how to remove touch up paint high spots?
09-09-2016, 10:34 AM
#1
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
how to remove touch up paint high spots?
When I bought my C5 the previous owner made several road chip tough-up paint repairs. As usual, the small repairs and slightly higher. I plan to install a 3M type clear bra and I am not sure how well the clear bra will look or work with all the small high spots from the paint chip touch-ups.
I am considering redoing the existing paint chip repairs using Dr. Color Chip product. But first, I need to eliminate the many paint chip repair high spots
Question -
I am not a bodywork person so, I have no comfort level taking sand paper to my paint surface. How can I take down the many existing touch-up high spots without sanding?
I am considering redoing the existing paint chip repairs using Dr. Color Chip product. But first, I need to eliminate the many paint chip repair high spots
Question -
I am not a bodywork person so, I have no comfort level taking sand paper to my paint surface. How can I take down the many existing touch-up high spots without sanding?
09-09-2016, 12:52 PM
#2
Burning Brakes
There is no level of comfort for ANYBODY when they take there first piece of sand paper to perfectly good paint
BUT... it's the easiest, quickest, and most likely the most preferred way to knock this out. Baby steps, start with a piece of 2500 grit. It really is hard to do any serious damage with this grit doing such a small thing. Personally, I'd use a more aggressive grit, but I'm trying to build up your confidence here. Soak your sand paper in water for about an hour. Cut a 1 or 2" piece off of a paint stick. Cut and wrap a piece of sand paper around the stick and bend up all edges to get rid of any corner "sharp points" of the sand paper corners. Get a spray bottle with water and a few drops of dish soap. Wet the area where the touch up paint is high and do some light sanding on it. Focusing on what you know is the high spot. Keep it wet and check it regularly. You will see the "high" area start to dull. Wet, sand, check, repeat... You'll be surprised how long it takes to knock this down with 2500 grit. When you see the dull area start to spread to the surrounding paint... you've got it knocked down The 2500 won't hurt your factory paint at all with this method. Then, since it's such a small area, you could polish it out by hand with a polishing compound of sorts... or buff it out in no time, but not being a body guy like you stated I'm assuming you don't wheel around a buffer much either. Don't be scared! Once you get the hang of this you'll probably re-do all the chip repairs when you find the "low" spots in them after sanding. But that's a whole different topic. Give it a shot and please ask any questions you come up with. There are MANY great minds in this sections that can help with everything paint. Good luck.
Yeah, I know, you said not to recommend this to you... but it's a lot more simple than one thinks. Take care. Jason
BUT... it's the easiest, quickest, and most likely the most preferred way to knock this out. Baby steps, start with a piece of 2500 grit. It really is hard to do any serious damage with this grit doing such a small thing. Personally, I'd use a more aggressive grit, but I'm trying to build up your confidence here. Soak your sand paper in water for about an hour. Cut a 1 or 2" piece off of a paint stick. Cut and wrap a piece of sand paper around the stick and bend up all edges to get rid of any corner "sharp points" of the sand paper corners. Get a spray bottle with water and a few drops of dish soap. Wet the area where the touch up paint is high and do some light sanding on it. Focusing on what you know is the high spot. Keep it wet and check it regularly. You will see the "high" area start to dull. Wet, sand, check, repeat... You'll be surprised how long it takes to knock this down with 2500 grit. When you see the dull area start to spread to the surrounding paint... you've got it knocked down
The 2500 won't hurt your factory paint at all with this method. Then, since it's such a small area, you could polish it out by hand with a polishing compound of sorts... or buff it out in no time, but not being a body guy like you stated I'm assuming you don't wheel around a buffer much either. Don't be scared! Once you get the hang of this you'll probably re-do all the chip repairs when you find the "low" spots in them after sanding. But that's a whole different topic. Give it a shot and please ask any questions you come up with. There are MANY great minds in this sections that can help with everything paint. Good luck. Yeah, I know, you said not to recommend this to you... but it's a lot more simple than one thinks. Take care. Jason
09-09-2016, 06:07 PM
#3
Race Director
****SANDING TIP or TRICK*****
When you have a speck of trash...or in this case is a blob of paint. DEPENDING on how large it is....what I do....is tear a strip of my sandpaper.... and I also go a bit more aggressive in the grit...but regardless of that.
