Paint "Repair" Question

[Jandrews]

I have the remnants of some genius paintwork that I wanted to get a recommendation on. Apparently, at some point, a P.O. painted OVER a stone guard on my rear flare. The paint on this car is surprisingly good (bad picture in direct sunlight), but when I removed the stone guard, you can see the outline of where someone painted right over it. There is a "ridge", at least the thickness of a fingernail, that is visible and "feelable" all the way around. I'd like to figure out a way to knock that edge off and just polish it out. Any thoughts on the best way to accomplish this?

[scottb]

It seems to me that you'll need to wet-sand that with increasingly finer grits of sandpaper. Then, when you get to the point where it's smooth, you'll have to polish out the paint with increasingly finer polishing compounds and hope that everything blends. The final machine polish will probably have to be with an orbital polisher. If you've never used one before, you might want to have a professional do it rather than risk burning your paint.

Good luck!

[rwolak@verizon.]

If you are going to do this yourself, be very careful with sanding the ridge between where the stone guard was and your paint. Its very easy to sand through the clear & basecoat and into the primer on a ridge like you've described. Once that happens, you then have to "spot paint".

[haycait911]

best of luck but it's almost the impossible dream. if the previous and second coats were single stage paint you might do it but with bc/cc systems it's not possible to do it without seeing the edge. when you sand the edge you'll be feathering back the new base coat into the new clear coat. the difference in finish/color will be dramatic. your only hope is that the new paint at this point has no base coat, only clear. a 'blend' panel painted to blend out the color of an adjascent repaired panel into the next body panel. what about masking off the area and re-spraying with black? Don.

[Jandrews]

Thanks for the comments.

I am pretty sure that the whole car is single-stage...is there a way to confirm that? I know that when I use hand glaze or polish I get a little bit of red on my white cloth. Wouldn't that indicate that there is no clear coat - just single stage? It is Guards Red.

I was hoping I could just knock down that edge somehow until it became even with the rest of the surface, then just polish it until is was "virtually" gone. I figured my biggest challenge was going to be sanding just the ridge.

More thoughts?


JA

[Rot 911]

JA if you are getting red on the cloth you have single stage. You are right, the biitch is going to be trying to wet sand the new paint down even with the old paint. I would not use an agressive wet/dry paper on this. I would start with 1500 grit. Will take longer, but less chance of a screw up.

[scottb]

I was thinking that he should start with 1000, but Kurt is correct. Though it will take longer, there's less risk of damage with a finer grit paper. Try the 1500 first, but be very patient.

[haycait911]

must disagree. finer papers don't cut quickly and will ride over the ridge and cut thru the old paint before sanding thru the ridge. start with 800 wet and mask off the old paint area until the ridge is almost gone. use a rubber block, NO FINGER SANDING!!! with single stage you could pull it off. or have a professional do it. a body shop, not a 'detail' shop. will be cheap compared to a repaint. or just bring it over, I'm not busy today. LOL. Don.

[PatrickB]

I'd install a new stone guard...

[ros74911]

amen, patrickb. i agree. problem solved.