Touching up car paint

stevewestern

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My car bonnet has a few decent sized chips - the biggest is over a centimetre across and starting to rust.
I fancy having a go at respraying it, but know nothing at all about the finishing part (I can prep and paint)
Can any of you detailing experts point me towards a cheap starter kit of sander/polisher with pads and pastes - I can't see me doing this often enough to warrant spending lots, but know that as with most things you get what you pay for but ideally a kit with small bottles of the various pastes just to get me started..
 
Steve, I have done a couple of dozen full resprays and numerous panels/repairs in the past. There are various types of paint which you could use depending on the finish (solid or metallic, clear lacquer on top or not). There is no way that I would even consider spraying a full bonnet with aerosols, so that just leaves compressor and spray gun, which means buying a good cartridge respirator mask (£20 to £70) or preferably an air fed mask (£100 to £200). It also pays to practice a lot before you do the important job, because technique (distance and speed of pass, overlap, paint viscosity) is all important to avoid orange peel/runs/dry spray etc.
The prep needs to be top class, so that even the primer coat when sanded should be blemish free.
As for finishing, I would use Farecla products (available from most paint suppliers) because I have never had a problem with them.

https://www.farecla.com/

This seems quite a good polisher, and should last years.

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/cla...MI072fkqbk2wIVClXTCh0nBwecEAQYAiABEgK-kvD_BwE
 
I would have to agree with @andy700 even years ago I used to do bits of spraying and it is really hard to get a good finish with cans.
maybe do your own prep filling and sanding then get a local car repair place to spray it.
 
Steve, I have done a couple of dozen full resprays and numerous panels/repairs in the past. There are various types of paint which you could use depending on the finish (solid or metallic, clear lacquer on top or not). There is no way that I would even consider spraying a full bonnet with aerosols, so that just leaves compressor and spray gun, which means buying a good cartridge respirator mask (£20 to £70) or preferably an air fed mask (£100 to £200). It also pays to practice a lot before you do the important job, because technique (distance and speed of pass, overlap, paint viscosity) is all important to avoid orange peel/runs/dry spray etc.
The prep needs to be top class, so that even the primer coat when sanded should be blemish free.
As for finishing, I would use Farecla products (available from most paint suppliers) because I have never had a problem with them.

https://www.farecla.com/

This seems quite a good polisher, and should last years.

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/cla...MI072fkqbk2wIVClXTCh0nBwecEAQYAiABEgK-kvD_BwE

I would have to agree with @andy700 even years ago I used to do bits of spraying and it is really hard to get a good finish with cans.
maybe do your own prep filling and sanding then get a local car repair place to spray it.

Thank you both for such helpful replies - might I get away with just spraying the affected area rather than the whole bonnet, or am I being foolish. Car is only a Citroën berlingo used for lugging tools up and down motorways so I'm not expecting top notch results, but having sprayed a few walls with an airless sprayer the idea appeals, as does spending a sunny afternoon with a polishing machine (and a beer..?)
 
I'd do the whole bonnet and see how it goes... Probably no financial advantage to it but if you enjoy the opportunity to learn something new, have fun :)

Get it well prepared, get a dust and moisture free area (insofar as possible) and take your time...
 
Thank you both for such helpful replies - might I get away with just spraying the affected area rather than the whole bonnet, or am I being foolish. Car is only a Citroën berlingo used for lugging tools up and down motorways so I'm not expecting top notch results, but having sprayed a few walls with an airless sprayer the idea appeals, as does spending a sunny afternoon with a polishing machine (and a beer..?)

You will never blend it in well. Probably it will make it worse. It is all or nothing job. I had a go at respraying tripod and wheel caps and even that didn't go exactly to plan and would not pass close examination.
If it is a rough work's van just apply some Halford's touch up paint pens to stop it rusting further.

If anything a better alternative is getting it all level and applying vinyl wrap at the affected part or the whole car and then you can have some of your business logos. Bonnet cover is one of the easier parts to do. I wouldn't fancy doing the bumpers though.
 
