THXGiving Detail in progress, I have Q's and need advice

[vdubpower]

Happy THX giving to everyone

im in the middle of my detail of my 1985 mercs 500sel
so far i have done a thorough wash/dry with gold class.

my next step was do a clay with mothers ( i havent clayed it in a yr or so)

then i was gonna use m80 (just got it) with the 8006 pad
and then nxt 1 and 2 if i run out of my bottle of 1, with my new 9006 pads

so my q's are about scratches and touch up paint

i have a few chips and was wondering at what stage i should use touch up paint. i have factory color from mercs in a brush and tube kit but i usually use a makeup applicator i get from my wife

also , last week when i was backing out i grinded my rear quarter panel agains the front of my gmc denali bumper very painful
so i am wondering how i can help this situation as u will see in the pics

i found so scratch X in my tool box,
can i use it with my original porter cable pads so i dont get my new Meg pads dirty with scratch x.

lastly, my wheels... i washed them really good but they have a hand polished lip, and have some stains on them probably from a tire spray. and there are 37 small bolts that are hard to get into
i was planning on using mothers or meguiars metal restorer type products.
the mothers one is the mag/alloy one.

so thats my day so far
here are some pics
thanks

[vdubpower]

Re: THXGiving Detail in progress, I have Q's and need advice

im gonna go do the interior in the meantime

[vdubpower]

Re: THXGiving Detail in progress, I have Q's and need advice

anyone around today

[Ryan L.]

Re: THXGiving Detail in progress, I have Q's and need advice

Your questions are mixed in with other info and it gets hard to read. Try posts a list of you questions and I'm sure we would be more than happy to help. It's hard to read all of that and find where the questions are...we need some structure.

Ryan

[Murr1525]

Re: THXGiving Detail in progress, I have Q's and need advice

You dont want to paint over wax. You also want to avoid the painted areas for a couple months.

So, I would do your detail, then when you are ready, come back with a paint cleaner, maybe some IPO as well, to remove the wax just in those spots. Then you can do any prep like sanding, and apply a two or three thin coats of paint.

You can also give the wheels a good wash, clay, and maybe try to apply the polish with a brush/qtip, etc. Or a cloth over a pencil, etc.

[benhui86]

Re: THXGiving Detail in progress, I have Q's and need advice

you can improve or eliminate the scratch down your quarter panel with 80(which is stronger than scratch X) but your wheel well is too damaged to be totally buffed out because the paint actually cracked and chipped off......it'd look better but it'd still be there for sure.....

touch up painting is best left to professionals because it is truely an art..... usually touch up paint application involves first carefully applying the touch up paint and then sanding it flat with wet sand paper and then buffing out the sanding marks..... 80 cannot buff out sanding marks..... some have had luck with 105 by hand but its risky to wetsand 20 year old paint like that....

[benhui86]

Re: THXGiving Detail in progress, I have Q's and need advice

actually that white spot on your paint is clear coat failure.... your paint has lots of white dots on it and if you look closely you can see they are actually small cracks in the clear coat......only cure is a repaint.....

[vdubpower]

Re: THXGiving Detail in progress, I have Q's and need advice

ok im just gonna go ahead with the claying, m80 with 8006 pad and then nxt with 9006

i did one wheel, with mothers mag/alloy polish
its the one where it leaves a black residue after u polish it, and then u wipe it off

it looks good, but its so hard to do around the bolts, i tried the cotton tip polisher with my dremel. but it was too close to touching the face of the wheel

[buda]

Re: THXGiving Detail in progress, I have Q's and need advice

From the looks of that car I would take it to the most professional detailer in my area, and if you can't find one, then to a bodyshop.

The damage I see on that vehicle is not for a "do-it-yourselfer," in my opinion.

In fact, if I were still operating detail centers I would not take your car in I would recommend you take it to a body shop.

Just some well intentioned thoughts.

BudAbraham

[vdubpower]

Re: THXGiving Detail in progress, I have Q's and need advice

well i figure if i goto a body shop ill probably have to get the who rear repainted, in order for it to blend it .

there s also a dent in there

i dont have money for all that now

gonna clay and detail what i can toomormow

[buda]

Re: THXGiving Detail in progress, I have Q's and need advice

OK, if you can't afford a body shop then go to Craigs List and look under services and see if you can find someone advertising body and paint work. Many times you find someone doing this on the side out of their home for extra money. They are techs who work in a dealership and on weekends and nights they do extra work.

And, also place an ad under the WANTED section for a collision repair tech who works out of their home to do some work on your vehicle as "reasonable prices."

Have used this technique successfully myself for other services I needed. Found a great home mechanic who replaced the engine in my 1979 Chev PU for $700 including the engine and it is still running strong.

Bud Abraham

[vdubpower]

Re: THXGiving Detail in progress, I have Q's and need advice

u think they will be able to match my paint, dunno abt that....

anyways for now, im just gonna leave it. untill i have time and money to have it properly done

[buda]

Re: THXGiving Detail in progress, I have Q's and need advice

These type of bodymen usually have the paint mixed/matched in the shop in which they work, or they go to an automotive paint supply company to mix for them.

Today's paint matching technology is almost flawless so that would not be a problem.

Bud Abraham

[Mike Phillips]

Re: THXGiving Detail in progress, I have Q's and need advice

anyone around today

Special Holiday Hours for our Customer Care Center


Besides that....

You can make touch-up paint as difficult as you want and usually the more difficult you make it the results don't get better and better.

There is no easy way to apply paint using a little tiny paint brush, a toothpick or a matchstick, let it dry and then somehow sand it flat and buff out ALL the sanding marks and not remove or pull out the touch-up paint and make it all look good.

If it were easy, then everyone would be doing it. It's not easy and that's why if you go to a brick an mortar detail shop you 99.9% of the time won't see "Touch-up Paint" listed as a service they offer. Not only is it hard to do and make look good, (that's two things), it's also impossible to please anyone because most people don't understand how difficult it is to do and make look good but their expectation are sky high.

So not trying to be flippant in my answer but if were to read every reply I post to questions on touch-up paint, or rock-chip repair I always say you can make it as difficult and complicated as you want but in the end more and more work and complications usually doesn't product better and better results.

It really comes down to dab a little touch-up paint on and call it good, as in walk away and move on with life or have the area painted. One approach isn't the perfect remedy but only cost a little bit of money and the body panel won't rust and the other approach costs a lot of money and as soon as you bring "a lot of money" into the equation most people are no longer interested in pursuing the problem to that degree.

Everyone wishes touch-up paint was simple, quick and easy. Sorry to say we're just not there yet.

[vdubpower]

Re: THXGiving Detail in progress, I have Q's and need advice

im over the touch up paint thing

im just gonna go ahead and clay, m80 and nxt the car and we will see how it goes

i polished one of the wheels so far, it took an hr, but i used a small dish sponge i found at target , it like 3.5 inch in diam, witha little molded sponge handle. kinda need, but purfect for dipping in the mothers metal polish jar and applying to the lip of the wheel.
geting in between the bolts was ofcourse a pain in ***, but q tips worked in the end
then i just used a spray wax to the face of the wheel