[Lotus99]

So this huge pebble hit my hood and put a serious dent in it and it was down to the bare metal. I took it into this body shop that did great work on my car when some moron had backed into it, and they brought in their mobile paintless dent removal guy, to take care of it, and then as a favour do the touch up too.

But now that I pick up the car, I see the dent has been beautifully removed, though the person doing the touch up put a huge blob of paint on it... I've had touchups done before where the surface of the touched up paint was even with the surrounding paint even, but this looks pretty bad...

Is it something that can be fixed somewhat easily, or am I screwed? Can my detailer at least lessen the ugliness maybe with polish or something?

Help!

Haven't snapped a pic yet, but if it helps, I can do that.

[cb1111]

Pictures always help.

[Lotus99]

Originally Posted by cb1111

Pictures always help.

Ok, will take a few tonight and post them.

But in a nutshell, my question is if someone has put a blob of paint on your car and it's dried, can it be fixed after? Not sure how the size of the blob would affect the solution of if it can be fixed or not? Imagine the blob of paint as being higher in height than the surrounding OEM paint. Sometimes, if you don't put enough of the touchup paint, it can be lower, but in my case, it's higher and thicker.

[cb1111]

Originally Posted by Lotus99

Ok, will take a few tonight and post them.

But in a nutshell, my question is if someone has put a blob of paint on your car and it's dried, can it be fixed after? Not sure how the size of the blob would affect the solution of if it can be fixed or not? Imagine the blob of paint as being higher in height than the surrounding OEM paint. Sometimes, if you don't put enough of the touchup paint, it can be lower, but in my case, it's higher and thicker.

A good detailer would sand it down then polish it to blend as well as possible.

[Lotus99]

Originally Posted by cb1111

A good detailer would sand it down then polish it to blend as well as possible.

Thanks, I managed to get a hold of him tonight, and he said the same thing, that a gentle wet sand and polish should hopefully fix some of it. Keeping my fingers crossed...

[MuttGrunt]

Too easy.

Touch-up paint is lacquer paint - so basically it's like nail polish. Lacquer thinner should work to remove the ugly spot. Wet-sanding and polishing is possible as well, but I'd recommend to remove the ugliness first, then properly layer the touch up paint, and finally do a wet-sand and polish for a much better finish / result.

Good luck!

[Lotus99]

Originally Posted by MuttGrunt

Too easy.

Touch-up paint is lacquer paint - so basically it's like nail polish. Lacquer thinner should work to remove the ugly spot. Wet-sanding and polishing is possible as well, but I'd recommend to remove the ugliness first, then properly layer the touch up paint, and finally do a wet-sand and polish for a much better finish / result.

Good luck!

Hmmm... hadn't thought of that! Thanks. Since it's a body shop though, they might not have used the OEM touch up paint, but rather the same stuff they normally use to paint cars with. Would that matter?

They did tell me though that if I was going to touch up any paint chips in future (they gave me a small bottle from the last time they painted the car) that I needed to put clear nail polish on it after, as these new paints are water based, so hopefully what you say will work!

[MuttGrunt]

^ you're saying this shop might have made a batch of paint up just to touch-up your car? I suppose they could have... but I doubt it. If it is chemically cured paint, lacquer thinner will not work, but it'll pose no risk to try it out.

[Lotus99]

This last time I visited them, they didn't do any painting for my car. It was about 6 weeks ago when they painted my passenger door, so you're probably right, I'm guessing it's not paint leftover from that job, and I doubt for two stone chips, they mixed up a new batch.

So this lacquer thinner won't harm the original paint?

[MuttGrunt]

Originally Posted by Lotus99

So this lacquer thinner won't harm the original paint?

No. You can try nail polish remover as well as it should be more easily available.

[328i]

Originally Posted by MuttGrunt

No. You can try nail polish remover as well as it should be more easily available.

I wouldn't use acetone on paint.


OP, how is the paint match? If the paint match is good you simply need to have the blob wet sanded down and then polished. Your detailer should have no problem doing that.

[Lotus99]

Originally Posted by 328i

I wouldn't use acetone on paint.

OP, how is the paint match? If the paint match is good you simply need to have the blob wet sanded down and then polished. Your detailer should have no problem doing that.

The touchup paint seems to be a good match. The trouble is the spot they filled was quite large, and some of the paint is actually higher than the OEM surface's thickness, so can be sanded down I'd think, but in another spot, of a lesser thickness, so it needs to have more paint added to it even.

I guess it might make sense at this point if I'm going the wet sand route to fill in the other parts of the chip to increase the thickness of the paint, and then have him do the wet sand technique.

What do you think? Any other ideas?

Can you even wet sand such a small area like a paint chip the size of your pinky fingernail? It wouldn't harm the surrounding OEM paint?

This is sort of what it looks like. The black line being the paint and the red area what was chipped that they filled in.
.
.

[MuttGrunt]

Originally Posted by 328i

I wouldn't use acetone on paint.

Why not?

OP - You're best bet is still to have the glob removed using acetone or lacquer thinner, then coming back up to properly touch-up the area by building up the thickness prior to wet-sanding the area to properly level the paint so the defect blends in.