Touch Up Questions (1 Viewer)

[ebod]

My LC friend scraped the edge of his door against a wall. The scrape went through the paint, but didn't bend, dent, ding or otherwise change the shape of the metal. The scrape is about 4-5" long/high (going up just in front of the edge of the door) and maybe 1/4" wide.

Before going to a body shop and paying to get it touched up, he wants to see how it looks by touching it up himself. The truck is black so there shouldn't be blending issues.

I have several questions as to how we should approach this. First, should we sand the scrape before we touch it up (currently, its rough/textured because in some places there's still paint and in others there's not). If so, what sandpaper do you recommend? Do we need to put anything under the touch up paint (e.g., primer or something)? In order to keep the paint thickness as consistent as possible, should we put on extra paint and then try to sand it to the same level as the existing paint (again, with what sand paper)? Should we put anything (brush on clear coat if it exists?) over the touch up when it's done? We're pretty certain that our work will look crappy when it's done and that he'll eventually have to go to a body shop, but we don't think that we can do much to make that eventual trip more expensive. Is our thinking on this messed up?

Sorry for the multitude of questions. I've never done any paint work and I'd like to learn a bit to see if I can try a bigger job in the future (Ideally, I'd like to repaint the faded flat section in the middle of the my truck's side trim, but I'm sure I'll have to leave that up to a pro).

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

[highonpottery]

maybe get some red paint/nail polish and paint some blood dripping from the gash? or even paint a band-aid over the wound? lol.

i tried fixing a spot on my rear hatch where the PO hit something under the Toyota script...came out just ok, but now the metal's not exposed and i'm not worried about rust anymore. my rig's silver and i used a Toyota OEM touch-up paint - i did run into some "blending" issues due to original paint faded a few shades. i didn't really take too much precaution trying to fix it other than just trying not to disturb any more of the original paint - I just used the finest sandpaper in my garage (600 i think) and rolled it around a pencil - to rough up the area slightly. i stopped after the first coat because i'm lazy, but eventually plan on 'filling' in the recess a bit more and trying to sand it level. i plan on using some sort of wet-sand method with very fine sandpaper (or even my wife's fancy foam nail file stick thingy). i might even give it a go with a buffer bit on a dremel to see if i can get the paint to level out before clear coating it and repeating the sanding. personally, i'm not too worried about how it looks, just that the metal isn't exposed anymore - my doors are already well pin-striped from manzanita bushes and i plan on adding more scratches and dents sometime down the road - it's a cruiser man, it's supposed to look like it gets used! i was able to get my touch up paint directly at a dealership and got a touch up clear coat as well. i think they were like $20/ea for around 1oz/ea. you can probably get them cheaper from Beno.

if your friend wheels the rig, he's probably not that worried about how it looks - just that the metal's not exposed. that or he knows he's eventually going to the body shop. in that case, definitely try a $20 DIY solution first. for a black rig, you might have more success since it's a darker paint, but then again black typically shows all the little flaws. no matter what process you to to fix just the ding, you'll probably still be able to see it. the only real way to get rid of it would be to take it to a shop where they'll fill it over, sand, and respray the entire body panel - not a very $ friendly fix for something so minor. if you were going to try and tackle the job before resorting to pro's, i'd try to get any loose paint off, then do some localized sanding in the gash with some fine sand paper - then proceed with your touch up paint and try to level it out with more sanding. follow it all up with some clear coat and re-sand. the tricky part is trying not to damage more paint in the process. some pics of the area might help diagnose it. good luck!

 

[ebod]

Thanks Pottery! The LC is pretty clean, but not perfect. Like you say, the important part, at least for now, is ensuring that the metal is covered. If we can get it to look OK from 5-10 feet, we'll consider it a success. I think we'll try the sandpaper on the pencil approach to clean it up/ruff it up. Good suggestion, thanks.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

Paint and Body

 

[jonharis]

Well your "LC Friend" should get a sticker like the one below for his truck. FYI there are dozens of shades of BLACK so don't assume it's that easy. I use Duplicolor NG SF 100 on small chips but have never done anything major.

 

[rusty_tlc]

Touch up paint always looks like touch paint. Unless you have the patience to go through paint-dry-sand-paint-dry-buff process.

It's not like fixing a chipped nail.

If your friend plans to wheel the truck seal the metal to avoid rust and forget about it.

 

[TheFuzz]

If your friend plans to wheel the truck seal the metal to avoid rust and forget about it.

^^This. You are at a little bit of an advantage with black since Toyota black paint is single stage, no clearcoat required...but all that means is you'll save a step. Its never going to look perfect without pro body work. Clean it up, seal the metal and call it a battle scar.