Leveling Touch Up

[kompressornsc]

I have literally hundreds of rock chips on my hood/front spoiler. I`ve touched them up carefully using paint and a bamboo skewer, but there are some that are a little outside the `edges` and are more noticable and could stand to be leveled. There are waaaaayyyyy too many to use Langka. I did hit some of the bigger ones with it, but the tiny ones, it`s not worth it-no matter how careful you are, it pulls out the touch up. So my question is:



Will my PC with something like DACP + a yellow pad `level` or diminish the over fills at all? I know I don`t want to concentrate with it and try to buff them down, but will just `normal` PC use help at all? My thinking is that the touch up paint wouldn`t be as hard as the clearcoat? Any other techniques/products?

[jmsc]

using a clay bar 1 week later after touch up to level off. Use lubricant and go easy with the clay. It may help.

[kompressornsc]

Originally posted by jmsc

using a clay bar 1 week later after touch up to level off. Use lubricant and go easy with the clay. It may help.



jmsc-thanks for this!



When I read it, I really had no hope of it working, and didn`t even bother to try. Then yesterday, I`m claying before polishing and go to fold the clay, and there are little light blue streaks in the clay-touch up paint! So I started playing around on the overfills. Tried a few different methods, and here is what worked best for me:



Clay magic (blue) w/ lots of lube (Z7&H20). Make sure the area around the overfill is really clean, and use fresh clay. I used about 1/2 the pressure I normally would w/ clay, and went over it in a sanding motion. For the average overfill, it probably took around 50 passes (30 seconds). Lots of lube! You will feel/hear when it`s level. BTW-my touch-ups were about 3 weeks old.



Until yesterday, I thought Langka was the best thing to ever happen to crappy touch-ups. Wrong! Clay is easier, quicker, more consistent and cheaper. I really can`t think of any downside as long as you lube well and use light pressure. I will never use Langka again-on a scale of 1 to 10, Langka performs at a 5 or 6 (works but is hard to do perfect), and claying overfills is a 10! Seriously, one of the best detailing tips I`ve ever used.

[forrest@mothers]

I have never seen clay knock down a cured touch up spot. Paint is far too hard, in my opinion, and clay too soft, to reduce it.



I`ve clayed touched up spots on my wife`s old min-van, as part of claying the vehicle, and it did nothing for the blob.

[EdLancer]

Lanka is good, but I have used plain old rubbing alchool and it worked well too, best to use a spray to mist the cloth. I will experiment with mixing laquer thinner with rubbing compound to see if it will work. I was never a fan of clay, to slow !

[kbshadow]

I tried clayseveral times before and it did not work for me, have to give it another try.



Have had good luck with Langka, but I always have to redo it several times to get it right.

[kompressornsc]

Originally posted by forrest

I have never seen clay knock down a cured touch up spot. Paint is far too hard, in my opinion, and clay too soft, to reduce it.



I`ve clayed touched up spots on my wife`s old min-van, as part of claying the vehicle, and it did nothing for the blob.



I didn`t think it would work either, but the fact that the blobs are now perfectly level tell me otherwise. As I said, I really had no hope of it working until I saw the touch-up paint coming off.



Also, I tried my Mother`s Clay (yellow) as an experiment and it wouldn`t touch it. Don`t know much about clay, but the CM seems much more aggressive.



Found a few more chips after this so maybe I`ll fill them & take some B&A photos & pics of the touch-up paint streaks in the clay.

[Craigmri]

Here`s what I did...........Masked off right up to the chip to eliminate getting touch up paint on the regular paint level. Applied two light coats to build the level slightly higher than the regular paint. I waited 10 minutes between coats. 10 minutes after the second coat I removed the tape and all that was left was touch up paint in the chip that was slightly higher than the level of the regular paint. I waited 12 hours then clayed it and its abolutely perfectly smooth!!! Only ***** is the touch up color is darker than the regular paint but only I will ever notice that.



Thank you to both kompressornsc and JMSC for this suggestion. I have experimented in the past with compounding and wet sanding only to be dissapointed. This technique worked like a charm for me. My advice for those who havent had success is perhaps not allowing the touch up to cure completely?? perhaps claying it after a few hours might take it down.



Craig