Touchup paint nightmare

[Mindflux]

Well, in preperation for selling my 98 GTI I decided to wash her up and repair a few rock chips that seemed to be rusting up. So i got out my little 3m pen sander .. which the tip wasn`t small enough to get in these chips.. so I had to sand a bigger "chip" out.. anyway.



So I fill the chips with some factory touchup paint, "globbing" it on so to speak. I let it sit overnight, almost 24 hours to be exact. Because I was going to use langka on it. I`ve had sucess with langka before to minimze the rock chip appearances... however upon trying to remove these globs, I found they wouldn`t budge/dissolve/go away.



So now, I`ve got two nice "globs" of touch up paint, one on the hood and one on the roof. :shocked



Does anyone have any suggestions how to get these more level with the rest of the car? I don`t want to get out any wet sanding stuff, as I`ve never done it and don`t have the materials to do it.



Suggestions would be *MUCH* appreciated.



P.S What do you guys/gals use to sand/clean out rock chips.. this little sanding pencil I have (which uses some sort of fiberglass threads or something) isn`t fine enough...



Oh also forgot. This car has sat next in the drive way for two weeks, getting a regular spraying of the neighbors sprinklers :( and I cannot get the water marks off the windows or paint. I`ve tried vinnegar on the windows but it does not seem to help. Any suggestions here?

[Steve @ Guru]

Mindflux!!! I didn`t know that you posted here - I post over at vwvortext as "thewaxtest".



Sorry to hear about the touchup fiasco. Here are my suggestions:



1) You could carefully wetsand the chips using 2000/2500/3000 grit sand paper, followed by a buffing with some 3M Finesse It II & 3M SMR. I think there`s a thread somewhere in here about wetsanding...I`ll do a search and post the link if I find it.



:edit:

Here`s the link:

http://www.goodspeedmotoring.com/?page=color_sanding

:/edit:



2) Not sure what you mean by cleaning out the chips - I`m assuming you mean before you go to paint them? If that`s the case, I like to use some PPG DX330. It`s a great paint prep solution - you can get it from most quality parts stores and bodyshop supply stores.



3) Waterspots on windows:



a) Get some #0000 or #00000 steel wool (hardware stores)

b) Spray on some window cleaner (fairly liberally)

c) Gently buff the glass with the steel wool

d) Dry with lint free towel



Usually, you can feel the waterspots being `buffed away` by the steel wool - just keep buffing until the glass is clean and smooth.

If you`re not comfortable with the steel wool (I`ve never had a problem with it in 12+ years), you might try a glass polish like Zaino`s Z12 or Griot`s Glass Polish Kit.



Oh, and BTW, thanks for the tip on the Neuspeed sway bar - I`ll be ordering one ASAP! :)

[Mindflux]

Originally posted by geekysteve

Mindflux!!! I didn`t know that you posted here - I post over at vwvortext as "thewaxtest".



Sorry to hear about the touchup fiasco. Here are my suggestions:



1) You could carefully wetsand the chips using 2000/2500/3000 grit sand paper, followed by a buffing with some 3M Finesse It II & 3M SMR. I think there`s a thread somewhere in here about wetsanding...I`ll do a search and post the link if I find it.



:edit:

Here`s the link:

http://www.goodspeedmotoring.com/?page=color_sanding

:/edit:



2) Not sure what you mean by cleaning out the chips - I`m assuming you mean before you go to paint them? If that`s the case, I like to use some PPG DX330. It`s a great paint prep solution - you can get it from most quality parts stores and bodyshop supply stores.



3) Waterspots on windows:



a) Get some #0000 or #00000 steel wool (hardware stores)

b) Spray on some window cleaner (fairly liberally)

c) Gently buff the glass with the steel wool

d) Dry with lint free towel



Usually, you can feel the waterspots being `buffed away` by the steel wool - just keep buffing until the glass is clean and smooth.

If you`re not comfortable with the steel wool (I`ve never had a problem with it in 12+ years), you might try a glass polish like Zaino`s Z12 or Griot`s Glass Polish Kit.



Oh, and BTW, thanks for the tip on the Neuspeed sway bar - I`ll be ordering one ASAP! :)



Yeah I`m over here when I botch something up as usual. I swear I should never touch my car again other then to drive it and gas it up.



I dunno what to do about the paint chip globs yet, I`m not confident in wetsanding them down.



As far as "Cleaing out the chips" i meant like sanding/rubbing rust out of them or whatever.. "prepping them for painting".. basically. For these two small chips, they had a lil rust forming.. but the tool i was using wasn`t pointy enough just to get in there and sand it out.. so when I was sanding away, the chip got a little larger because of the size of the head. if that makes sense.



I just want a "fine" tool that cleans the chips out if there`s rust in them.!!