I tear a strip about 1 inch wide the full length of my paper. While holding on ONE end of the strip of WET/DRY sandpaper....I place my fingertip on the speck...and I CONTROL the amount of pressure on the speck..and then pull the sandpaper while doing this until the sandpaper comes out. I do this until i get it how I want it.
Sometimes it needs nothing but a light buffing and I am done. I like it this way due to keeping the sanding restricted tot just the speck ( or touch-up spot in this scenario) itself and not all around it.....sometimes I sand it with the paint stick method to get it perfectly flat and then buff it.
YES..I am doing this with the paper being WET. It can also be done DRY. But a lot of that depends on how cured the paint is.
DUB
When you have a speck of trash...or in this case is a blob of paint. DEPENDING on how large it is....what I do....is tear a strip of my sandpaper.... and I also go a bit more aggressive in the grit...but regardless of that.
I tear a strip about 1 inch wide the full length of my paper. While holding on ONE end of the strip of WET/DRY sandpaper....I place my fingertip on the speck...and I CONTROL the amount of pressure on the speck..and then pull the sandpaper while doing this until the sandpaper comes out. I do this until i get it how I want it.
Sometimes it needs nothing but a light buffing and I am done. I like it this way due to keeping the sanding restricted tot just the speck ( or touch-up spot in this scenario) itself and not all around it.....sometimes I sand it with the paint stick method to get it perfectly flat and then buff it.
YES..I am doing this with the paper being WET. It can also be done DRY. But a lot of that depends on how cured the paint is.
DUB
09-09-2016, 07:45 PM
#4
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
There is no level of comfort for ANYBODY when they take there first piece of sand paper to perfectly good paint
BUT... it's the easiest, quickest, and most likely the most preferred way to knock this out. Baby steps, start with a piece of 2500 grit. It really is hard to do any serious damage with this grit doing such a small thing. Personally, I'd use a more aggressive grit, but I'm trying to build up your confidence here. Soak your sand paper in water for about an hour. Cut a 1 or 2" piece off of a paint stick. Cut and wrap a piece of sand paper around the stick and bend up all edges to get rid of any corner "sharp points" of the sand paper corners. Get a spray bottle with water and a few drops of dish soap. Wet the area where the touch up paint is high and do some light sanding on it. Focusing on what you know is the high spot. Keep it wet and check it regularly. You will see the "high" area start to dull. Wet, sand, check, repeat... You'll be surprised how long it takes to knock this down with 2500 grit. When you see the dull area start to spread to the surrounding paint... you've got it knocked down The 2500 won't hurt your factory paint at all with this method. Then, since it's such a small area, you could polish it out by hand with a polishing compound of sorts... or buff it out in no time, but not being a body guy like you stated I'm assuming you don't wheel around a buffer much either. Don't be scared! Once you get the hang of this you'll probably re-do all the chip repairs when you find the "low" spots in them after sanding. But that's a whole different topic. Give it a shot and please ask any questions you come up with. There are MANY great minds in this sections that can help with everything paint. Good luck.
