Touch Up Car Paint
If you were involved in a small incident with your car and it needs a little bit of paintwork, there are plenty of stores out there that sell touch up car paint. We all love our cars and want them to look as beautiful as possible, but not many of us know how to apply this type of paint. With this article I’ll try to explain how to repair paint problems.
First of all, you’ll need to take a closer look at the exterior of the car and identify those areas that you will be fixing. It would be advisable to write down all the areas so that when you start fixing them, you’ll remember where to look.
Taking into consideration the color pattern of your car, you’ll need to search for the appropriate paint at websites, paint companies, car dealerships and other places where they sell such products. In most of the cases, the paint comes in aerosol cans; touch up bottles and applicators with a brush on the end. If you need to fix a large area of paint, you should use a pint or a quart can specific to your auto maker’s shade chart. Most of the retailers out there that sell car paint have it in these sizes.
In order to prepare the car for the paint job, you must wash it thoroughly and wait until it is completely dry. It is advisable to use a reducer that will allow you to thoroughly clean and rid the area of mineral deposits and dirt that could affect the adhesion of the paint you will be applying. The reducer will also break down any wax on the finish of the car that can affect the adhesion of the paint to the vehicle’s metal body.
After that, you must lightly sand the area that needs fixing with special sandpaper that is made from car paint. This is a pen holder for sandpaper also known as a “nick sander.” For minor scratches, it would be wise to use an artist brush which is very thin so that you can get into the groove of the scratch and diminish the amount of paint used.
It is recommended to add a clear coat layer in order to allow the paint repair to have a base, especially if you are dealing with large areas. Taking into consideration the fact that the process varies from brand to band, pay close attention to the directions of the product you bought. The process of using touch up car paint can be a little bit difficult and what makes it even more complex is that each product has certain guidelines to follow.
If you want to do a spot test in order to find out how the paint will look, it is best to use a hidden area of the car. In this test you must use the base coat so that you will be able to gauge the degree of gloss. You must use straight and even patterns with a back and forth motion. The first spray and the edge of the second one should be overlapped by approximately ½ of the original width, some people recommend that a third spray should be applied, it is up to you to decide that. After you have finished the job, you should apply some wax to give it a shiny look. The wax will also protect the car from debilitating oxidation such as rust.
If you notice that the paint isn’t glossy enough, you should try heating up the area by using a hair dryer. You now should have a shinier and smoother finish. Needless to say that you shouldn’t be using car paint when there is a high level of humidity. If you haven’t done this at all and you are afraid of overspraying, there are many products that can help you protect the areas that you don’t want to spray. For removing overspray from glass you should use fine steel wool.
One last piece of advice would be to avoid purchasing touch up car paint from auto part stores as these don’t sell quality paint products. This is not the place where to save a couple of bucks – if you want quality, you’ll need to pay for it and auto part shops don’t have such products, they only have run-of-the-mill paint products.
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