Question about touch-up paint

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MrTransAm

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I have a paint chip on my car, pretty small, if I use touch up paint on it is there anyway I can level it out without buying a kit or wetsanding? Would claying or swirl remover with a cutting pad work? I dont want to spend 40 or more for 1 paint chip, and ive never wetsanded before and dont plan on learning on my pride and joy.

Also I am using touch up paint from gm.

Thanks in advance for any help.
 
Two simple answers, no and no, but welcome to AG. How big is the chip? If it's small use a touch up brush or a toothpick to fill the chip. Do this in several thin coats and let dry completely between coats (days). If you take your time you may be able to get it pretty level without wet sanding. As the paint dries it will shrink. It won't look perfect, but better to protect the metal than leaving it alone. Good luck.
 
level it out, probably not. make it look nearly level, yes. if the chip is round you can use touch up and drip a smaller drop than the chip into the center of the chip and it will level itself out around to the edge of the chip. if its not round that process will be more difficult. body shop supply stores sell single sheets of paper for less than $1 each. 1 sheet of 1500 and one sheet of 2000 and a few drops of compound and polish to make it perfect.
 
I touch up some chips on my Ford Escape. I used regular touch up paint that I got from a body shop. I cleaned up the scratch with brake clean and applied with a little brush . I let it dry for 15 minutes , and bunch up a Viva paper towel . I sprayed the paper towel with brake clean , and lightly rubbed over the new paint in the chip , and it removed the excess paint and left the paint in the chip. Brake clean worked for me . It seems that its stronger then mineral spirits , but not as strong as lacquer thinner. I dabed the chip and then I smeared with my thumb let sit 15 minutes and removed with brake clean You may have to let the paint dry a little longer.This is just like DR Color Chip.
 
Do light coats with a toothpick like suggested. Another option is get something like a playing card and if you put on too much paint just level it out with the playing card.
 
I' ve gotten very nice results with Langka blob eliminator . I like the idea of using my Mfg. touch up paint unlike Dr. C Chip. Though I' ve read that Dr. C. is superior for very fine road rash type chips.
 
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Dogfather said:
I' ve gotten very nice results with Langka blob eliminator . I like the idea of using my Mfg. touch up paint unlike Dr. C Chip. Though I' ve read that Dr. C. is superior for very fine road rash type chips.
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Wish I could say the same about Langka..tried several times and threw it away.
 
Rsurfer said:
Wish I could say the same about Langka..tried several times and threw it away.
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For me there was a learning curve. I had a tendency to wipe the blob one too many times until I pulled it out altogether. Tried again by applying a blob one day, then another the next after first one dried completely and shrunk. Then I made sure I didn' t get carried away with eliminator.
 
Dogfather said:
For me there was a learning curve. I had a tendency to wipe the blob one too many times until I pulled it out altogether. Tried again by applying a blob one day, then another the next after first one dried completely and shrunk. Then I made sure I didn' t get carried away with eliminator.
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Did all that...even let the 4 coats cure for a month and it still pulled the paint. Maybe your last sentence is the trick. Dunno.
 
Rsurfer said:
Wish I could say the same about Langka..tried several times and threw it away.
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I have to say the same, that my experiences with langka were difficult at best.

You're wiping and wiping, you're starting to see the blob become leveled, then one wipe too much, and you've virtually eliminated your entire efforts of touch up. It's crap IMO.

About all it's good for, removing old touch up paint.
 
I'm thinking what i will have to do is just wetsand it. I dont want to buy one of those kits just for one chip. thanks for all the replies guys!
 
Re-thinking what I wrote earlier about Langka, I might have been wrong to totally condemn this product.

That there is a possibility of good use of this product by using it in combination with wet sanding?

That Langka can possibly be used to first take down some of the paint blob, then perhaps one can finish with wet sanding, and then only need a very small amount of sanding to correctly level the touch up?

I've never tried this myself, but would like to, as I do have two small bottles of Langka on hand, bought some years ago.

At least with Langka, I believe one can then use any off the shelf touch up paints.

As I conclude these last comments of mine, I'd like also saying that I'm no master at touch up (although I wish I was much better)

Achieving a very high level of great touch up work is virtually an art onto itself, one that takes a combination of patience, experience, knowledge, and the right tools-products on hand. Mark
 
Someone on here offered an idea using a wine cork for sanding, worked great!
 
Just a wine cork? I wouldn't have thought of that as abrasive.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2
 
I could be wrong, but I think it was Mike Phillips who advised about the use of a Wine Cork. But the tip is to attach a piece of sandpaper to the end.

The questions I myself thought after reading about this, is how does one attach the paper to the cork? What adhesives, that aren't going to break down in the presence of water? Help! :-)
Mark
 
MarkD51 said:
I could be wrong, but I think it was Mike Phillips who advised about the use of a Wine Cork. But the tip is to attach a piece of sandpaper to the end.

The questions I myself thought after reading about this, is how does one attach the paper to the cork? What adhesives, that aren't going to break down in the presence of water? Help! :-)
Mark
Click to expand...

I'd also like to know. I've used a pink pencil eraser with sandpaper folded onto it. Worked pretty good for me until they tape that I put around the touch up paint began to disintegrate from the sandpaper abrading it.
 
Given that piece of info, maybe hot glue?

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2
 
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