Car Paint Repair

If your looking for information on car paint repair, you have come to the right place.

Whether your a consumer looking for a place to get your car painted, someone just needing some

tips on maintaining your finish, or your looking for touch up paint for your chips,  you will  find answers here.

Let me just say that in today’s world the painting process to refinish automobiles is very

high tech. With the high tech of the car painting process comes automotive finishes that

need to be high tech as well. The days of lacquer paint and inefficient paint guns are gone.

The common misconception of  “just sand it and spray it”  concept is for the the

misinformed.

How can it cost so much just to paint my fender? What I will  do is shed a little light on

the subject and also give you some tips or ideas to repair your own chips, if you choose

to be that ambitious.

There is a wealth of information to be explored which can not all be covered in this one spot, so check back often for more articles being posted on this website.

Here is a basic summary of the paint process for a spot on a panel, somewhat condensed:

1)After the dent or scratch has been repaired, the first process is to “feather” out the edge of the old paint. This means to sand the edge so that the old paint has a gradual step up from the metal to the last paint surface.

2) Mask the surrounding areas with paper, apply filler primer to repaired area. If bare metal is showing, it is a good idea to apply a corrosion protective primer first.

3) Allow to dry. The primer then needs to be sanded with a hand block, generally with a wet sand paper and water.

4) The remaining area of the entire panel then needs to be sanded with a finer grit paper allowing the paint to stick but not too course or the sand scratches will show through.

5) The trim on the panel needs to be removed, which includes door handles, moldings, mirrors, stripes, lights, emblems or anything that is right up against the surface of the paint. We also want to be able to sand the edges of the panel that may be behind a light or molding so there won’t be any evidence or a repaint. This small step makes the difference between an ok job and a true professional.

6) It is a good idea to wash the car after sanding it (or even before you start). After the panel or car has dried, it is time to mask it, isolating the area to be refinished. The entire car must be covered with plastic sheeting to protect it from overspray.

7) The surface of the refinish area must be wiped down with a wax/grease remover and then tacked off to remove any dusk that may have fallen on to the surface. We are ready to spray.

The spray painting process requires 2-4 coats of color to achieve hiding. This is the base coat and requires a protective clear coat on top of it. I will cover the blending and matching issues in a later post. Proper dry times is required between coats. The clearcoat is applied shortly after the basecoat is dried. It is best to let the finish dry overnight before doing anything with it. Some shops have a baking oven which will speed the drying process up to under an hour.

9) During the paint process it is very likely that there could be some dust or dirt that has fallen into the finish. This can be sanded out using a fine paper and a block. The clear coat will then need to be buffed to get the shine back.

10) Replace the trim and the finish is ready to go.

Matching the color is another issue that can be difficult. This will also take time to do.

The reason I explained the above steps is to give you an idea of the paint process. When your talking about car paint repair , the refinishing process needs to be done correctly to obtain results that look like the original paint. Auto body painting is often done incorrectly and is very evident in the final refinish result. If you know what to look for in your car’s finish, then you can request the best repair job done to your automobile. As you can see the process of paint repair is time consuming and does require some work. This is the reason the cost of refinish warranted. Be aware of cheap paint repairs, remember you usually get what you pay for.

2 Responses to “Stay in Tune with Car Paint Repair”