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Paint Repair Question for Trouble

Laurie S.

Well-Known Member
Staff member
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Shortly after I brought Trouble home after my friends stopped helping me, I knocked a jackstand against the right rear quarter. I sanded it a bit and put some paint on it to prevent rust, but now I need to really fix it. This is bc/cc and I really don't want to have to repaint the whole quarter, although I'm afraid that's what I will have to do. I did paint the car originally and have all the tools and paint to do it, so that's not a problem.

Any suggestions on how to deal with this? In the pictures you can see the sanded area and where it is on the quarter. Is there any way to blend this in without repainting the whole darn thing. I figure I can do a break at the top of the fender and at the end cap. It's the part forward that I don't want to repaint, if there's another way. I know the trick of putting down tape and pulling it back to avoid a sharp line. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't for me.3179931800
 
I can't help, but what color is trouble exactly? Just curious.

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Thanks. It looks sharp.

I'm still trying to decide on a color for my repaint.

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After the chip is prepped, cleaned, glazed, primed , blocked, you'll have to scuff the clear coat too. The base color only needs full coverage over the repaired area then blended into the existing color / clear coat. Since blending clear on a panel is difficult, most say to do it right, you should clear the entire contiguous panel, (Both full quarters, sail panels, roof and A pillars) . Some say you can break the clear at or near an edge and then carefully wet sand and polish out the line. There are products that are supposed to help with clear blends. I've never tried them. It might be worth investigating them. Definitely do not try to only clear half the quarter panel on anything you care about. At some point, it will be very noticeable.

It might be worthwhile to see if you can get a hold of a junk fender from a modern car (similar color), scuff the clear up to an edge, tape it off and spray a few coats of clear to see how easy / hard it is to blend the clear to make it invisible. Better to learn on a test piece before applying the technique to your car.
 
I would talk to a trusted supplier of the paint and clear originally used and get their advice on the approach to take. They would know best you have to imagine. Just as good would be someone who has sprayed lots of it that they could refer you to.

My kid somehow damaged the paint on the front bumper of the green 2014 mustang I had. Only real bc/cc repair I have ever done that mattered and it was not that hard to make right. When finished it was indistinguishable from the surrounding area. The damage was a little larger than yours. I cleaned it up, sanded, filled with glaze and prepped for paint as normal. I masked far from the actual spray area to protect from overspray really and just kept the actual paint to the general repair area and faded it out. Same with the clear.

It should be noted this was a heavy metallic factory color that had a gold base then green before the clear. I was really worried about matching but a single color mix I bought from TouchUp Direct worked awesome.
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Just ask around what they , the painters , would do. They are the ones who have the experience ( in most cases ) and go that route.
Some spot painters do a great job. I think the paint on Trouble didn't see much sun so the paint isn't much faded and in todays world there is something like a paint color matching tool who duplicates the paint very acurate.
 
The paint isn't faded at all and I still have the original mix. I've kept it inside the house so it is in good condition. I used some of it a couple years ago to repaint the rear valance.
 
Once the chip is repaired to a point where you can't feel it any more, a good painter could air brush a little basecoat over that spot and then airbrush a little clearcoat just past the basecoat. Using a blending solvent with the clear and then buffing it correctly, you might see it, but no one else would. Considering your car doesn't see a lot of sun, that would probably work. However, the better way if you don't want to paint the whole roof and other quarter would be to prep the complete side of the quarter panel (sand with 1000 grit) and then back tape at the top edge and do a clear blend along that top edge. Scuff the top edge of the quarter panel with 1500 grit. Again, repair the chip to where you can't feel it. Then blend the color keeping it as small as possible. Do not let the basecoat go all the way to the tape edge. Then clear the side of the quarter panel. With the clear still wet after the last coat, pull the tape on the upper edge and use a blending solvent to "melt" the edge in. Buff the edge once it's dry. It's easy for me because I'm a painter. If you are going to do it yourself, I'd practice on something else first. Or if you have a painter friend, prep the whole thing and then have him shoot and blend the color and clear.
 
I've been watching some videos on how to do this, and that's what I've decided to do--tape the top edge of the quarter panel and blend the clearcoat to that when done. I'm not going to remove the scoop. I don't think it will be a problem to just tape and cover it. I would have to tear the interior apart to remove it and I don't want to do that. I may end repainting the entire side because there also are a couple chips on the door right on the center edge, and along the wheel molding on the front fender.
 
FWIW...spot blending the "middle" of a 1/4 panel is not an easy task! I'm just being real here. Unless you have a spot on paint color( which doesn't seem to exist anymore) many times you end up with a discolored patch where you paint. Yes, you can " smoke" a blend but that is usually left to areas near the edge of a panel where it can be more easily hidden. I would search locally for an old school body guy and get another opinion before you try what you are about to do. JMO
 
I have a spot on paint color. It's the original paint mix, which I used two years ago to repaint the rear valance and one end cap. It was a perfect match. The paint has been kept inside the house and the car has been garaged,
 
A bit late here but having many years of autobody experience, I'm going to say even with a can of the original paint, the repair will probably be obvious if you just touch up that spot. Not because of color match but because it'll be impossible to get the metallic to lay down the same and refract light the same way. The correct repair would be to repair the chipped area, filling priming and sanding as needed, then spray blend the basecoat over the repair in a larger area and clear coat the entire quarter. The reason for clearing the entire quarter is because clear coat blending on a panel never looks good for very long. Eventually the outer edges of the clear coat blend will develop a hazy halo and look horrible.
 
I will be doing the whole quarter, but not the upper horizontal area up towards the sail panel. I'm going to try and break it at the top.
 
I think you have a good plan. If you backmask at the upper edge of the quarter it'll keep you from having a hard tape line and very little work after spraying at the transition between the new and old finish .
 
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