Paint touch-up

**MiVor** · 07-28-2015, 09:51 AM

When I bought the truck it had a small scar on the side of the box. The scrape was just down to the gray primer. Most likely scraped by side loading something in the truck bed. I had it touched up and the fella said the trick is just applying very little paint. The color match was excellent (GM 928L Blue Granite Metallic [or stealth gray metallic]) and it`s nearly invisible from several feet away. However, up close I can see (and feel) that the scar remains lower than the surrounding paint finish.

I`m thinking I should add another layer of touch-up paint, compound or polish, finish with clear coat and polish so it`s level with the surrounding finish....thoughts?

**tom p.** · 07-28-2015, 10:25 AM

it`s really hard to tell what`s doin` from your foto, Mivor. Personally, I feel it`s better to let things alone for fear of making it worse. My primary concern would be rust and I`d be keeping a close look out for that beast.

**MiVor** · 07-28-2015, 11:11 AM

Originally Posted by tom p.

it`s really hard to tell what`s doin` from your foto, Mivor. Personally, I feel it`s better to let things alone for fear of making it worse. My primary concern would be rust and I`d be keeping a close look out for that beast.

I don`t think adding a bit more touch-up paint and/or clear coat is gonna make it worse. As I mentioned, the scrape was just down to primer so I`m not so worried about rust there....just want the best possible finish.

**Ccrew** · 07-28-2015, 12:11 PM

I`d add clear coat personally. The pic looks pretty good and I`d hate to muck up a paint match. Clear you can build up and still be safe.

**Accumulator** · 07-28-2015, 01:19 PM

Originally Posted by Ccrew

I`d add clear coat personally. The pic looks pretty good and I`d hate to muck up a paint match. Clear you can build up and still be safe.

Yeah, my thoughts exactly!

I do my "building up" with clear anyhow, only using enough basecoat for the color to look...well, as good as it`s going to. And that looks good IMO!

Just don`t mess things up leveling it, which is not as easy as it appears on YouTube

**salty** · 08-02-2015, 02:47 AM

It`s impossible to make metallic flake paint look perfect with a touch-up tube, flakes lay different.

**MiVor** · 08-02-2015, 08:13 AM

Actually metallic and metal flake are two slightly different things - metallic isn`t so bad while metal flake is tougher to match/blend. As it turns out I used some alcohol to prep the surface for clear coat and the previous color touch up came off!
(I told him to be careful of the Duragloss on there. "Duragloss, what`s that?" "A polymer sealant I said.")
So I had to add some color, then some clear coat. I used a heat gun to carefully dry the paint and later the clear coat. It`s okay, but in hind sight (almost always 20/20), I might better have just left it alone (except may for the poor adhesion as the previous touch up shouldn`t have come off with an alcohol wipe).

**Accumulator** · 08-02-2015, 10:40 AM

metallic, metal flake...either way (and IMO they`re just different variations on the same theme) the touchups hardly *ever* turn out perfect. Well, unless you`re the guy who does paintwork on my Jag...he`ll spend a whole day on a couple of chips if he needs to, and his work is simply amazing.