Paint repairs on a car

[bigbadbugga]

When it comes to painting on a car I'm fairly adept, I have no problems painting a wing or a bonnet and getting a decent finish which matches the existing paint.

Small repairs however are a different matter, how should I go about doing them?

The jobs I'm looking at are mainly the front edge of the bonnet, the area around the number plate on the rear hatch and a few small bubbled stone chips down the sides.

The car is a mk2 golf in met green, I'm mainly concerned with how to tackle the join between the new and old paint. With there being a base and lacquer how do I get the areas to blend?

Or should I just repair and repaint the whole panel?

 

[M@tt]

There's quite a few vids on YouTube for "Smart Paint Repair" which generally deal with repairing and painting small bumps and scrapes rather than whole panel painting

 

[steveo3002]

if its something you plan to keep , then at least clear coat the whole panel

key the whole bonnet /panel with a wet grey scotch pad , can also tickle any peel off with 1200 carefully

keep the repair as local as possible , then mist the colour on until covered , flick the last coat away so the colour fades into the old

then clear the whole panel

i can talk you though losing the clear coat if you want to try it , but chances are you will see the edge after a while , id not try and do it accross a bonnet

 

[langy]

Easiest way to do it is do your repair and prime out just past the repair, then on next coat of primer thin it 50-50 and go slightly further, then repeat with basecoat and lacquer, then flat across the misted edge and polish, the edge will dissapear.
If your not experienced you should use Steve's method or it might go horribly wrong.

 

[bigbadbugga]

I was considering doing all the local repairs first, then flatting down and clear coating the whole car later on.

Steveo3002, your way makes the most sense to me, so I think that's what I'll do.

I have to change the n/s wing as well, so I think I'll utilise the old wing to do a few practice repairs before tackling the car it's self.

 

[steveo3002]

yeah for the added cup full of clear it will make a much nicer job and should last well

 

[norsa]

What everyone else says, building up the layers and increasing in size with each one but i use blending clear to do locals repairs. It is a special clear extra slow thinner which is whisked on within flash off time of your outer edge of clear coat and takes out the dry edge.
This works very well for solids colours but you need to bear in mind that with metalics and mica's (especially on a horizontal panel) you will need to spray out your base coat quite wide to get a colour blend so i would in your case clear the entire bonnet. It does however work a treat on solids and with met's on vertical panels/corners of bumpers etc.
Nick.