I might try using this sanding pencil to sand down the high spots on the touch up paint and go over it with some smr

[We're Here]

If you`re still using the touchup paint that you used successfully earlier, you failed to adhere to Langka`s directions regarding time. Don`t they specify waiting for two hours after the application? I don`t think you have an option to sanding now.



Depending upon the height of the blobs, it may be necessary to follow David`s advice about popping out some small "dots" of wetordry paper and gluing them onto the eraser of a new pencil. If you take your time and precisely sand down only the glob, so will reach a point where you can then quickly sand the whole area with 2000 or 2500-grit paper without much risk of going through the surrounding paint. Meguiar`s makes some neat abrasive sanding blocks for this but they ARE spendy. Just make sure that the bulk of the blob shaving is done with your sanding pencil.



Got to follow directions closely for this to work. A magnifying glass would be helpful to confirm that you`re not inadvertently sanding the area surrounding the blob with the modified pencils. Just make a few strokes with the pencil and check your work with the glass - repeat. Don`t try to sand the blob down in one shot - be precise about it

[Mindflux]

Originally posted by We`re Here

If you`re still using the touchup paint that you used successfully earlier, you failed to adhere to Langka`s directions regarding time. Don`t they specify waiting for two hours after the application? I don`t think you have an option to sanding now.



Depending upon the height of the blobs, it may be necessary to follow David`s advice about popping out some small "dots" of wetordry paper and gluing them onto the eraser of a new pencil. If you take your time and precisely sand down only the glob, so will reach a point where you can then quickly sand the whole area with 2000 or 2500-grit paper without much risk of going through the surrounding paint. Meguiar`s makes some neat abrasive sanding blocks for this but they ARE spendy. Just make sure that the bulk of the blob shaving is done with your sanding pencil.



Got to follow directions closely for this to work. A magnifying glass would be helpful to confirm that you`re not inadvertently sanding the area surrounding the blob with the modified pencils. Just make a few strokes with the pencil and check your work with the glass - repeat. Don`t try to sand the blob down in one shot - be precise about it



Langka`s directections specifically state to wait between 1 1/2 hours and up to 24 hours, I chose to wait longer because I had other things to do, and last time I did it and waited a short amount of time, I pulled up more touchup than I wanted.



Langka`s webpage even says you can remove the `blob` 3-4 days later, which apparently is a lie or my langka is being un-affective on the area.

[samiam513]

take 1500 grit wet/dry sandpaper to the blob. hwen it is level, hit it with fine cut rubbing compound, then smr.



Noone will know it was there.

[Mindflux]

Waxy/Steve,



I ran out and bought some #0000 Steel Wool today at Lowes, along with a garage door opener. I got out in the blazing hot sun (no shade for me to move my car too since the garage is full) and busted out the windex and steel wool.



Well, it was so hot the windex would dry up pretty damned fast and haze the window, but I muscled through it and then did a final wipe down with my MF cloth which was linting all over the place.



The windows look about 80% better than they were, which is definately a big :up. I`ll re-do er later tonight when I`ve got some shade so I can spend more time trying to keep the window lubricated enough.



Thanks for the advice, as always you are a life saver.



P.S I havn`t done anything with the paint chips yet. The one on the hood is the one I`m most concerned with currently. The one on the roof is not nearly as noticeable.

[shaf]

If I remember right, Langka says you can even fix years-old touchup paint. This is because most touchup paint is lacquer. I found out that lacquer thinner will remove lacquer paint even if it`s very old and long-cured. I used lacquer thinner as a fussy Langka substitute but I heard this wasn`t such a great idea (I have a thread on this).



Maybe Langka didn`t work because the touchup paint you have is some kind of crazy urethane enamel or something? :nixweiss

[Steve @ Guru]

Glad the Windex/Wool worked out, I`m pretty sure that a second application will take care of the remaining spots.



I forgot about David`s eraser/sandpaper trick - that works really well if you`re patient enough. I`d say give it a shot before wetsanding a large area. Wetsanding isn`t really too difficult if you`re patient and paying attention while doing it.



Let us know how everything turns out!

[Mindflux]

Stevo, I have this 3m Sanding "Pencil"



Let me see if I can find a pic.



http://www.codymercantile.com/images/MF/5335t.jpg



Like that basically...



Think that`ll work?

[Mindflux]

Just an update.



I`ve fixed the waterspots on the windows, per geekysteves steelwool idea.



WOOT!



Now, for the "globs".. I emailed Larry Johnson (I think he owns langka, or is a higher upper there).



I told him my problem with not getting the blobs off, and he offered to send me some 2000 gritt sandpaper and some rubbing compound to fix the sandpaper scratches. "At no cost".



Now that`s customer service!!! I will let you all know how that goes.