Yeah, I know, you said not to recommend this to you... but it's a lot more simple than one thinks. Take care. Jason
BUT... it's the easiest, quickest, and most likely the most preferred way to knock this out. Baby steps, start with a piece of 2500 grit. It really is hard to do any serious damage with this grit doing such a small thing. Personally, I'd use a more aggressive grit, but I'm trying to build up your confidence here. Soak your sand paper in water for about an hour. Cut a 1 or 2" piece off of a paint stick. Cut and wrap a piece of sand paper around the stick and bend up all edges to get rid of any corner "sharp points" of the sand paper corners. Get a spray bottle with water and a few drops of dish soap. Wet the area where the touch up paint is high and do some light sanding on it. Focusing on what you know is the high spot. Keep it wet and check it regularly. You will see the "high" area start to dull. Wet, sand, check, repeat... You'll be surprised how long it takes to knock this down with 2500 grit. When you see the dull area start to spread to the surrounding paint... you've got it knocked down
The 2500 won't hurt your factory paint at all with this method. Then, since it's such a small area, you could polish it out by hand with a polishing compound of sorts... or buff it out in no time, but not being a body guy like you stated I'm assuming you don't wheel around a buffer much either. Don't be scared! Once you get the hang of this you'll probably re-do all the chip repairs when you find the "low" spots in them after sanding. But that's a whole different topic. Give it a shot and please ask any questions you come up with. There are MANY great minds in this sections that can help with everything paint. Good luck. Yeah, I know, you said not to recommend this to you... but it's a lot more simple than one thinks. Take care. Jason
In another communication (not here), it was suggested that I use some Acetone on a Q-tip to remove enough touch-up paint to level with the original paint. Any way this could work?
Thanks.
09-09-2016, 08:03 PM
#5
Burning Brakes
In another communication (not here), it was suggested that I use some Acetone on a Q-tip to remove enough touch-up paint to level with the original paint. Any way this could work?...
I'm following the theory and suppose it could work but I see the potential for more damage than sand paper with it. Essentially your melting the paint back to liquid form with the acetone to remove some of it. You also risk melting your original paint or worse yet, causing some sort of paint removing reaction in the area. Plus, if it were to work, my guess would be that you'd have a dip there now instead of a high spot. It'd be hard to get it flat with a q tip. With sand paper you can see and feel the area and get it to where you want it without the risk of having left the acetone on too long and bubbling your paint. Plus, you're handy with the polisher already
I'm following the theory and suppose it could work but I see the potential for more damage than sand paper with it. Essentially your melting the paint back to liquid form with the acetone to remove some of it. You also risk melting your original paint or worse yet, causing some sort of paint removing reaction in the area. Plus, if it were to work, my guess would be that you'd have a dip there now instead of a high spot. It'd be hard to get it flat with a q tip. With sand paper you can see and feel the area and get it to where you want it without the risk of having left the acetone on too long and bubbling your paint. Plus, you're handy with the polisher already
09-17-2016, 09:20 PM
#6
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
In another communication (not here), it was suggested that I use some Acetone on a Q-tip to remove enough touch-up paint to level with the original paint. Any way this could work?...
I'm following the theory and suppose it could work but I see the potential for more damage than sand paper with it. Essentially your melting the paint back to liquid form with the acetone to remove some of it. You also risk melting your original paint or worse yet, causing some sort of paint removing reaction in the area. Plus, if it were to work, my guess would be that you'd have a dip there now instead of a high spot. It'd be hard to get it flat with a q tip. With sand paper you can see and feel the area and get it to where you want it without the risk of having left the acetone on too long and bubbling your paint. Plus, you're handy with the polisher already
I'm following the theory and suppose it could work but I see the potential for more damage than sand paper with it. Essentially your melting the paint back to liquid form with the acetone to remove some of it. You also risk melting your original paint or worse yet, causing some sort of paint removing reaction in the area. Plus, if it were to work, my guess would be that you'd have a dip there now instead of a high spot. It'd be hard to get it flat with a q tip. With sand paper you can see and feel the area and get it to where you want it without the risk of having left the acetone on too long and bubbling your paint. Plus, you're handy with the polisher already
After several careful experiments, it turned out that the Acetone on a Q-tip method worked extremely well. Yes it is tedious work. But, it is giving me the results I was looking for without using sandpaper. This works with both very small and larger paint chip repairs, and brings the high spots down slightly below the original paint finish. Leaving more than enough indentation for the squeegee technique that comes with the Dr Color Chip to fill the chip no higher than the original paint surface. The trick is to use just enough fluid to work on the existing touch-up paint while not using too much such that the fluid runs or pools. Also, Q-tips with tight tips are better than Q-tips with large fluffy tips.
I am doing all this in preparation for clear bra paint protection installation. I did not want to install the paint protection fill with all the high spots in the paint. When the Dr Color Chip product arrives, I will know if this was all a vain effort.