Car Touch Up?

[Keebler Elf]

With winter (and salt season) coming on strong, I thought I should probably touch up those deep scratches on my car. I realize it's just a touch-up and won't fix the problem (nor do I care to get it properly repaired since it's getting on in years), but I was just wondering if anyone has any good tips on how to do touch-ups on a car? I figure I should clean the scratches first (rubbing alcohol?), then apply the paint.

 

[oldjones]

Although you want to spray outdoors because of fumes, at this time of year, it's too cold for good results. Get the car and paint up to at least conventional room temperature range—give them time to warm up if you're brining them in just for the job—and see they they stay warm through out the process and the drying.

If it's a scratches-only job and neatness doesn't count, you may be happier w/ the bottle and brush paints your dealer and CTC sell. No overspray and they'll give you a thicker coat faster on the nasty bits. If the paint fails because of temperature or whatever, it'll be a smaller area going bad.

 

[tboy]

Couple of questions: Do these scratches go deeper than the clear coat (many cars these days have a clear coat applied over the colour coat)? Have they penetrated past the colour layer to the primer? Do they go right to the bare metal?

Depending on which or how far they go, there are various things you can do:
1) If it is just the clear coat, you can probably just buff it out with rubbing compound.
2) If the colour layer is marked but not penetrated you could probably spray some clear lacquer over the scratch after a light sanding with 400 grit wet sandpaper. If you're doing this you are trying to feather out the edges of the scratch so that you have a smooth indent as opposed to a gouge.
3) If you see bare metal you will have to feather the whole mess out. Remember you don't want to paint over the clear coat or put primer over the colour. If you just have a colour coat then you will have to sand that away until you see only primer, apply the primer over the bare metal, then when that's dry, apply the colour over that.

If you're going to use one of those colour markers (from canadian tire) only use it if the scratch doesn't go down to the bare metal. They don't adhere well to bare steel. If the scratch doesn't go to bare metal fill the scratch with the marker (so the colour is higher or thicker than the original paint) then you can feather it down with 400 or 1000 grit sandpaper and polish the whole area with rubbing compound.

 

[Keebler Elf]

I was going to use the touch up paint that comes with the little brush; not spray paint.

It does indeed go right down to bare metal.

But yeah, neatness doesn't count. I don't want to do a horrendous job, but I don't care if you can tell there's a scratch either. I'm more concerned with rust than with aesthetics.

 

[tboy]

Well, the paint in those little tubes is rather thick so make sure you fill the scratch completely. You can still feather it out a bit so that it isn't so apparent.

As posted, make sure the paint and the car is warm before doing any of this. If you have a heated garage leave it there for a couple of hours. If you don't, you can always take it to an underground parking garage while you go shopping then do it after.

 

[tnickp]

just a tip for using those little bottles. put a few drops of paint thinner to thin the paint out, and if you're touching up scratches, instead of using the brush thats in the bottle, try taking a matchbook, tear a match off, and use the torn end of the match on your scratch. it's much finer for scratches and won't glob the paint on like the supplied brush!