Touch-Up Paint Usage

Hey all...

I got myself a bottle of touchup paint from the dealer that
I purchased my 03 accord from. Basically, parking in the
city and such is a pain because other people bump my car,
and stones hit my car daily on the highway.

So I decided to use it to get rid of the dents, nicks, etc.
I noticed that after I apply the paint, it's very runny.
I followed the instruction to the letter. And some area
have bumps from the paint being too thick.

Any known method for me to even these out ?
Buffing? Waxing? I am not too concern w/ the ones I
already messed up on which are on the rear bumper. But
for future reference, I would have the buffer or whatever
ready to even it out after I apply.

Thanks.

 

Touch-up paint is far from perfect. Its use is only meant
to make scratches less apparent and to reduce rusting.

That being said, you should apply it thin, and do it several
times. It's not going to look anywhere near new - only a
body shop can do that.

 

For most nicks, I use small, precise layers (sometimes over days or weekends
even) applied with a toothpick! You can get pretty good results this way.

 

You have two options:

1. Sand flat and polish.

2. Use solvent to remove. See http://www.langka.com for a product that is
kinda like a mixture of solvent and polish. It will cleanly remove "oops"
mistakes with touch-up paint that isn't too old.

 

I have black cars and have good results with a Sharpie permanent marker.
Very carefully fill the spot with a fine point. Apply more than once to
achieve a darker color black.

I don't know that I'd recommend doing that in the salt belt, but here in
SoCal, works for me.

 

how often do you have to reapply it?

 

Thanks. This sounds like what I was looking for.

 

    >how often do you have to reapply it?

For my garaged car, every few months keeps the scratch someone left on
my Lexus hidden and not quite so obvious. The boy's Honda could use a
touch up more often as it's outside. The permanent aspect of the marker
seems to ride out a car wash ok.

And now that you mention it, I need to recheck the spots and see if they
need touching up!

 

Have you tried the "Industrial Sharpie"? It's designed for lab/industrial
use, and is supposed to be more fade resistant. While a regular Sharpie
has a mild solvent odor, the industrial Sharpie really smells until it's
dry.

You should be able to find it at most office supply places. I bought a
3-pack at Office Depot. I use it for marking my various new/used
automotive fluid containers.

 

It depends how much trouble you want to go to and doing it right is time
consuming. See here http://www.carcareonline.com/ and
http://www.autopia-carcare.com/autopia/ for grisly details - near
perfection is possible but it requires some skill and uhh, did I say
time? Maybe it's my aging eyes but I find a magifying glass useful for
making sure I got just the right coverage and depth of paint of a nick.

If the paint is runny, are you sure you're shaking the bottle enough -
several minutes if the paint has been sitting for a while. BTW touch-up
paint is only useful for small nicks - I use a toothpick to scrape any crap
out of the hole in the paint first. Obviously it's no use for dents and is
only useful there to prevent rust spreading or for color-fill so that a
blemish is not obvious from a distance.

Rgds, George Macdonald

"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??

 

Make sure you shake the bottle thoroughly before you start. That way
the paint will be well mixed. The other thing is that you should not try
put on too much paint at once. A few thin coats is better than one thick
coat. If you want a better looking repair, build up the paint until it is
just above the surrouding area. Then very carefully sand, 600 wet/dry would
work, the repaired area until is even with the surround area. Then use a
little polisihing compound to blend the whole are. Finally put on some
wax.