Touch up painting questions

[Quik89si]

I have never applied touch-up paint before and since I couldn`t find any good, specific instructions anywhere else, I figured I would come to you guys for advice.



My wife`s 2005 Magnesium Metallic Honda Civic got a nasty rock chip on the front edge of the hood. It`s about the size of a pencil eraser and it got right down to the metal (it has already started to rust, too). The paint around the outside of the chip isn`t broken cleanly and I want to get this fixed ASAP.



I have ordered the following from Paintscratch.com:

- Primer with brush in cap

- Basecoat, same

- Clearcoat, same

- Tack cloth, just in case



I plan to tackle the project in this order -



1. Sand the area (400-600 grit) to accomplish two things - to get the rust off of the bare metal that has been exposed, and to scuff/get the unevenness out of the surrounding paint.



2. Apply the primer to the bare metal area, allow a few hours to dry, sand to level it out, then apply another layer, let dry, and sand again.



3. Apply basecoat, blending it in to the surrounding area very carefully and allow to dry for 24 hours. Wet-sand with probably 1500 grit to ensure evenness, and repeat one more time.



4. Apply clearcoat, blending a tiny bit further out than the basecoat - allow 24 hours to dry, wetsand, repeat once.



5. Use 3m rubbing compound to remove wetsanding marks by hand (again, this is a small area), then use Scratch-X to polish out any remaining marring. Allow 30 days to cure then apply wax and move on with life.



What do you think of the process? Am I missing anything here? Thanks for reading and for any advice that you are able to give!



Alex

[Accumulator]

Good plan :xyxthumbs



Here`s how I`d tweak it a little, not that it really *needs* tweaking:



Use a small artists brush to apply the paint. I`ve gradually settled on a size 000 ("triple-oh"). Yeah, it really will make that big a difference- you can`t imagine. I`ve tried everything else under the sun and the brushes make the biggest difference in the final outcome.



Try to limit your coarse sanding to the actual chip, don`t expand out much into the surounding paint because anything you sand you`ll have to cover with paint. I`d tape things off.



I`d apply less colorcoat and more clearcoat. You only need adequate coverage with the color and the clear is what you`re gonna be sanding/polishing. I try to keep the basecoat in the chip itself for the most part, or at least I only cover areas that are "damaged". The clear can extend a *little* into the surrounding areas but don`t overdo it (and that`s easy to do ).



You might not need to sand between the basecoat and the clear, just see what you think. Again, limit the sanding to the actual touchup paint, try not to get into the surrounding original paint you probably will a little anyhow.



If you`re gonna sand the finished touchup, make sure you have enough clear on there



If you wetsand the finished touchup, use Meguiar`s Unigrit paper (or their block). Nothing coarser than 2000 grit. To be honest, I don`t always bother wetsanding them smooth as the touchup always shows anyhow (hey, I`m just not that good at this stuff for some reason, my one painter is a *lot* better than I am and my other painter is the same as I am so :nixweiss ).



Don`t expect to remove any coarser scratches than the 2K grit with the compound (this gets back to the initial coarse sanding) and I`d even be careful with the 2K.



Hope it goes well, remember not to stress out about attaining perfection

[Quik89si]

Very true - I know it is still going to show, I just want to make sure that 1. it looks as good as it possibly can, 2. it won`t rust further than it already has, and 3. that the touch-up lasts for a good long while.



The car has already been rear-ended and repaired, so it`s no longer "perfect". I think I may also pick up some finer grit if I can find it - 2500 or so.



Thanks for the tips, very helpful!



Alex