Chip Repair - Pointers?

[DaveC.]

Hi out there, I'm DaveC., and I have been lurking on this message board for several months now, getting a lot of good information. There are a bunch of experienced people here, and it's a great board.

Here is a dillema that I am involved in, and am seeking input.

Chips in a black base/clearcoat paint. Paint is fresh - 6 months old. At first, my plan was to carefully mask around the chips, fill the chips, black base/clear. Sand level to undamaged area, buff, and be finished.

That didn't go so well, as the chips -about the size of a dime each - grew larger when sanded, as it appear to have 'pushed up' the area outside the chips, to a small degree. So, I just decided to level it with a good sanding of 600, base the area with black base - keeping it as confined to the actual damaged area as possible, and then follow with a clear coat slightly larger in area than the black base.

I tried using a House of Kolor urethane pinstripe black as the base, Dupont HC 7776S multi-mix snap dry clear coat.

The black HOK doesn't match the black on the car, which is true dark black.

First Question - Without knowing what the black on the car actually is, what would be a good recommendation for a 'true' black basecoat? It is supposed to be a Dupont base, but not sure of the actual black color code.

Second Question - I have read with much interest the issues of blending a spot clear repair, and the seemingly impossible task that it is to be able to spot in a clear without having a noticeable blend line.

With that understood, does anyone have any suggestions of a method and a clear that might work pretty good? It would be great to have this perfect, but I don't think it is possible from what I have read - you will always have a 'blend line'. I am open to any thoughts and experiences.

I suspect that the HC 7776S is not going to give me the best blend, being a 4:1 2 part clear, that does not 'attack' the existing clear with reducer. Is this a valid thought, or am I full of baloney?

I also realize that I should clear the entire panel to get the best result, but I am hesitating to go that far. It's on the very edge of a front fender, over the headlight, on a '69 Charger. A very nice black Charger...... that is driving me crazy....

Thanks to anyone and everyone with input on my problems. I know experience is what I need, and I am certainly gaining it with every situation like this one!

Thanks!
- DaveC.

[dixie1776]

i would watersand the entire fender with 1000, put polyester glazing putty over where the chips were and sand smooth, spot prime with 2k, then blend your paint into the front of the fender maybe 6-8" beyond where the primer ends, and clear the entire fender.( before u apply the glaze,make sure that the chipped area is sanded with 180-220)

[Len]

Dave
Black is a very easy color to touch up with a brush especially if the damage is along an edge. If you use a sword brush like the one below it can lay paint along an edge very smoothly and can make an edge repair almost invisible.

Link

If the damage is a chip like a stone hit it can be more easily filled with paint using a Dabber like the one below.

Link

I've done some touch up repairs using a brush then sanded and polished and you could NOT see where the repairs were3 made. Of course it needs to be a solid, non-metallic color for this to work and black works very well with a brush.