paint already, right?



I have some sloppy touchups (from the previous owner) that i would like to fix but maybe i should just live with it if it involves the clear being completely removed.



Thanks for the guidance!

[brokentelephone]

Thanks! Great info.



Why would anyone want to take off the clear in the first place? On this site, there is a lot of talk about how to preserve the clear. After doing the repair, wont u notice that area being dull compared to the rest of the car? And also, afterwards it cant be a good idea to polish that area if you are down to the paint already, right?



I have some sloppy touchups (from the previous owner) that i would like to fix but maybe i should just live with it if it involves the clear being completely removed.



Thanks for the guidance!



Ideally, you wouldn`t be sanding too much of the surround clearcoat at all. In my experience, I was just filling in chips, not fixing previous touch-ups, but the process is likely the same. I used a toothpick to apply the paint very sparingly, although it is almost impossible to apply it completely level, hence, there is a bit of a ridge where the touchup paint is. Allow the paint to dry, and the paint will have dried almost completely level. Then, using the 2000 grit paper, sand very lightly over the touch up, and you should be able to flatten the bubble without sanding the surrounding clear very much. Once its level, do a few passes across a small area to fully blend it in, and then polish the area to remove sanding marks.



You wouldn`t be sanding enough to remove all the clear, just a very very slight amount. Its not especially difficult, and the results can be amazing. Considering how small the chips are, its not a big deal that there is no clearcoat over them..... and once polished, you`d be hard pressed to find them without a magnifying glass.



I did the bonnet of my car last summer before settling on repainting, and it came out so well, I didn`t need to repaint a thing!!



Good luck. If I were you, I`d goto a body shop and buy an old panel to test on. Much better to make mistakes on something that isn`t your car!