Would I need to sand out these 'Repairs'?

C

cptzippy

New member
Need to fix some paint chips on my old Jag. There are some pretty bad blobby, mis-matched color touch-ups on the it already. When I sent this question to the place where I got my touch-up paint they said I would need to sand those blobs out. I was hoping to use paint thinner. What do you guys think? How would I go about sanding these out? Never done this kind of thing before.



worst offender of many...

DSC_3164.jpg






Breaking this question off of my massive what should I do with this car thread because this is my first task to tackle.
 
captzippy- I 've dealt with the same issue on a few vehicles, most recently my white Crown Vic. Here's how I did it (except this last time I tried Dr. Colorchips stuff instead of regular touchup paint and Lankga)-



Remove old touchup paint with something like Langka's blob eliminator. People use lacquer thinner for this and it usually works OK, but I'd rather see you use the Langka.



Prepare surface. Where I had rust, I ground it down to OK metal with my Dremel and a very fine diamond grinding bit. I used a magnifying visor so I could clearly see what I was doing, and the very small grinding bit made it easy to control the area of operation (but I still masked off the area around the chip to be on the safe side).



Redo touchup. Let it sit for a while to cure, then level it with the Langka.
 
Ok, great, I've got some langka blob eliminator. I've got a dremel too but I have to see what kind of sanding disks I have for it. Is the toothpick method still the best way to put on thin coats?



Also, I've got some sandable automotive primer in a rattle can. Can I spray some on a plastic lid and get decent results using it or would I be better served with getting some liquid primer?
 
dont expect a miracle, but improvement can be made!



*this is the type of thing a person needs to have access to a $200 clunker practice car to learn with* ;)

I've known some that will visit a salvage yard and buy a hood with decent clear and chips to practice on. A decent hood from most models is over 10 years old can be purchased for under $50. good investment to educate yourself for an instance like this one.



paint thinner is a judgement call you need to make.

Question. Is this jag a base/clear?



Supplies

- You are going to need touch-up paint for this repair. visit the local paint supplier for a touch-up bottle of paint. Jaguar dealer will likely have this in stock under the correct paint code. Have the VIN ready.

- 3M rubber blocks can be purchased at most local auto part stores. grab a large and small one

- sand paper! nothing greater than 1000 should be used. grab 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000

- have a Griots 3" pollisher? they come in handy with a cushion pad and the sand paper grits mentioned above, along with 3000 *lets assume the answer is NO for this instance*

- water/soap mix in a spray bottle as lube for sanding.



  1. clean / clay the surface
  2. with the rust showing in the photo, would be a good idea to hit with IronX
  3. clean with ISA
  4. feel the surface. is the mismatch touch-up paint higher than the surrounding area? if yes, lightly "block sand" with the 3m rubber and 1200. CONSTANTLY check the surface!
  5. if the touch-up paint on the car is lower than the factory paint, breathe easy! build up the void with the new touch-up paint. I like to give things 30 min to 3 hours between coats. *depending on size of painted area*
  6. once the touch-up paint is higher than the surrounding area, and dry; it's time to work on sanding.
  7. same process mentioned above. 3M rubber block wrapped with sand paper, water/soap for lube, and CONSTANTLY check the surface after a few passes sanding.
  8. when the surface begins to feel closer to level, swap for a finer grit of paper. most sanding marks are easy to remove with compound and a DA. finer the grit, less the compounding/ polishing is needed.
  9. when the area is level, wiped clean and dry it's time for polishing
  10. the chips in the photos are on edges. BE CAREFUL! take your time. The hard part is over.



I'm sure others will chime in with good advice as well.



hope it helps!

chris<pixelmonkey>:D
 
Tried the Langka this afternoon with results I'm happy with. 10 Minute Dwell with wiping as much as I could with a 3 year-old running amuck. Different light since it was in the car port with flash and not the sun but seems like it pretty well eliminated the touchup and left the OEM in place.

DSC_3185.jpg




Can see the swirls real well in the flash too ;)
 
Question if I do follow pixel monkey's sanding routine, on that second pic you can see that what was under the blob was 2-3 small chips. I could either just handle those without sanding (since there doesn't appear to be rust) or I could sand out the whole area and build it back up. I'm leaning towards trying the first method to see what results I get.
 
Think I'm going to attempt to a full go through on a blob low on the passenger door later. It's about the most inconspicous one I have as 99% of them are on the hood and upper fenders.
 
captzippy- Glad to hear the Langka is working out OK (and for the umpteenth time, I'd sure settle for "OK").



Am I reading you right, that you're gonna try to do it "right" as per pixelmoney's rundown? [INSERT attempt to talk you out of that HERE] IF you do decide to do it, get good sandpaper, either Meguiar's or Mirka or something like that. Work down to 3000 or 4000 grit, don't quit at 2000. The 3/4K scratches aren't that bad and I often reach for that kind of paper instead of doing heavy compounding anyhow.



Yeah...as I plod along on the Crown Vic, I do keep thinking that if/when I don't have anything better to do, and when I can afford to have it off the road even longer, I just might tackle some of its issues properly. But I'm *REALLY* hoping that after I live with its oh-so-crappy current touchups, well...maybe I'll get used to 'em.
 
I really like using fiberglass pens for cleaning out the rust like you have in the one area. I usually hit it with rust converter, then primer and then with the basecoat. Let that set for a bit and even it out just a tad with the langka. A little sanding afterwards will get it nice. Just don't go overboard, its way to easy to create a huge mess by trying to get it perfect.
 
Dan said:
I really like using fiberglass pens for cleaning out the rust like you have in the one area..
Click to expand...



The Crown Vic is the first time I've used the Dremel instead of the pens...yeah, the pens are good if the rust isn't really bad. I especially like the little ones, once you "sharpen" them a little you can get a mighty fine, small tip to work with.
 
never heard of it, what is a fiberglass pen and where do you get them. I got some 3m 2000 grit wet dry when I went my AAP earlier.
 
captzippy- You can also get the fiberglass pens at Griot's and from MicroMark. Scope out the latter anyhow, *LOTS* of good stuff, including tiny brushes that work great for this sort of thing. Terrible shipping costs though...



Be careful with 3M 2000 grit. There are apparently different "grades" from them, and some that I've used are simply *awful*, leaving deep "tracer" scratches that you won't get out. And again, don't quit at 2K, get that 3-4000 grit paper for the final pass(es)...really ;)
 
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