I would have to agree with @andy700 even years ago I used to do bits of spraying and it is really hard to get a good finish with cans.
maybe do your own prep filling and sanding then get a local car repair place to spray it.

I don't know if it is the paint itself or the actual spray cans, but when I have used Ford's spray cans, I have been able to get a great finish that didn't require any finishing. Not tried anything the size of a bonnet but I did use spray cans on the underside of a Mk4 Cortina boot lid and it came out just fine. But if I used spray cans from an accessory shop, the nozzles would often spit and splatter and invariably end up with a crap finish.
Of course this isn't much help if you don't own a Ford.
As said above just do all the prep work yourself then get a body shop to paint it for you. If all they need to do is spray it, I doubt it would cost more than £100.
 
if your looking to do a cheap touch up repair as already said get a touch up kit and carefully fill the stone chips in
there are various methods to actually getting the touch up paint where you want it a popular method on small chips is to use a cocktail stick rather than the supplied brush
if the car has a clear coat and the clear coat is supplied with the touch up kit as well as the colour, pouring a little out of both ( touch up and clear coat ) into / onto something and mixing them together before you apply the paint to the chip can give good results
once your happy with the freshly painted stone chips and the paint has dried using a bit of scratch remover / polish can blend the chips in for a better finish

takes a little time but it's cheap :)

don't bother with rattle cans unless you are quite confident with them, the chances of getting a colour match off the shelf is almost zero and wherever you spray it will show a mile off
you could try one of the car paint suppliers that make up rattle cans to the colour of your car but by the time you have finished with sanding / prep and primer you probably heading towards the cost of a back street garage giving the bonnet a quick spray

keep in mind a bonnet is quite a large area and to tackle one with rattle cans in all but perfect circumstances your gonna struggle ( slightly better chance with made up cans ) the spray pattern is small and the amount of paint you can layer on without runs is pretty thin

buying a compressor and all that goes with it just to spray a bonnet is not really an option financially unless you intend using it for other purposes

you could wrap the bonnet which hides stone chips rather well
did this myself on a bonnet ( took 2 attempts :( ) with carbon wrap but ended up fixing the stone chips with a carbon bonnet instead :)

for stone chips i would go the touch up method
it's cheap and can give pretty good results if you get a good colour match and can flatten the touch up to the existing paint it looks far better than trying to spray over the stone chips with a rattle can

iv'e even considered getting another same colour bonnet from a scrappers before now but you have to get it when the car comes in before it gets damaged by the usual scrap yard antics or it will end up worse than the one you already have

done a lot with rattle cans over the years, great for small items not so much for large areas
 
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Hmmph.
So much for my plan of a sunny afternoon with a polisher and a beer then.
Wrap does seem to be the logical way to go, though I will do some filling and prime the rusty bits first, but to give it a try.
The vehicle really doesn't get much love, aside from the annual hoover and rinse with fairy liquid (I'm joking) so the cheapest option is likely to be the best, especially as I've just had to have the stereo fixed, which has swallowed the car budget for the rest of the year..

OK, so where does one buy wrap in small quantities then ?
 
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Gloss-Vi...hash=item4afbdbcd14:m:mAshxzBuphcASOuoajfpBbA

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Matt-Car-Vinyl-Wrap-Air-Channel-Film-Multi-Sizes-All-Colours-Available/263675619727?_trkparms=aid=555017&algo=PL.CASSINI&ao=1&asc=20151005190540&meid=4807862ccd3943d0a6e106c544a223bb&pid=100505&rk=1&rkt=1&&itm=263675619727&_trksid=p2045573.c100505.m3226

or amazon

measure the size of your bonnet and make sure the piece you buy is bigger not the right fit so to speak

there's load of youtube vids on the subject watch a few to get an idea of what you need and what to do
no need for a heat gun or a gas torch a decent hair dryer works nicely

oh and if you decide on a 3d/4d/5d vinyl or a matt vinyl don't try to polish it
 
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