Paint work problem - help please
Discussion
I have a patch of laquer that has flaked off the paint on the rear wing of my car, near to the boot lid hinge, where the body must flex. I was wondering whether it would be a good idea to try and rub it down with some 'wet and dry', to feather in the rough edges of the remaining laquer. Then T-cut it to polish up the exposed paint and outer laquer. Then mask off the rest of the car's body, apart from an area surrounding the un-laqured paint and spray on some new laquer. I guess the whole lot would finally need a good polish to bring back the shine. Is what I propose likely to fix the problem, or am I going to make a hideous mess? Does any body else have a car which suffers the same problem, and how have you fixed your paint? I'm keen to do this myself if possible to keep the fix cheap!
Hopefully a picture of the damage can be seen below.
I'd appreciate any help that anybody could offer, thanks.
Hopefully a picture of the damage can be seen below.
I'd appreciate any help that anybody could offer, thanks.
I would do the following:
Sand down the offending area with P1500 wet and dry,lots of spoay water. Don't T Cut the paint and lacquer. Mask off the edges and curl the tape up at the edge, so you don't get a sharp edge. Make sure you get a good overlap between where the lacquer is still on the car. Then spray up with some 2 pack lacquer, flick the gun up also when you reach the edge to feather the spray in, give it a few coats and then if you have one stick an infa red heater on the patch for a while to bake it on.
Once dry and cured (will take a while in this temp), flat off with some P2000 and then use soem Faraclea to polish up.
You'll get a mark (how much will depend on your finish, you're never going to get rid of it completely, to do this you will need to spray colour on, but at least it will stop the lacquer peeling off any more.
Sand down the offending area with P1500 wet and dry,lots of spoay water. Don't T Cut the paint and lacquer. Mask off the edges and curl the tape up at the edge, so you don't get a sharp edge. Make sure you get a good overlap between where the lacquer is still on the car. Then spray up with some 2 pack lacquer, flick the gun up also when you reach the edge to feather the spray in, give it a few coats and then if you have one stick an infa red heater on the patch for a while to bake it on.
Once dry and cured (will take a while in this temp), flat off with some P2000 and then use soem Faraclea to polish up.
You'll get a mark (how much will depend on your finish, you're never going to get rid of it completely, to do this you will need to spray colour on, but at least it will stop the lacquer peeling off any more.
Edited by Wildfire on Tuesday 28th November 15:58
Good advice from Wildfire for the DIY route - think I'd try a few body repair shop quotes as well. At the mo' lots of body repair shops needing trade as the big insurance companies only use nominated repair shops now. If you're not a nominated shop - you only get the increasingly less common non-insurance jobs. Plus, as from Jan 1 (I think) all paint-spraying has to be with water-based paints - big expense to convert a pro-shop according to my local Honda dealer.
Guess it all comes down to budget and if you can live with any imperfections (I just squint when looking at my paintwork in a few places - it makes it look great but a bit blurry
)
Guess it all comes down to budget and if you can live with any imperfections (I just squint when looking at my paintwork in a few places - it makes it look great but a bit blurry
)Thanks for the advice all.
I'd kind of dismissed the professional route as I asumed the costs would instantly be high, but sounds like I might be pleasantly supprised.
Having said that, I'm still keen to try and tackle it for myself. The rest of the car isn't pristine so I'm sure if I did a reasonable job I'd been happy. The DIY method mentioned sounds fine.
Overall, I'm just keen to stop the peeling in its tracks as the patch has certainly got a fair bit bigger since I bought the car in the spring. I think I'll try to tackle it over the Xmas period as it going to be a time consuming job!
On a different subject: Does any body know what donor car the Cigar Lighter push in comes from on the S? Mine's missing its and I'd be keen to find a replacement.
Again, thanks for the help.
I'd kind of dismissed the professional route as I asumed the costs would instantly be high, but sounds like I might be pleasantly supprised.
Having said that, I'm still keen to try and tackle it for myself. The rest of the car isn't pristine so I'm sure if I did a reasonable job I'd been happy. The DIY method mentioned sounds fine.
Overall, I'm just keen to stop the peeling in its tracks as the patch has certainly got a fair bit bigger since I bought the car in the spring. I think I'll try to tackle it over the Xmas period as it going to be a time consuming job!
On a different subject: Does any body know what donor car the Cigar Lighter push in comes from on the S? Mine's missing its and I'd be keen to find a replacement.
Again, thanks for the help.
The method described by wildfire is a good one. I once repaired a spoiler with flaking paint that way, using a spray can, with very good results. Just feathering out will be more difficult on the rear wing then on a relatively small spoiler with edges to mask off.
If you're after a budget repair, you could try a DIY garage with a spray booth: These places rent out their booth, while there's often someone around who knows how to spray, and does it for a modest fee. No guarantee, you don't know what quality of work to expect (varies from amateurish to truly professional) but a lot cheaper than a professional bodyshop, and usually a lot better than the average spraycan-job, especially on a bigger surface like your rear wing. You can also often save money by doing the preparation work yourself (also if you go to a professional bodyshop), but then you will always be the one who is responsible if the results turns out to be less then expected (The quality of a paint job is largely determined by the effort put into preparation work).
If you're after a budget repair, you could try a DIY garage with a spray booth: These places rent out their booth, while there's often someone around who knows how to spray, and does it for a modest fee. No guarantee, you don't know what quality of work to expect (varies from amateurish to truly professional) but a lot cheaper than a professional bodyshop, and usually a lot better than the average spraycan-job, especially on a bigger surface like your rear wing. You can also often save money by doing the preparation work yourself (also if you go to a professional bodyshop), but then you will always be the one who is responsible if the results turns out to be less then expected (The quality of a paint job is largely determined by the effort put into preparation work).
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