(S) Touch-up paint problems

Hello all!

Alas - city living means small scratches in paintwork occur regularly. Fiat's own official touchup paint (which I bought a while a go and was admittedly very cheap) is, at least in my amateur hands, absolute rubbish. For a start though the barcode matched the car's, the colours are not the same. This may mean my car had a respray at some point I suppose. But that isnt the real problem. The paint dries with a terrible speckled, chalky finish, and it is incredibly hard to avoid brush marks.

Any tips to remove touch up paint that I've put on that looks worse than the scratch!, and tips on touching up (products and technique) would be highly appreciated!

Amazing really - just as I get the car mechanically sweeter than it's ever been, styling issues begin to niggle. Oh, the toils of loving Italian cars...

Many thanks

Simon

remove the touch up paint using thinner (thinner for use with cellulose paint will not damage the original paint)

when applying touch up paint you must not use the brush that comes with the touch up kit. you need to go to an artsist supply store and buy a few different sizes brushes, all very small.

when applying, less is more, you should not cover good paint, this is why you need a very fine brush. you need to apply as little paint as possible.

once it dries fully (3days min) you will have a rough surface. this is very noticable. you will need to make the surface flat and smooth. to do that you need 2000grade wet&dry paper. use it wet, and only use it on the touch up paint. if you prefer you can mask off the original paint with masking tape. give the touch up paint gentle fast circular motions with the wet&dry (used wet!) until it is flat with the original paint. this may take time, but its worth it.

now you have a flat surface you should use some t-cut to to remove any fine scratches, i find original t-cut followed by colour t-cut followed by a good wax leaves the surface looking very good. the flat surface makes the damage far less noticbale, and makes the colour match much better since light will reflect in a similar way on both original and touch up paint.

its a lot of work, but its better that slopping a load of paint on your car, and its a lot cheaper than a respray.

Thanks! Any idea what would be a good paint to use - the original toucher is the wrong shade anyway.

Cheers

Lol - that's a good one

Remember to take into account the age of your own cars paint, its not clear what car you own or how old it is, however it will have faded slightly no doubt, especially if its outside for long periods of time

Getting old faded paint to match with brand new paint is nigh on impossible straight away. You may have to T-cut the vehicle and polish it a few times to get a decent match