Here's an account of my first paint chip repair and paint detail to my 2003 S2K. I recently purchased the Porter Cable with Menzerna polishes and Lake Country pads, and set out to fill some chips and see if I could get a better look from the paint.

Intro: The car's finish, in my opinion, was very decent to begin with. Light swirls only, and a few chips. Nothing terrible, but I wanted to try my hand at this stuff.

Having read through many posts, FAQ's and stickies here, I stuck to the experiences of others, with some unexpected results. If you're a newb, you may find my experience helpful - I hope so.

Step 1: Wash and dry the car. I use Meguiar's Gold Class car wash. Smells good.

Step 2: Clay bar with Meguiar's clay bar. First time I had ever done this. Very straight forward and simple. Very little gunk picked up by the bar. Only dropped the clay once!

Step 3. Filled the paint chip craters with Honda touch up paint. Most of these took multiple applications with a very fine artist brush. Marked the locations of the chips with painters tape.



Step 4. Attempted to clay bar the touch up paint per the technique described in theTZ99's FAQ sticky. I wasn't getting the results I was looking for, so decided to use his earlier technique of wet sanding down the touch up pimples. (I don't dissuade anyone from using the claybar method. I think it has to do with the paint color. Read on...

Step 5. Waited a few days for the touch up paint to dry, then went to auto paint store to buy 1500 or 2000 grit wet sandpaper. Guy at the store showed me this Mequiar's sanding bar: Just to be different, and it looked interesting, I bought this. They come in different grits - I bought the 2000 grit. Soaked it in water for several days.

Step 6. Very gently sanded down the filled paint pimples with the sanding bar. It wasn't difficult, and did not take much time at all. A couple minutes per pimple.




Step 7. Orange Lake Country pad with PC and Menzerna Intensive polish. My first attempt at using a Porter Cable. Wow! Nice machine!! The sanding circles came right out! Easy, and didn't take a lot of time or effort with the PC. I went around the car and first did all of the sanded paint pimple areas. Then removed my blue and arrows and began..

Step 8: Did the entire car with the Menzerna Intensive polish following the instructions from the great threads on this site.

Step 9. Did the whole car again with white Lake Country pad and Menzerna Super Finish.

Step 10. Getting thirsty for a beer... I digress... Almost done now. Slipped on a big white foam pad that came with my PC, and put a microfiber bonnet over it. Did the whole car with Meguiar's wax.
Done.

What I learned during this process: I was surprised at the results. First, there were two parallel scratches that I was convinced would not come out at all.



These disappeared through the above steps! I'd show a photo of them, but you can't even see them, so there's no point. Second, it's only a theory, but I feel results will vary by what color paint you are filling scratches on. Paint shop guy explained metallics are especially difficult, since you are cutting through tiny flecks of metal when cutting/sanding down the paint fill pimples. One paint chip actually looks exactly the same now as when I started, and it's very weird to run your finger over what appears to be a deep chip, only to feel the surface is perfectly filled and level! That is, the result on this particular chip was no improvement. Here it is after all steps:

Another theory: Is it possible you shouldn't be so precise to 'fill' the chip crater, but instead over fill it??! That is, go beyond the margins of the chip, then sand down but leave a very slight amount above the surface of the paint to conceal this borders of the chip? I'm going to experiment with this.





OK, I can't resist showing off the *real* fun vehicles. (Not clean or detailed though!)

It was a lot of work, and 8 hours of my Saturday, but great experience overall. I'm happy with the results.


That's it for now. Did I earn a Wacko Badge?

 

id say thats wacko warranted work there...great job!

im also curious about the touch up paint job, should i purposely be overfilling rock chips only to sand it down? what about the "clear coat" stuff that they sell as well, do you use that? and will riccardo clay be able to level off the touch up? or do i really need to get sandpaper? how much do you let the blob dry before you try to clay it?

 

Good job Sogno. Thanks for posting.

My process for paint touch up is, to clean, then fill chips using a plastic toothpick ( apply more than a single coat as needed and provide adequate drying time between coats ), use langka blob remover to remove most of the paint blob but still leaving a slight blob, wetsand, compound, polish, finesse.

In terms of overfilling a chip, I personally overfill as I find it's easier to blend the paint used to fill with the factory paint.

Also mettalics are a pain due to the flakes. They float to the top so when you wetsand you're basically removing most of the flakes that's why in some cases you are better off applying really thin layers of paint letting it dry then repeat the process so you can avoid most of the flake float issues.

Riccardo won't be able to level off the paint blob. Try Langka Blob remover.

Again good DIY.

Quick question did you use circular motions to attack the scratches? To attain more evenness try just gliding the sanding block two away directions. So upwards and if your right handed glide the block to your right.

 

very hard to believe that this was your first at so many of the processes... looks like you have been doing this for years- great job, report and pics-
you da wacko !!
(meaning, badge in process)

 

[QUOTE=aznives3,Jun 1 2009, 04:33 PM] id say thats wacko warranted work there...great job!

im also curious about the touch up paint job, should i purposely be overfilling rock chips only to sand it down?

 

Thank you kindly. I appreciate it!

 

Well done, something I will do this summer!

 

nice work, my S has so many chips this would be a week-long project for me!

and i'm loving the 748